I recently rewatched the movie \u201cThe Shining.\u201d\u00a0 This is the Stanley Kubrick film with Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall in the lead roles.\u00a0 I saw this movie in the theater when it came out and I am a huge fan of the Stephen King book that it is based on.\u00a0 In fact, I believe the book was the best thing King ever wrote.<\/p>\n
Kubrick is a famous director and I\u2019m sure the deletions from the book\u2019s plot and the changes made were necessary to bring the movie into a reasonable length.\u00a0 But making these changes makes the movie a different story from the book.\u00a0 And that makes the book a much richer story than the movie.<\/p>\n
That being said, \u201cThe Shining\u201d is a great horror movie.\u00a0 Jack Nicholson was born to play Jack Torrance.\u00a0 And Shelley Duvall is Wendy Torrance from head to toe.\u00a0 Watching Jack descend into madness you could believe that no ghosts were necessary.\u00a0 All of it could be credited to a combination of writer\u2019s block, cabin fever and a disastrous marriage.<\/p>\n
But the supernatural aspects of the story are blended into the psychological situation flawlessly.\u00a0 You really can\u2019t tell where one aspect ends and the other takes over.\u00a0 The conversations between Jack and Wendy on the one hand and Jack and his spectral associates are so intertwined that it\u2019s obvious that the ghosts understand Jack better than his own wife does.<\/p>\n
The plot is telegraphed early on when Jack is interviewing for his job as winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel.\u00a0 His employer ends the interview by revealing that a few years earlier a man named Delbert Grady who had taken on the job of winter caretaker had gone mad and chopped up his wife and two young daughters with an ax and then committed suicide with a shotgun.\u00a0 His boss explained that living in the Overlook during the mandatory five-month winter isolation in the remote Colorado location had been known to cause \u201ccabin fever\u201d for some vulnerable souls.<\/p>\n
Later on, Jack actually meets Mr. Grady when he shows up as a waiter in the spectral party that seems to run endlessly in the Overlook\u2019s shadow world.\u00a0 When Jack finds out his friend\u2019s name he asks, \u201cWeren\u2019t you the caretaker here Mr. Grady?\u201d\u00a0 Grady claims to have no memory of that.\u00a0 On being further prompted by Jack about his murders and suicide and Jack insisting, \u201cYou were the caretaker here.\u201d Grady replies, \u201cYou are the caretaker Mr. Torrance, you\u2019ve always been the caretaker here.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the essence of how Jack\u2019s destruction is accomplished.\u00a0 The Hotel (in the person of Grady) plays upon Jack\u2019s sense of failure and his resentment toward his wife and son because of the humiliating employment choices he\u2019s had to make when he yearned to be a writer.\u00a0 Now the Hotel plays up his importance and the trust that the Hotel has in his competence.\u00a0 When the Hotel physically attacks his son Danny, Wendy tries to convince Jack to take them back to Denver.\u00a0 Jack snaps and starts raving about his responsibilities to his employers.\u00a0 But instead of meaning the owners of the hotel he\u2019s talking about the ghosts.\u00a0 And from there it\u2019s only a short step to the ax and more murder.<\/p>\n
I suspect most people have seen this movie and know the plot.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll stop there with the plot.\u00a0 It\u2019s too much fun to give it all away.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that between little Danny\u2019s gift (the \u201cshining\u201d of the title), the Hotel\u2019s desire to possess Danny and that gift and Jack and Wendy\u2019s deeply scarred marriage this is a powerful witch\u2019s brew of supernatural and psychological horror.\u00a0 In a later review I\u2019ll tackle the book it\u2019s based on.\u00a0 And whether you read the book first or watch the movie I\u2019ll leave it to you to decide.\u00a0 But both are excellent within their medium.<\/p>\n
Highly recommended.<\/p>\n
(Strong Language warning for this clip)<\/p>\n