How entertaining? ★★★★★
Thought provoking? ★★★★☆ 29 October 2012
This a movie review of THE SHINING. |
“This site was chosen for its seclusion and scenic beauty.”
The restored version. An extra 24 minutes. 144 in total. Let’s get this out of the way immediately: 32 years on, it is still not only scary, but terror-filled. Probably the greatest director of all time turned his vast intellect onto the most visceral of genres, and delivered a horror film for the ages. Stanley Kubrick’s oeuvre entitles him to the benefit of the doubt when attributing allegory. A renowned meticulous attention to detail might mean that the chance of accident or inadvertency seems unlikely. However, the scale of film production lends itself to happenstance, goofs and puzzling ingredients creeping in. Anyway, the intention of authors are just part of the final piece. Whatever the design, what we have here is a layered treatise on “evil”.
The restored version. An extra 24 minutes. 144 in total. Let’s get this out of the way immediately: 32 years on, it is still not only scary, but terror-filled. Probably the greatest director of all time turned his vast intellect onto the most visceral of genres, and delivered a horror film for the ages. Stanley Kubrick’s oeuvre entitles him to the benefit of the doubt when attributing allegory. A renowned meticulous attention to detail might mean that the chance of accident or inadvertency seems unlikely. However, the scale of film production lends itself to happenstance, goofs and puzzling ingredients creeping in. Anyway, the intention of authors are just part of the final piece. Whatever the design, what we have here is a layered treatise on “evil”.
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The Overlook Hotel requires a live-in caretaker during the winter months, when it is sealed into the countryside due to harsh weather. Teacher-turned-writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes the position after a brief interview. His wife and young son will join him for the months-long isolation. Built from 1907-9 on an Indian burial ground, this nugget of information might have suggested a narrative headed towards clumsy superstition and clunky ghosts; instead the building’s creation is a commentary on genocide and imperialism. The haunting is humankind’s inhumanity. Large scale macrocosmic malevolence is set-up deftly, then a more precise, intimate foreboding is presented: In the winter of 1970 the then caretaker killed his wife and two daughters with an axe - attributed by the manager to cabin fever.
Danny (played by another namesake - Danny Lloyd) is the precociously bright, and prima facie disturbed, son of Jack. He has an invisible friend called Tony, who speaks in a husky voice while his index finger moves. Tony lives in his mouth, according to Danny. We find out Jack dislocated his child’s arm after a booze-fuelled temper loss some time before. Right there, another plane of deep agitation is formed.
Danny doesn’t want to go to the Overbrook. His quiet reluctance is brushed aside by mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall). When the audience encounter the hotel’s chef, Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), an explanation of Danny’s reticence is given form, together with an elucidation of the film’s title. From then on the filmmakers propel us through a labyrinthine mixture of extraordinary and dynamic camera-work, aggressive soundscapes, full-on compositions, and mesmerising juxtapositions. It’s a compelling ride.
Many conjecture that THE EXORCIST is the pinnacle of horror cinema, but perhaps it’s actually number two.