The Shining has been my favorite horror film since I saw it back in high school. But I only just watched it on a big screen for the first time last year. And as a result, saw it with new eyes and had some new insights that surprised me.
Prior to this viewing, I read the original novel again, then the sequel Doctor Sleep, and listened to an extended interview with Stephen King by Eli Roth. King explained in depth why he famously doesn’t like the film. His biggest complaint was that Nicholson’s performance is over the top from the start, and he also calls Wendy’s portrayal misogynistic, a “screaming dish rag”.
You can check out any time you like.
Any King fan knows he doesn’t care for Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, but it’s often dismissed (King championed the miniseries version, and then there’s Maximum Overdrive). But for the first time in forever, I largely agreed with his rationale. I still love The Shining and count it as my favorite horror movie because of its deeply unnerving tone, incredible and terrifying visuals, and the third act when all bets are off.
But this time, Nicholson struck me as mugging and playing for laughs. From the moment he’s onscreen with that crazy cowlick and wild look in his eyes, he was overplaying the underlying madness in Jack Torrance. He seems ready to murder his family on the drive up to the hotel, so it’s no surprise when he finally picks up an axe and tries it for real. You kinda wonder why he waited so long.
Jack tells Danny a sweet bedtime story about the Donner Party.
What grounds the movie are all the other performances, including Danny Lloyd, who is utterly convincing despite not knowing about any of the horrible things in the movie he starred in while it was being filmed.
But the real standout is Shelley Duvall. She is raw and ragged and utterly human. Watching the early scenes of her rationalizing Jack’s abuse feel almost voyeuristic. But she’s no dish rag, on that I disagree with King. She overcomes her terror and rescues herself and her son, screaming the whole time but doing it regardless, against the hotel’s (and Kubrick’s) best efforts to drive her insane.
Given Duvall’s recent sad history with mental illness, you can’t help but wonder if making the film might have contributed to, or at least exacerbated, her condition. Regardless, it’s Duvall that truly makes the film work. She renders Nicholson’s twitchy bravado believable. Without her unhinged, off-kilter portrayal of a mother desperate to hold her family together, The Shining itself would fall apart.
Wendy gets the room service bill.
Sadly, what’s missing from the movie that King must recognize, is that in the novel, Jack absolutely loves Danny. He’s gutted that he hurt him in the depths of his disease. It’s this guilt and trauma that the hotel plays on when it gets under Jack’s skin and pushes him over the edge.
But even at the end, Jack realizes he’s lost his mind and sacrifices himself to save his family.
A radically different outcome than in the film, which renders Jack as not merely a distracted dad, but one who finds the very presence of his family to be an irritation. Any writer can relate to the frustration of being interrupted mid-thought by a well-meaning partner or child or even pet. But that’s always tempered with the joyful parts of family life.
However, the only quiet moment between father and son is so threatening that Danny refuses to hug Jack, and had the audience chuckling at the menacing way Jack says, “You know I’d never hurt you,” with eyebrows raised as if to say, “The better to eat you with.”
“I’m not gonna hurt you… pinky promise.”
All of these concerns fall away as the horror ratchets up and Jack goes hunting with his iconic axe.
The final act, though not what King envisioned, is manic and terrifying in all the right ways, and remains so after countless viewings. It feels big and momentous, despite being claustrophobic and contained, with Kubrick flexing his cinematic skills in a manner few directors could ever hope to achieve.
Never a dull boy.
In a sense, Kubrick is the Overlook. The invisible, omniscient and ominous “them” pulling the strings of all the spirits within, and referenced with some measure of self-aware dread by the Overlook’s murderous caretaker Grady and bartender Lloyd.
Have a drink on the house. Or under it.
If Kubrick is the Overlook, I’m a repeat guest. And every time I check into The Shining I find something new to appreciate and dissect in this magnificent and timeless haunted mansion.
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