The Shining movie review. Horror classic, Kubrick and Jack Nicholson star

In 1980 Stanley Kubrick made a film that not only terrifies audiences to this day, but because he is the master of metaphor, has given many deep thought on the true meaning behind the story. Jack Torrence (Nicholson) gets a job working as a caretaker at the Overlook Hotel. He decides to bring his family to stay with him during those winter months where they will be isolated in the mountains of Colorado. He is told that there was a problem with the previous caretaker who got cabin fever and murdered his family with an axe. But Jack feels strangely at home here, a deja vu that he's been there before, and will use the opportunity to write a novel. He's newly back on the wagon after being an alcoholic who we presumed may have been a raging one, he grabbed hold of his son once and at the risk of losing his family swore off liquor. All seems fine now, he is the eye of the hurricane.

The young son, Danny, has visions of things and also an invisible friend, Tony, who lives inside his throat that tells him things, warns him. And quite uncoincidentally, talks through Danny's own voice in the mirror. The mirror becomes a very telling symbol in the film. Tony only appears when Danny looks in the mirror, except one scene as it's nearly too late when he tells Mrs. Torrence that Danny is gone. On the drive there through the cold and unforgiving looking terrain, there is discussion about the Donner Party, which is dropped because of Danny's young ears. But he says he knows all about Cannibalism, he saw it on tv.

Jack: "See, it's OK. He saw it on the television"

On arrival they are introduced to Halloran, the hotel's Chef who gives them a tour. While in the food storage room talking to Wendy, their conversation falls into the background as Danny watches him. He asks Danny a question with his mind, and Danny can hear him. Halloran has something he calls "The Shining", an ability to talk with your mind, see things and know things which Danny has too.

Without going into too much detail over the film, Jack begins to change. He wants his wife to leave him alone while he writes and becomes more easily agitated. Danny begins to see things, a very scary image of two little girls talking to him in a Hallway and visions of murder. Eventually Jack begins to crack, and has visions of his own of the previous caretaker named Grady. A very proper Englishman, and also the bartender, Lloyd, who gives him "drinks on the house" even tho he's a recovering alcoholic. Those who provide the alcohol to someone with a problem is called an "enabler". If he is looking in the mirror and talking to himself in reality, he is enabling himself to become corrupted by propoganda and pursuasion. Of course there really are no other people in the hotel, nor alcohol. Grady let's Jack know that he needs to be the man and put his family in their place. If they step out of line they need to be corrected, and his idea of correction is frightening.

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There is no escape, there is no calling the outside world. Jack has sabotaged any hope for help. Wendy, his wife, is a meek little woman but very protective of her son. The changes in her husband scare her, and the movie builds up suspense to a very terrifying climax where Wendy and Danny are running for their lives from a man they thought they could trust who no longer can be reasoned with. He is out of control. But those who understand Kubrick (or hope to) realize that he is a man of metaphor. Sometimes his fiilms aren't easily interpreted, and leave you with more questions than answers. In the film we see images of Calumet baking powder. Kubrick is notorious for hundreds of takes for a single scene, very meticulous making sure everything is just perfect.

Do you have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is?

A collection of 8 acclaimed films by Stanley Kubrick

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

So you can't always assume something is an accident, or irrelivant. The baking powder has an Indian Chief logo, and calumet is a peace pipe. The hotel has Indian motif which decorate it and often appear in key scenes. It's on an Indian burial ground. This could be a glimpse at Kubricks distaste for how America was founded on bloodshed that cannot be so easily washed off. It may reflect in how corrupt and greedy and capitalist our society has become. Sure we appear to be happy in it, but at who's expense are we enjoying the very best?

The overlook is overly spacious and said to house royalty, nothing but the very best of everything offered. While Grady was the previous caretaker and an Englishman (who axed his family and himself), Jack is the new one, and they don't seem to be so different. Grady is guiding Jack of how to run things accordingly and continue doing things the way they've always been done. Grady only appears to Jack, however. His child is willful and especially needs to be corrected. Danny represents youth with an independent mind who knows the way his father is unstable and some outer force may change the man he is. The bartender says "Women, Can't live with them, can't live without them." It may seem like a joke, but it was perceived as weak for a man to fall to a woman's sensitive nature which would disable him from doing what was viewed as a necessary evil. Danny, who see's bloodshed and horror in his visions or whether it happens to him, is a silent witness and victim. He is frozen in a scream but never speaks out. Only Danny and Jack see the visions throughout the film. Danny's is foreboding, Jack's visions revolve around temptation. The last scene Wendy does see a vision, not sure of the meaning.

Your wife appears to be stronger than we imagined, Mr. Torrance, somewhat more resourceful. She seems to have got the better of you.

Note scenes where jack is talking with a ghost. He is always facing a mirror which is behind the person. He is never looking into their eyes but into the mirror - he's talking to himself. One scene he's seduced by beauty (seen as a ghost woman in one of the rooms) but not until he see's her reflection in the mirror does he realize he was deceived. What seems perfect can be truly ugly. The only way to see the meaning of RedRum, which was Murder, was to look in the mirror. Kubrick made an unconventional horror film which was really attacking the moral and ethical principals this country was founded on, and which continues as the nature of man. Jack turns on his own family because he feels betrayed. When Jack reminds Grady he killed his family, Grady doesn't remember it that way at all. Because he doesn't see the evil in what he did, they questioned him and tried to burn down his house so he had to correct them to keep his house in order. Of course there are many who simply want to watch a movie and be entertained without thinking about deeper issues.

But the great thing about having this movie in your collection is that each time you watch it you feel the suspense effectively induced by the soundtrack and camera angles. Jacks marriage to his family became a false treaty, coaxed by Grady to murder them he'd soon realize he'd reap nothing from it. The Maze was placed in this movie instead of the animal topiary in Stephen Kings book (which the movie is based on), for reasons which could be that life is a maze and we have to find our way out or we could be consumed by it. There is the time factor in the film, the feeling at the beginning that things have already happened, or are going to happen, the deja vu. Perhaps depicting the continuous nature of mans evils that under various circumstances can arise once again. On the drive to the hotel you can hear on the soundtrack background the foreboding sound of Danny's tricycle on the hotel carpet. There are many references and images of cartoon characters, Jack himself becomes quite cartoonish at the end speaking lines from TV after being trapped in a food locker filled with commercialized food products. Cartoon characters commit violent acts with no remorse and often keep doing it over and over, never learning the lessons of the past. So with all it's political and social commentary, "The Shining" can be praised for simply bringing us one of the best horror movies of our time. To understand it entirely might require a degree. ;-)

Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in! Not by the hair on your chinny chin chin? Well then I'll huff, and i'll puff, and I'll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!

Outstanding performances where everybody fills the shoes so perfectly. We believe it when we watch Jack's progression to maniacal, and the petrifying fear of that gleaming axe cracking through the door while Duvall crouched in terror and unable to escape. Kubrick doesn't deny the audience of seeing what lies behind the door, we see it coming...but she doesn't. Chilling.

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