#57 The Shining

In Summary

Stanley Kubrick took his filmmaking prowess to the horror genre in adapting Stephen King's classic novel, The Shining.

The Shining is the story of how a slightly mentally-unhinged writer, Jack Torrance, takes on a job as the winter caretaker at the remote Overlook Hotel. With just his wife and son, and an unwritten novel, to comfort him in this cavernous outpost during a long and lonely winter, his complete mental deterioration becomes increasingly inevitable.

The direction of travel in The Shining is clear from the outset. We know from very early on in the film that Jack is a recovering alcoholic who had injured his son due to that issue, leading to a tenuous relationship between him and his family. It is this sense of inevitability that makes The Shining so suspenseful.

The other key plotline of The Shining is the gift that Jack's son, Danny, has which lends the film its title. The 'Shining' ability allows Danny to communicate telepathically with other people who 'shine', including the hotel's cook, Dick Halloran.

This mysticism adds another layer of intrigue and tension to the film. By establishing that The Shining exists in a world in which magical abilities are possible, then it lends greater weight to the feeling that the Overlook Hotel may be genuinely haunting.

It also provides Stanley Kubrick the opportunity to commit to screen some of his most iconic images. From the two girls in blue dresses, the lift full of blood, the ghost ballroom dance, The Shining is incredibly prolific in the number of shots that could be frozen and become pieces of art in their own right. That it all comes together to feed into the film's chilling atmosphere is an incredible achievement.

A Memorable Quote

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Things You May Not Know

• Stanley Kubrick shielded the child actor, Danny Lloyd, so much that the actor didn't know he had been in a horror film until several years later.
• The 'Here's Johnny!' scene took nearly three days to film and required 60 different doors to get right.
• Jack Nicholson was fed only cheese sandwiches for two weeks in order to get him in the right mood for the film, he hates cheese sandwiches.

One of the Greatest of All Time?
The Shining is an example of a film where just about every element of it works. Beautifully shot, well-paced, incredibly well acted, there isn't really a single weak strand to this film.

With Stanley Kubrick a director who is generally more interested in constructing arresting images than servicing the plot or characters, The Shining is the finest example of what his approach is capable of. On paper, Jack's descent from a slightly mentally-unhinged person to a completely mentally-unhinged one isn't that interesting, this is overcome through Kubrick's use of imagery to set up this incredibly tense and eerie atmosphere to the film.

This is one of those films that you can close your eyes and recall several scenes really easily, which is exactly what I imagine Kubrick was going for.