Stanley Kubrick Directs The Shining (1980)
Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall Star in Taut Thriller Based on Steven King Novel
May 19, 2009
After A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick had secured himself as one of the most controversial, dynamic, and trailblazing filmmakers of all time, if 2001: A Space Odyssey and Dr. Strangelove hadn't already. Rather than try to top the polarizing moral and ethical nature of these earlier works, he set his sights on more commercial material. Enter Stephen King, whose career had been taking off since Carrie in 1974. Its adaptation by Brian DePalma had awakened the cinema world to a new resource of the literary macabre, but who would take this horror to new heights? With these two titans of their respective forms (three, actually, when you consider Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson's enthralling performance as Jack Torrance) coming together for a rather audacious project, the results yielded are among the most nail-biting sequences and themes in film history.
A Family's Nightmare
The film chronicles the short stay of the Torrance family at the Overlook Hotel where the patriarch Jack acts as caretaker during the long and treacherous winter the Rocky Mountains promise. Trapped with himself, his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd), his psyche begins to unravel, fueled by the cursed hotel, which resides on an old Native American burial ground. The hotel senses a great telepathic power in Danny, a power referred to as “shining” by the cook Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers in his most notable role) and wishes to claim both his power and his family as it had once before.
As the winter surrounds them, Jack's loss of mind turns him into a murderous beast, hell bent on the vicious dismemberment of his family for the ghosts of the past that haunt and prod him. Kubrick keeps the film taught with suspense with his achingly long takes to keep the viewer cringing. Many of those takes were enabled by the recent invention of the Steadicam, allowing Kubrick to follow characters for long stretches through various locations. These flowing ventures juxtapose his static shots, which often relay a sense of daunting entrapment or intense investigation of the scene or conversation, in particular the expository conversation between Danny and Halloran on their mental abilities.
Motives Of A Master
While Kubrick's techniques are always at the forefront of notice, it is his convictions in themes that sit subtly in the subconscious of the film, yet are ever present and in essence, drive the film, and Jack, to their unavoidable conclusion. There are often references, both visually and phonically, to the clash of cultures between American imperialism and the traditions of Native Americans. The hotel is filled with rugs, paintings, and even carpet patterns in line with native art, while the scattered, sometimes dwarfed American flags that hang on the walls and sit on desks are the sole representation of white America. It's as though Kubrick is trying to relay where the truly dominant power within the hotel comes from. Also common are symbols of duality, often found in scenes including mirrors.
The twin girls that haunt Danny, the giant paintings above the fireplace in the great hall, and even the consistent symmetry of Kubrick's framing showcase both yin and yang in their struggle over the souls of this family. It's in these scenes, in the presence of mirrors, that Jack ever sees ghosts, and since Wendy never sees these apparitions until the end of the film, is it safe to assume that Danny inherits his power from Jack? Indeed, the film offers many questions to ponder upon subsequent viewings, it's content thick with hidden symbolism (even the first shot of the film, a lush forested island reflected in the lake, is another signifier of duality), and proves to be the most high-ball horror film of all time.
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