The Shining is a motion picture directed by Stanley Kubrick. It was released on May 23, 1980. It was based upon a novel by Stephen King. It is now available on DVD and home video. It depicts the events that surround a few weeks in the lives of The Torrance Family as they spend the winter season maintaining The Overlook Hotel in a remote mountain region of America.
Analysis
Stanley Kubrick once ventured so far as to say that “anything that presupposes life after death has to be optimistic.”. In this respect, The Shining is probably his most optimistic achievement. Whilst critically starved upon it’s release, time and repeated viewings have shown this film to be, in the opinion of some, Kubricks finest work. Other people call the film a failure. And if it is a failure, then it is certainly a far more competent and ambitious one than the finest work of many others. The film is, in many respects, a banquet : with each layer one experiences, another is revealed. And, in my opinion, it’s one of the best films ever made. Kubrick was regarded as a master : this is his masterpiece.
Here I will examine the film scene by scene and shot by shot, from its cold opening, to its frozen end.
