The Shining * * * * (out of * * * * )
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Joe
Turkel, Barry Nelson, Anne Jackson.
1980 - 144 minutes.
Rated R (for violence, gore, profanity, and nudity).
Reviewed September 1998.
For the average person, director Stanley Kubrick is probably best known
for his upcoming film entitled "Eyes Wide Shut," featuring Tom Cruise
and Nicole Kidman, which had taken over two years for him to complete.
For an avid filmgoer, Kubrick is perhaps more known for his classic
motion pictures, such as 1964's "Dr. Strangelove" and 1971's "A
Clockwork Orange." His step into the horror genre, however, came in 1980
with his loose, but exquisitely told, terrifying adaptation of Stephen
King's novel, "The Shining." At the time of its release, King
enthusiasts were disappointed because the film version had many
differences from the book, but I doubt anyone can deny its overall power
to scare.
With a running time of 144 minutes, it is obvious that this is no
ordinary horror picture, but one that aspires to be an epic, and it
definately is for the genre. Jack Nicholson stars in a tour de force
performance as Jack, a writer who, at the start, is a family man who
takes a job as caretaker at the Colorado Overlook Hotel for the winter.
He is warned early on by the hotel's manager that the winters in the
mountains are treacherous, and often the heavy snowfall closes up the
roads for months. Soon Jack, his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their
little son, Danny (Danny Lloyd) are left alone at the huge, desolate
hotel, and as the weeks go by, the snow grows heavier, and Jack gets a
bad case of writer's block, he slowly, but surely begins to go crazy.
Meanwhile, it begins to get obvious that the hotel itself is indeed
haunted, and as young Danny rides his bike through the endless
corridors, he starts to get visions of terrible things to come, such as
an elevator opening up to a tidal wave of blood. He also starts to see
two mysterious twins who seem to be roaming the hotel, side-by-side. If
you haven't seen "The Shining," then I wouldn't dare give away how
everything develops, but it is safe to say that by the last 45 minutes,
all hell breaks loose.
"The Shining" is a deliberately paced, but endlessly creepy, horrifying
motion picture. From the first shot of the camera moving overhead as a
car drives down a road, to the shots within the hedge maze outside the
hotel, the film has some of the most beautiful, atmospheric
cinematography, by John Alcott, I have ever seen. Other technical
credits are also superb, including the extremely eerie, memorable
instrumental music score by Herbert Von Karajan, and the unforgettable
production design by Roy Walker.
It is the overall experience of "The Shining," however, that makes it
such a great film. The slow pace at the start is actually an asset,
because it gradually grows momentum as Nicholson starts to grow more and
more crazy, until the movie totally takes off in it's last hour and
turns into a funhouse of horrors. One particular scene is especially
disturbing. Without giving it away, it involves Duvall and a person in a
dog costume.
Nicholson's performance in this movie is probably my favorite that he
has given, because he has the ability to have a very menacing present. I
think it has something to do with his voice and his eyebrows. Duvall is
very good as his sympathetic wife, and is a very good screamer when she
has to be. Aside from Nicholson, however, the standout of the cast is
surely Scatman Crothers, as the cook of the hotel who tells Danny at the
beginning that he has the "shine," which is the ability to see the
future. In my opinion, he was sorely overlooked for an Oscar nomination
in 1980.
"The Shining" is also very much thought-provoking, particularly the
closing scene, and is one of the greatest horror films ever made. It is
also a movie not easy to forget, and proves that when done well enough,
and with a great deal of care, a horror movie can rise to a plane all
its own.
- Copyright 1999 by Dustin Putman
Http://hometown.aol.com/FilmFan16/index.html
Have I Seen This Movie: Yes
And What Did I Think?: The Shining is one of those true cult classics that will never die. Written by horror master Stephen King and directed by the late, great Stanley Kubrick, The Shining will lure you in and scare the pants off you. Right from the beginning, the ominous opening music with the camera speeding over the lake and the mountains to the hotel, well you know you're in for something eerie. The Shining has several stars to this movie to make it great. First off, Stephen King wrote wrote the horror masterpiece and Stanley Kubrick directed it. In the movie itself, the hotel provides such a great atmosphere for a horror movie. Just being alone in a huge empty hotel could creep anyone out. Just imagine staying in the hotel through the whole winter. Shelley Duvall gives the performance of her career here as Wendy Torrance, a woman who must deal with her son's emotional problems and her husband going insane. Danny Llloyd plays Danny Torrance, a child who has a gift called the Shining which is kind of like ESP. He can see things before they happen from "the little boy who lives inside his mouth". Now the Shning couldn't be as great as it is without King and Kubrick, but it could be nowhere as great as it is without the extraordinary perfomance by Jack Nicholson here. Jack has had so many great performances in his career, and it's tough to say which is the best, but this definately is near the top. He plays Jack Torrance, hired to be the caretaker of the hotel and is an alcoholic who is driven insane by the ghosts there. The former caretaker hacked up his family to bits and his ghost his there to make sure it happens again. Also costarring in the film is Scatman Crothers, the cook of the hotel who has the same gift as Danny. There are many great memorable scenes in this film that made this film great. The sweeping shots of the hotel's corridors as Danny rides his big wheel through it, only to run into the ghost of the two twins who were murdered. Danny's vision of the two little girls hacked to bits in the hallway. The ghostly woman stepping out from the tub. The chase through the hedgemaze at the end. Jack chopping his way into the room where his wife and son are. There are lots of great lines too. Who can forget "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" or "REDRUM" and of course "Here's Johnny!" All of this makes The Shining one of my favorite horror movies of all time and should definately be seen by any horror fan.
I give The Shining 5 out of 5 stars.
Review written July 11, 2000
