#7 The Shining

Top 10’s – FAVORITE FILMS

#7 – The Shining – STANLEY KUBRICK, 1980

Despite its massive popularity, The Shining is one of the most challenging cinematic works of all time. Kubrick masterfully controls and manipulates space and time to create an endless maze of possible meanings that defies interpretation, and yet most people think that there is nothing to interpret. Kubrick’s masterpiece completely transcends the horror genre in a bloody collision of past and present that is rife with immense psychological, historical and architectural complexity. It is impossible for me to comprehend someone watching the entire film and coming out of the experience thinking that it is just a “perfectly straightforward horror movie”. That truly depresses me. James Healey stated in his review that you “could write a whole essay on the subtext and symbolism on The Shining”, but I’m certain that not even a hundred essays would do the complexity of Kubrick’s film justice.

Based on Stephen King’s 1977 “ best selling masterpiece of modern horror”, The Shining follows the adventures of the Torrance family as the father, Jack Torrance agrees to be the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. But, as America’s bloody history reigns down upon them, Jack who is under the influence of the ghostly elite, descends into madness and attempts to kill his wife and son in an orgasmic finale of pure terror. Although initially critically panned and nominated for two Razzie awards, The Shining has grown in stature since its release and is now regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Going even further, I’d say that it is unquestionably one of the great pinnacles of cinema. Filled with extreme attention to detail and heavy symbolism in every frame, and demanding the utmost patience and concentration from the viewer, The Shining is Kubrick at his all time greatest and most intricate and complex. His complete command of every single aspect of the production is supreme, making this film highly important for aspiring filmmakers such as myself, and it boasts tremendous performances from its cast and what is arguably the greatest and most overwhelming soundtrack ever assembled for a movie. It has been criticized for severely departing from King’s novel, but books and films are two different mediums, and each have their own unique ways of telling a story, so they cannot be compared. Kubrick only used the basic foundations of the books he adapted into films, and this movie is no different.

I’m not sure if there has ever been a film in the history of cinema more endlessly analyzed and debated than The Shining. Theories range from the film being a commentary on the genocide of the Native Americans (as Bill Blakemore theorized in his essay “The Family of Man”), which I believe is the truth, to an exposure of the supposedly fake Apollo 11 Moon Landings, which is something I cannot wrap my head around, but knowing of Kubrick I can’t rule it out completely. The deceptively simple plot of madness and isolation has startling undercurrents of sexual abuse, racism, and male aggression, plus there are numerous ambiguities such as whether or not the ghosts are real and the final photograph of Jack at a 1921 ball. Ultimately, I think The Shining, at it’s most basic level, is a tale of how humanity is doomed to it’s primitive nature, with the photograph representing the cyclical nature of history and the unstoppable evil unleashed by man upon one another. But, there are even sinister meanings under the surface.

The film’s most important line, which was removed in the two hour European cut, is spoken by Philip Ullman, the manager of the Overlook, as he and the Torrances tour the Colorado Lounge. He says, “This place has had an illustrious past. In it’s heyday it was one of the stopping places for the jet sets, even before anyone knew what a jet set was. We had four presidents who stayed here. Lots of movie stars.” Wendy asks, “Royalty?”, and Ullman replies, “All the best people.” According to wikipedia, the jet sets were “an international social group of wealthy people who traveled the world to participate in social activities unavailable to ordinary people.” Sound familiar? You could argue that The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut constitute a trilogy of films that reveal Kubrick’s disdain for the elite and their corruptive effects on and brainwashing of the individual, which Jack’s plunge into madness and murder illustrates. He once said to his wife, “Never, ever go near power. Don’t become friends with anyone who has real power. It’s dangerous.” I could go on and on about the pyramid and eye symbolism that appear throughout the film, and most of Kubrick’s work in general, but then this review would be even more overlong than it already is. Whether or not you agree that Kubrick was in fact exposing and condemning the Illuminati or the Freemasons or whoever the he conceptualized had power, you would do yourself a major disservice to think this film didn’t have underlining meanings and intentions.

What I am sure of is that The Shining is arguably the best directed movie of all time. Everything, from the symmetry, color, tone, framing, pacing and more are absolutely perfect, and I love the way Kubrick disorients us with Garret Brown’s revolutionary Steadicam work, a strong use of mirrors and reflections, beautiful and impossible set design and subtle moving furniture. He also manages to get career best performances out of Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Nicholson is simultaneously drop dead funny and ferociously mad, and Duvall conveys real fear and weakness, probably because Kubrick made life on the set a living nightmare for her. I also think it is the best photographed film of all time. Barry Lyndon looks prettier, but The Shining is much more technically impressive, and watching the Blu-ray for the first time is a revelation. The Overlook Hotel is a labyrinth of evil, and the terrifying, almost psychedelic, imagery really brings the horror and malevolence of Kubrick’s vision to life. The Room 237 and maze chase sequences in particular are jaw dropping.

The Shining has a slow measured pace, but always stays interesting and entertaining. It’s a consistent slow burn. I really don’t know how Kubrick does it. He creates a movie that is relatively slow by today’s standards, yet the movie doesn’t feel like an old film with a plodding pace. It’s constantly interesting and continuously revealing tidbits of info, and so compelling in the performances, that we are sitting on the edge of our seat the entire time, wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Personally, The Shining had me at a young age. I wish I couldn’t type that, but it’s true. Ever since that first viewing I was hooked, and possibly a little messed up. But mostly hooked. I’ve gone through stages of being scared senseless, to just enjoying the perfect camera work to trying to decipher the hidden meanings. But in all those stages, one thing remains. The mark of true horror. I’m merely not talking about horror like in films, but horror in our daily lives. Kubrick has a way of really making me not feel safe when watch this movie, weather I am young, a teen or now in my later 20’s. But in the end, what is horror? Horror is facing the illogical nature of madness and being trapped in it. Our dreams are the most illogical experiences that we encounter on a regular basis, so it makes sense that Kubrick would tap into that collective experience for this film. I can’t think of a film that better expresses what it feels like to be in a nightmare.