Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Synopsis: Jack Torrance and his family are set to look after at the Overlook Hotel in its closed period for five months, but there’s more to this hotel that’s going to make their stay a lot shorter than expected.

For a film that is focused around isolation and cabin fever, Kubrick’s first aim in putting his own spin on Stephen King’s 1977 novel is to highlight the amount of space and freedom across the Rocky mountains of Colorado. We’re shown this courtesy of a slow-moving camera panning across the mountains and the river while the brooding and demonic score conducted by Herbert Von Karajan and consisting of strings, percussion and celesta by Béla Bartók sets a really uncomfortable tone. The use of music in this film is remarkable, as the film’s main theme is effectively used in any instance, whether it’s leading to the next day, or whether it’s teasing Room 237. I think the highlight of the score are the strings used during the scene between Jack and Danny. They convey such an eerie, unnerving atmosphere that really sets the film on its way to Jack’s snapping.

It’s an isolated area, so there’d be no other way for Kubrick to give us a sense of time and setting in this film other than his use of scene cards: “The Interview”, “One Month Later”, “4pm”. Even in the first usage when Jack Torrance meets with Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) the quick pounding of the scene card onto our screen gives an eerie vibe to proceedings. This is a film that focuses on the main character losing his mind after so much time spent in one location, so how as a director do you manage to concern the audience in the opening? Kubrick does this subtly, by showing us the magnitude of the Overlook Hotel and by showing us the abundance of space. It has the audience wondering how a man can be driven insane by cabin fever when there’s so much to the place. Kubrick has Jack Torrance – who is conveyed by Jack Nicholson as a pleasant person in this opening, but as someone who clearly has an agitated side to him if tested – tell us the drive from his home to this hotel was three and a half hours long. A five month job over the winter that’s three and a half hours away from home? That sounds a bit daunting. Oh, and Kubrick also uses this scene to let us know in this same hotel a few years back the caretaker killed his wife and two daughters before putting two barrels of a shotgun through his mouth. It’s even more concerning when Jack responds to this by smiling and reassuring Mr Ullman that the same thing won’t happen with him and that his wife will be fascinated to hear about such a thing.

Back in Colorado we meet Jack’s wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd). Duvall is instantly shown to be a kindhearted, caring mother, while young Danny is presented as friendless, concerned over this trip. Duvall is great in this film as she succeeds in the role of a loving, kindhearted mother and caring wife and is exceptionally good at conveying distress and emotional torment. Danny Lloyd also plays his role to perfection, and thrives in terms of being uninterested, confused and later, mentally traumatized.

The drive back to the hotel on closing day once again gives us a bird’s-eye view of the Rocky mountains while that unnerving music plays and we learn from Wendy that it’s around this area the Donner party got snowbound and resorted to cannibalism. This confirms her fascination with such events, but it’s never confirmed that Jack told her about the events in the Overlook several years prior – based on her tone here I think it’s made clear he didn’t. When the Torrance’s arrive at the Overlook, Kubrick shows us even more of this building’s ginormous amounts of space. There’s two strong indications of this hotel being haunted: Ullman noting the site was located on an Indian burial ground and Danny, who having found the games room and plays some darts, turns around to see the two aforementioned twin girls Tony had shown him earlier. I find the technique used by Kubrick in how he has the camera zoom in on Danny’s face here, but maintains it for a moment or two before revealing these girls from a few yards distance. It’s quite creepy.

There’s also a lot of emphasis on important sites we’ll see later in the film during this scene. Two sites in particular are the freezer and food storage unit, which Wendy and Danny are shown by Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers), the cook of the hotel. Halloran is right up there with my all-time favourite film characters. Crothers has such a likability about him in all of his roles, and Dick Halloran is his standout, from the cringeworthy, but harmless, mimicking of Bugs Bunny, to the serious, but caring, warning to Danny to stay out of Room 237. There’s also a good chance Halloran’s comment, “when something happens, it can leave a trace of itself behind” is the most important line of the film in regards to deciphering the ambiguous ending.

There’s two key instances of ambiguity implemented by Kubrick. Of course, the ending is the most notable, but there’s also the question of who the woman in the bathtub is – I must mention Jack Nicholson’s face slowly turning from shock horror to a grin when she pulls back the shower curtain. It’s worth noting that this identity is revealed in King’s novel, but the questions left open for the audience to create their own answers is part of what makes The Shining so memorable, regardless of whether people end the film thinking it’s great or whether they believe the open ending is a bit cheap.

What else makes The Shining memorable are the iconic scenes that people who haven’t even seen the film are familiar with: “Here’s Johnny” and “All Work and No Play Make Jack a Dull Boy” are common features in pop culture nowadays thanks to the film, but for me the best scene of the film is the one between Jack and Wendy on the stairs, which is the pinnacle of both Nicholson and Duvall’s acting. Nicholson is incredible in this as a quick-witted, threatening figure and Duvall’s terror perfectly complements him. The following scene where Jack tries to make the most of Wendy’s vulnerability may also be the peak of his insanity: “You’ve got a big surprise coming to you!”

Those who’ve spoken to me about films in the past know very well that The Shining is my all-time favourite, and there are so many more reasons that make this the case that I haven’t mentioned. This review hasn’t even covered the scenes with Lloyd the bartender or Delbert Grady, that’s how much of note there is in this near two-hour film. There are flaws, including the above-mentioned ambiguous ending that may not satisfy everyone, and there’s a few unnecessary moments added for a shock effect such as the one including a man in a bear outfit (yeah, that one). Despite that, it’s a film with great acting, awesome camera work and music used incredibly well. It also succeeds in being genuinely unsettling, which makes it a horror film everyone needs to see.

Rating: 5/5

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