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Title: The Shining
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Though me and my mom normally share various points of views on certain film makers, we tend to split when it comes to Stanley Kubrick. My mom says, “he’s so weird.” I tell her “yeah, but he’s a brilliant film maker, who films visually stunning films that are also mesmerizing.” To this she just shrugs and says, “I don’t care, he’s still weird.” Though a big fan of the director, for some reason his 80's horror film, “The Shining,” escaped me for the longest time. Based off the best selling book by Stephen King, “The Shining” is one of the Kubricks masterpieces. Yeah, yeah, I know for many people every movie the man made was a masterpiece, but this is one of those rare occurrences where art and entertainment collide so spectacularly, it almost feels accidental.
The movie revolves around Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson, in one of his best roles), a struggling writer who is having a bad case of writers block. He is a recovering alcoholic who lost his teaching job due to his short temper, so he interviews for a job as a caretaker of a hotel that closes it’s doors during the winter season. Jack gets the job, and moves his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) to the hotel for the winter. Before letting them into the building though, the manager warns them that due to the months of insolation, they are likely to experience Cabin Fever. One caretaker apparently suffered this and ended up killing his wife and two daughters. Jack thanks the man for the warning, but takes the job anyway. It’s a shame Jack didn’t know he was part of a Stephen King story, he most likely would have passed on the job.
What follows is nothing short of a full decent into madness. Though this is a horror film, and the movie is indeed very scary, Kubrick is a good enough storyteller that he knows how to properly build the suspense. At first little happens in the house. Wendy and Danny explore all the various rooms in the house, while Jack tried to write a novel. When that fails, Jack simply wastes time by bouncing a tennis ball against the wall. Once the snow starts though, things get bumpy. Jack becomes more and more agitated, Wendy becomes more scared of her husband. Most telling though is Danny, who earlier in the film talked to a friend who lived in his finger named Tommy, and how it appears Tommy wants out, making Danny say “Redrum”over, and over again.
Either Danny is also going crazy, or there’s more to Redrum then initially meets the eye. Though all these developments may sound corny on paper, the truth is they are built up very slowly. For the first two hours we follow a pleasant family around in this big house. Then, as Jack becomes more delusional and Danny more crazy, things start to unfold. If this movie was made today, Jack would become crazy and start killing off a group of stupid teenagers for two hours. Instead, Jack starts talking to ghosts. Then he starts shouting at his wife. Then we feel he is a threat to his family. When the violence finally hits at the end of the film it hits hard. It even features an image of Jack Nicholson that has become iconic.
What makes the violence the payoff is that we work our way towards it. The movie is not senseless violent, and its more about fear then killing. A twist at the end will make you question and rethink the whole experience of the movie, much in the same way the ending of “The Sixth Sense” forced a re-evaluation of that film. This is not a bad thing, but a good thing. This means that the film is about something. It’s here to make you think. That you are entertained is a blessing, but the images, the words, and the silence are all working towards provoking certain feelings from you, and the story is deeper and more complicated then you might think at first. “The Shining” offers well thought out thrills, a complicated story, and a memorable ending. It truly is a classic.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -
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