The Shining

THE SHiNiNG

Film Data

Based on: The Shining by Stephen King

Release Dates: May 23, 1980 (US) November 7, 1980 (UK)

Running Time: 144 minutes (US) 119 minutes (EU)

Budget: $19 Million

Box Office: $44.4 million

Distributed by: Warner Bros.

Music by: Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind

Cinematography: John Alcott

Edited by: Ray Lovejoy

Starring: Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance

            Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance

            Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann

            Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance

Cast: Barry Nelson at Stuart Ullman

            Philip Stone as Delbert Grady

            Joe Turkel as Lloyd

            Tony Burton as Larry Durkin

            Lia Beldam as Young Woman in Bath

            Billie Gibson as Old Woman in Bath       

Barry Dennen as Bill Watson

Lisa Burns as Grady Daughter #1

            Louise Burns as Grady Daughter #2

            Anne Jackson as Doctor

Synopsis

The movie opens with Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, interviewing for the position of winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel. He plans to use the seclusion and quiet atmosphere for writing. Manager Stuart Ullman tells Jack the history of the hotel including that it was built on a Native American burial ground and that the previous caretaker developed cabin fever and killed his entire family and himself. 

At that same moment, Jack’s son, Danny, has a premonition about the hotel and sees blood emerging from the elevator door. Wendy, Danny’s mom and Jack’s wife, tells a doctor that Danny has an imaginary friend named Tony and that Jack previously had a drinking problem that he gave up because he dislocated Danny’s should while drunk.

            Jack takes the job and the whole family shows up to the hotel. While on a tour of the premises, the chef, Dick Hallorann, telepathically offers Danny ice cream and explains that his grandmother was also telepathic and he calls the ability “shining.” Danny nervously asks about the state of the hotel and if there was anything to fear to which Hallorann explains that the hotel shines too and to stay out of room 237.

            Time passes and things are getting stranger. Danny is having more visions, Wendy is concerned about the phone lines being out, and Jack becomes frustrated about not being able to write and begins acting strange. Danny’s curiosity about room 237 grows when the door opens and returns with a bruise on his neck and is utterly freaked out. Wendy accuses Jack of abuse based on a dream of his that he killed both her and Danny. Jack, in frustration, wanders to the hotel’s Gold Room and speaks to a ghostly bartender named Lloyd who serves him bourbon.

  

          Later, Wendy explains that Danny was supposedly strangled by a crazy woman in one of the rooms and Jack then goes to investigate room 237 which he ends up seeing the woman but pretends that he didn’t. Wendy and Jack fight about what to do with Danny and Jack wanders again to the Gold Room which is now filled with ghosts attending a party. In the bathroom, he speaks with Grady, a ghost, who tells him that he needs to “correct” his wife and child and that Danny has used his talent to reach out

for help from Dick Hallorann in Florida. This information proves to be true as it cuts to Hallorann having a premonition and booking a flight back to Colorado. At the same time, Danny starts calling out “redrum” and goes into a trance, calling himself Tony.

            When searching for Jack, Wendy stumbles across his papers and realizes that he has been repeatedly typing “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Nervous for her husband, she begs Jack to leave with Danny but he refuses, making her even more scared and worried. She knocks him out and locks him in the kitchen pantry but she quickly realizes that she is trapped at the hotel as the radios and snow car have been tampered with. Later, Grady unlocks the door and let Jack go to which he goes after Wendy.

            Locked in their quarters, Jack starts hacking at the main door with a firefighter’s axe and Wendy sends Danny through the bathroom window but she can’t fit herself. Jack breaks through and says the famous line, “Here’s Johnny!” but Wendy slices his hand with a butcher’s knife and he retreats at a sound.

            Jack hears the engine of a snow car and kills Hollarann on site with the axe and goes after Danny in the hedge maze. Danny is quick to make a false trail to trick his father. Wendy looks for Danny and while running through the hotel, sees ghosts, blood, and

Hollarann’s body. Wendy and Danny escape with Hollarann’s snow car and Jack is left to freeze to death in the maze.

            The movie ends with a photograph in the hotel hallway dated July 4, 1921, with Jack smiling with other party goers.

Commentary

            The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel The Shining.  For a Stanley Kubrick film, it had a slow start at the box office but eventually gained momentum grossing $44.4 million in North America. At first, it had mixed reviews with some critics saying that it wasn’t scary and didn’t live up to the terror in King’s novel. It was the only one of Kubrick’s last nine films to receive no nominations at all from either the Oscars or Golden Globes.

            Later analysis, critics and audiences enjoy it much more as Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 91%. In 2006, Roger Ebert, a famous American film critic and television host, put The Shining into his series of “Great Movie” reviews. Stephen King also had mixed reviews of the film saying on one hand that it had memorable imagery but poor adaption of his novel, and on the other hand later mentioned that the film contributed something of value to the horror genre.

            Among audiences and critics, the film was widely interpreted, with many differentpeople picking out different things. Some, especially ABC reporter Bill Blakemore, saw that the film reflected the American killings of Native Americans. They argued that the film had Indian logos on products and artwork throughout the house, but no sign of Native Americans. Stuart Ullman also tells Wendy that the hotel was constructed on an Indian Burial ground and that Indians wanted to stop the building. The imagery juxtaposed by Jack’s insanity symbolizes that evil forces get weak men to do their bidding.

            Today, the film is widely acclaimed by critics and audiences. Quotes such as “Here’s Johnny” are well known and ranked high on AFI’s 100 Movie Quotes list. Jack Torrence is also listed on its 100 Heroes and Villians List and the movie itself is ranked 29^th on its 100 Thrills list. The movie is also well known because of its parodies and homages in many films, TV shows, video games, and music. The Simpsons, Gilmore Girls, Remington Steele, and Director Tim Burton are known for their references of some of the film’s themes, settings, and characters.