When danny shows up with bruises later on in the film, wendy immediately accuses jack of hurting him, despite the fact that kids can get hurt in a million. The shining is a 1980 horror film produced and directed by stanley kubrick and cowritten with novelist diane johnson. Until the last minute, the plot seems to be wrapping up in a. Jack torrance jack nicholson arrives at the overlook hotel to interview for the open position of winter caretaker. Danny shows almost every sign of the psychological impact of child abuse. The film is based on stephen kings 1977 novel of the same name. Drama analysis of the shining the shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by stanley kubrick.
He ended up having a role in a tv film two years later, but that was the extent of his acting career. The first time we saw the shining, it was a shattering disappointment. October 29, 2011 meghan leave a comment go to comments halloween season is well underway and with the holiday itself just around the corner, i thought it would be fun to share a brief analysis i wroteup last year on what has become a modern classic. When kubrick began production on the shining and decided on using the exterior of the timberline lodge in his film, the lodges owners requested he change the number of a. Why that bear performed fellatio on that guy in the shining. As well as the incest parallels with the film lolita, the shining also carries abuse parallels with another kubrick film called barry lyndon. The shining is a tragedy, and wed be remiss to classify the ending otherwise. A shitty horror movie that ur lifelong friend gets fingered to while you watch in horror. The shining hidden meanings of the shining gradesaver. Rodney ascher park city, utah the shining is an allegory for the plight of native. As the cavernous hotel shuts down for the season, the manager gives jack a grand tour, and the. Theres the sense that a great talent has been wasted. The audience is left wondering what the details mean, if anything, or if theyre simply coincidental.
Director stanley kubricks the shining is arguably the most cerebral horror film ever made. Room 237 collects five distinct theories about the hidden meanings in stanley kubricks the shining. Room 237 is a 2012 american documentary film directed by rodney ascher about interpretations of stanley kubricks film the shining 1980 which was adapted from the 1977 novel of the same name by stephen king. The shining, more than any other of his films, has inspired hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of words devoted to finding the meaning behind the film, even though, or, especially because, kubrick himself was reluctant to discuss possible interpretations of his films, leaving it to the viewer to make up their own mind. What happened at the end of stanley kubricks the shining. The meaning and topics addressed in the novel are very different than those in the film, given kubricks many changes to the story in order to fit his vision. However, today i realize that transferring a book to a movie is always going to involve a certain number of compromises. How the american society treats its inhabitants is metaphorically explored through the films characters and situations. The result is a film that, though it ignores almost every major spookshow episode in the. A space odyssey to inform their faked film coverage of the moon landingbut cocks theory of the film as an indictment of the holocaust emerges, for many, as the sole plausible reading. The final shot of the shining, its ambiguity forever helping stanley kubricks most popular film hold its enduring legacy for nearly thirty years. The shine is important enough that its the film s title, yet its possible to watch the entire movie and not understand exactly what it means. Not only is the site called the overlook hotel with its overlook maze, but one of the key scenes takes place at the july 4th ball.
The shining symbols, allegory and motifs gradesaver. Besides the man in the costume, bears appear throughout the film, most significantly, on dannys bed when he is talking to the female dr. The shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by stanley kubrick and cowritten with novelist diane johnson. The members of the torrance family inhabit specific ideals of american society. A theory that will change how you watch the shining.
Having now seen the film several times i can appreciate it for what it is and enjoy it on its own merits. In barry lyndon a commoner, who marries his way into high society, systematically beats his stepson, lord bullingdon. In the shining, when jack torrance has clearly gone mad and is chopping down the bathroom door with an axe to get to his wife, why does jack nicholson say heres johnny. The shining is a 1980 pyschological horror film directed by filmmaker stanley kubrick, and based on the 1977 stephen king book of the same title. The film is studied at universities, chronicled in books, and has generally inspired levels of academic. Room 237 posits other theoriesincluding that kubrick made the shining as an apology for having let nasa use the technology behind 2001. The shining is a film about cyclical violence, and about how we cant escape the dark specter of history. In the shining, ghosts appear frequently and provoke uncanny feelings, especially because one cannot tell who is alive and who is dead in this film. The true story behind the legendary lost ending of the.
As is typical of kubrick, there is a lot of attention to detail in this movie. At the end of the shining, why is jack in the photo of. The main character jack torrance is a violent, recovering alcoholic who has broken his son, dannys arm while drunk before. What exactly is the shine in the shining screenprism. The story of this film is based off the book, the shining by stephen king. Thats partially attributable to the storys mysterious nature, and partially to stanley kubricks skilled method of withholding details that would provide clearer meaning behind many of the. The film includes footage from the shining and other kubrick films, along with discussions by kubrick enthusiasts. Near the end of the film, tony possesses danny to warn wendy about the redrum, which is murder spelled backwards but also perhaps refers to the numerous red rooms in the film. Doctor sleep marketed as stephen kings doctor sleep is a 2019 american supernatural horror film written, directed, and edited by mike flanagan. The shining is full of allegory and mystery, but none are as wild and potentially insidious as what could be lurking behind that strange man in a bear suit at first glance, the scene seems brief and, quite frankly, somewhat forgettable given all the other intense imagery in kubricks classic. The carpet in the hotels corridor features prominently in several key scenes of kubricks 1980 film, including young dannys first unnerving encounter with room 237 as he investigates on his tricycle.
It is based on the 20 novel of the same name by stephen king, a sequel to kings 1977 novel the shining. The aforementioned sequel, doctor sleep, got a cinematic adaptation that serves as both a sequel to the shining novel and kubricks film, in a way. The hotel itself is built on the site of an indian burial ground and becomes completely snowbound during the long winters. Film and furniture regulars will know one of the original inspirations for this very website was the hexagonal patterned carpet in the shinings overlook hotel. A groundbreaking film by stanley kupbrick in which jack nickolsons family is terrorized by a host of spirits and bad omens which posess a hotel and its inhabitants. The color red dominates the films art design, but it also acts as a major narrative motif. Shining definition of shining by the free dictionary. Dannys ordeal and the bear costumed man, exploring hidden abuse theme in the movie. As the film develops, it becomes more mysterious, ambiguous, threatening, and hallucinatory. Shining definition is emitting or reflecting light. The shining is about physical and sexual abuse perpetrated on young danny boy by his father jack torrance. The shining is a stanley kubrick film, and as such it makes impeccableif also horrificsense. Theres plenty of speculation surrounding hidden meanings and conspiracy theories of the shining a featurelength documentarys worth, to be exact but the strangest part of the film may forever be wendys sudden discovery of a man in a work suit receiving fellatio from a man in a bear suit stanley kubrick famously tried to distance.
We see an image of 2 bears in a framed picture over. The shining critics consensus though it deviates from stephen kings novel, stanley kubricks the shining is a chilling, often baroque journey into madness exemplified by an unforgettable turn. The film, which also serves as a direct sequel to the film adaptation of the shining, directed by stanley kubrick, is set several decades after. The shining is a horror cinema masterpiece, and figuring out its haunting and iconic ending was no easy task for stanley kubrick. The overlook is built on the sacred lands of native americans slaughtered by white. But kubricks original version of the film included another scene inserted between these two iconic. The documentary room 237 explores various fan interpretations of the shining, which was directed by stanley kubrick and based on stephen kings novel. Id never expected nor wanted a film adaptation that slavishly stuck to its source, but kubrick. At first, it feels like a traditional horror setup a guy gets hired to spend the winter in an enormous hotel, secluded from civilization, where obviously something will go very wrong. The shining, one of the stephen kings bestselling novels and the film that has had a huge impact in pop culture, finally has the ending explained in an interview with ew, producers jan harlan and diane johnson explain the steps that were taken in making the film, and the decisions made by director stanley kubrick to create the final ending in the novel, the shining ends with the death. Seriously exhaustive analysis of the shining shows. The film is based on stephen kings 1977 novel of the same name and stars jack nicholson, shelley duvall, scatman crothers, and danny lloyd the film s central character is jack torrance nicholson, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a. Its unknown if it will address specific details from the ending of the first film or if it will. It seems, poetically apt that, at the time stanley kubrick was describing arabesques rounds space stations and star corridors and the history of human consciousness in space odyssey, michael snow was making wavelength, the birth of a.
S tanley kubricks indelible take on both the horror genre and the popular fiction of stephen king, the shining is both a radical distillation of its source novels densely stuffed ghostsandgore imagery as well as a conflation of its hidden central theme of the truelife horrors of domestic abuse. Room 237 explores hidden meanings in the shining wired. Stanley kubricks the shining has one hell of an ending. Haunted by a persistent writers block, the aspiring author and recovering alcoholic, jack torrance, drags his wife, wendy, and his gifted son, danny, up snowcapped colorados secluded overlook hotel after taking up a job as an offseason caretaker. Is the man in the bear costume from the shining a symbol. The victim danny can be viewed as the inner child of jacks spouse, wendy torrance, which means that the abuse is a traumatic. The shining is also explicitly about americas general inability to admit to the gravity of the genocide of the indians or, more exactly, its ability to overlook that genocide. The film has nine segments, each segment focusing on a different. The shining novel and film work best as separate pieces, and each ending has a different meaning. The shinings bear man is the films biggest mystery. The shining seemed to introduce a promising child star in dan lloyd.
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