2h 23m
Director: Stanley Kubrick

Jack Torrance and his family arrange to look after the Overlook hotel over winter. Jack thinks this will give him the opportunity to concentrate on his writing but if you pay attention, the Overlook hotel was built on a Red Indian burial ground and a recent caretaker recently slaughtered his own family doing the exact same job. This doesn't bode well.

We have 3 types of character here. Jack is arrogant and is slowly going loopy, Danny is a psychic and keeps having visions and Wendy is the empath who reflects the emotions of the other two. The advantage of having just a few characters being that you can really focus in on those archetypes.

Jack gradually loses his sanity over the course of the narrative and it manifests in a variety of ways not least of which is his impatience with Wendy, although this is just transference and not the real cause.

Jack used to drink and he hasn't for a while but as his grip on reality starts to slip he seeks out the bar to end his abstinence. As the audience we know that there's no alcohol in the hotel, so he's imagining everything and it serves to help illustrate his looming insanity. When Wendy approaches him to report that there's a crazy woman in one of the rooms he looks her squarely in the face and asks, "Are you out of your f**king mind?". The irony isn't lost on us.

Jack's madness culminates in a scene when Wendy discovers what he's been typing all this time. Just 1 line repeated, 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'. Shelley Duvall is great here as you see the horror of the realisation and her fear of Jack's loss of sanity on her face. He's clearly got a screw loose!

Jack Nicholson is perfectly cast to play the deteriorating Jack Torrance, he can do sane, he can also do quite insane and you won't forget his performance in a hurry. When the wheels come off you'll know!

Danny's finger talks which is creepy and he also has some terrifying visions which foreshadow later events. His psychological states are a major component of this movie. 'The Shining' title for example is a reference to his innate psychic abilities.

It's established early on that Dick (Scatman Crothers) knows things that he shouldn't and Danny seems to be able to hear him say things to him without his lips moving. Dick also 'shines' like Danny and he shares details of his ability with Danny over ice cream (very civilised). Room 237 is locked for some reason, Dick warns Danny to avoid it.

Danny's visions and his interactions with his talking finger 'Tony' give us some insight into the kind of dark spirits which may be lurking in the hotel and add flavour to Jack's impending psychosis.

Shots wise it's worth mentioning that Stanley Kubrick was well known for his use of Steadicam, it allows the operator to counter balance the camera in such a way that they can walk around without their personal movement (footsteps etc.) being translated into the shot. You'll see it used liberally here as we follow the family around the hotel and is also used outside in the maze. Before this invention, it was necessary for the production to lay a track down on a flat surface if the film wanted smooth movement. Here's a bit of the Steadicam from the movie to give you an idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4J0M-eDIf8

Keep your eye on the Steadicam in the maze where they use a fairly wide angle lens which gives a slightly surreal depth of field - it looks a bit weird which suits this movie well.

The pacing's a bit slow which stretches out the run time but much of the later dialogue is delivered very deliberately so you don't misinterpret the intentions of the characters. Still, it might frustrate some less patient viewers.

I should really mention the sound track which was composed by Wendy Carlos and scored for orchestra by Rachel Elkind - you'll notice the atmosphere it creates when you view the film, it gets fairly tense by the end and you'll notice the themes include tribal drumming, presumably as a nod to the burial ground I pointed out earlier. Wendy Carlos also did the score for Kubrick's version of A Clockwork Orange (1971) which is probably why she got the gig.

There are so many classic scenes in this film I could gush about it all day. All you should really do is stop reading this, find yourself a copy and sit down somewhere away from a type writer or an axe to enjoy it!

"Here's Johnny!"



Trailer: