The Shining. (1980) - Film Review.

From book to screen, Stanley Kubrick adapts the written novel by Stephen King; The Shining (1980)  for a cinema audience, using gripping suspense and mystery to captivate the audience’s attention in “a brilliantly cataclysmic venture” (Parker, 2019) into a psychological horror. Exploring the world within the Overlook Hotel hidden within the mountains and how such an environment can exaggerate the ways in which isolation can play an effect on a family of three; as well as look at how fragile minds are easily warped and twisted when there is little contact to the outside world can somehow magnify the characters problematic situation. (Fig. 1, see below).

Fig. 1 The Shining (1980) [Film Poster, Advertisement].

Throughout the cinematic it explores themes of domestic violence, warped time frames and focuses largely on isolation. We first get a glimpse at Jack Torrance’s violent character through how he aggressively talks to his wife Wendy when she first interrupts him while his working on his book and tells her she “breaking his concentration every time she comes in”. Later, the audience becomes more aware of Jack’s violent tendencies when he appears to be talking to a bar tender in the gold room (supposed figment of his imagination since his family are the only people currently inhabiting the Overlook Hotel ) (Fig 2, see below) about how he accidently broke his sons (Danny) arm a few years prior. In this particular scene and others where “Jack thinks he is seeing other people, there is always a mirror present.” (Ebert, 2006) suggesting Jack may be having a conversation with himself, alternatively implying he could be struggling with schizophrenia and is hallucinating other people who could be miss-leading Jacks actions seen more towards the end of the film. As seen with the bathroom seen where the supposed dead caretaker Mr Grady is compelling Jack to set his wife and son straight with ‘a good talking to … perhaps a bit more’ and goes onto say ‘I corrected them’ after retelling a story of one of his girls attempting to burn the Overlook Hotel down; this linking back to the story at the beginning about the pervious caretaker killing his family with an axe, which is ironic as come the end of the film Jack has lost hold of his remaining sanity and proceeds to limp around the hotel in a craze state with a vicious intent to do harm with an axe in hand. 

Fig. 2 Jack talking to Lloyd the bar tender. [Film Still].

Through the use of isolation within the film plotline, Kubrick is not only able to submerge the characters into a area cut off from the world with limited communication devices; but he is also able to then force this sense of social isolation upon the audience as they experience the slowing slipping sanity within Jack’s character. This possibly then causing the viewers to feel the same gripping fear Wendy and Danny may be feeling as they realize Jack’s character has become unhinged due to the self-imposed isolation that Jack takes upon himself and his family; not only in accepting a job high up in the mountains, but also by forcing his wife to stay away from him while he’s working. The Overlook Hotel and its geographical location could also be an added factor in the growing sense of emphasizing the lengths of its extreme seclusion due to its large common rooms, winding corridors and twisting stairwells. Allowing the audience to understand that there is no calling for help should something go wrong, as seen when communications where cut to only radio contact when the phone lines went down due to the weather; and again when Jack sabotaged the radio and the snow plow so there was no means of escape. The Overlook Hotels name could also be implying to ‘overlook’ and neglect imminent problems facing the lead protagonists’ as first seen with Danny’s reluctance to go to the hotel due to Tony (Danny’s supposed imaginary friend) saying he didn’t want to go. Similarly seen with Jack’s slow progression into insanity as he becomes more unnerved as the story unfolds before the audience; first seen when he didn’t want his wife to read his ‘work’ (Fig. 3, see below) and then again after Jack’s conversation with Mr. Grady.

Fig. 3 Jack’s ‘work’. [Film Still].

Throughout the film Kubrick uses inter-titles as a way to introduce time frames within the motion picture, some of these including the time slot of ‘one month later’ after the family arrives at the Hotel and the proceeds to use the days of the week there after. Creating this jerky timeline of events as the film flows from one scene to the next with little coherence “The unhurried pace, extended dialogue scenes and those sudden, sinister inter-titles ("One Month Later", "4pm") contribute to the insidious unease.”(Bradshaw, 2012). Thus, making the audience feel confused and ultimately defenceless as they rely on the director to guide their suspense within the revolving warped time frames within the cinematic. In addition to this Kubrick also uses interesting and sometimes staggering camera angles within The Shining (1980) as seen especially where the audience are following Danny as he rides his tricycle through the hotel and when Jack is chasing Danny through the maze, alternating between following Danny and Jack from a variety of different perspectives. (Fig 4 and Fig. 5)

Fig. 4 Danny on his Tricycle. [Film Still].

Fig. 5 Jack in the Maze. [Film Still

The Shining (1980) draws awareness to a person’s inner psyche and pushes into the world of not only the horror genre but also into a world of psychological horror, that causes the audience to feed off the protagonists growing insanity from what at first may have originally derived from their sane mind. Other films in this category also include the latest release of Joker (2019) directed by Todd Phillips which focuses heavily on the fragile line between sane and insanity, alongside Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) which dips further into the inner working of mind in the events that may lead up to a person eventually carrying out their deranged and possibly unhinges actions on another.

Bibliography:

Bradshaw, P. (2012) The Shining – review | Film | The Guardian. At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/01/the-shining-review (Accessed: 26/11/19 ) In-text citation: (Bradshaw, 2012).

Ebert, R. (2006) The Shining movie review & film summary (1980) | Roger Ebert. At: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980 (Accessed: 26/11/19 ) In-text citation: (Ebert, 2006).

Parker, L. (2019) The Shining (1980) – Dr. Filmlove's Film Reviews and Ratings. At: https://drfilmlove.wordpress.com/2019/09/26/the-shining-1980/ (Accessed: 26/11/19 ) In-text citation: (Parker, 2019).



Illustration list:

Fig. 1 The Shining (1980) [Film Poster, Advertisement]. At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/mediaviewer/rm327691776  (Accessed 26/11/2019).

Fig. 2 Jack talking to Lloyd the bar tender. [Film Still]. In: The Shining (1980). At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/mediaviewer/rm3899909376  (Accessed 26/11/2019).

Fig. 3 Jack’s ‘work’. [Film Still]. In: The Shining (1980). At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/mediaviewer/rm585445120 (Accessed 26/11/2019).

Fig. 4 Danny on his Tricycle. [Film Still]. In: The Shining (1980).  At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/mediaviewer/rm956529408  (Accessed 26/11/2019).

Fig. 5 Jack in the Maze. [Film Still]. In: The Shining (1980).  At: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/mediaviewer/rm654263552  (Accessed 26/11/2019).