The Shining (1980) * * *

Directed by:  Stanley Kubrick

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

The plot and the events of The Shining are not nearly as important as how its tone and eerie vision shapes the viewing experience.    I understand the general plot of The Shining, but I'll be damned if I can say with certainty how everything ties together at the end, if it even does or is meant to.    Maybe the ending is meant to be ambiguous.   Maybe, maybe, maybe.

After reading several articles and watching several documentaries on Stanley Kubrick, I began understanding and appreciating his approach to film.    Whether I find the subject matter interesting or not, I know I'm watching a "Stanley Kubrick" film.    His films are sanitized, sterile, efficient.    His exorbitant number of takes and attention to the smallest detail are legendary.    Mostly all of his films are adaptations of novels, yet he wasn't interested in simply recreating the printed word on to the screen.     Stephen King was so dissatisfied with Kubrick's adaptation of his novel The Shining that he made his own miniseries based on the novel years later.     The entire title of this film is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, which speaks volumes about whose vision we're following here.

Reviewing the basic plot outlines, Jack Nicholson stars as Jack Torrance, a writer who takes a job as a caretaker of a Colorado hotel which will be closed for the winter.     He takes the position because it will allow him time and peace to complete his novel.    The stories of past caretakers killing their families there don't concern him.    He has issues, such as alcoholism and alleged abuse of his son Danny, but he insists he is on the wagon.    His wife, Wendy (Duvall), is supportive of him, albeit a bit scared and the small family moves in to the vast, empty, desolate hotel.     The hotel, called The Overlook, is in the middle of nowhere.     It is large, perhaps larger than necessary, and its grounds consist of a maze of pine trees which seemingly has no exit.     It's a perfect place for Jack, who has plenty of room to avoid contact with his wife and son.    He sits alone and pounds the typewriter relentlessly.   When his wife interrupts him, he flies off the handle, as if somehow she is keeping him from tending to his masterpiece.  

It's Jack's isolation that prevents him from noticing a few things about Danny, such as his psychic abilities and his imaginary friend who occupies his body from time to time.     A hotel manager named Dick Hallorhan (Crothers) calls this "The Shining" and knows plenty about it, maybe because he too has such powers.     Danny is haunted by visions of two little girls as he rides his Big Wheel around the empty hallways.     Soon after the little girls manifest themselves, Jack finds himself talking to a lone bartender named Lloyd and a former caretaker named Grady who not too subtly suggests that Jack has to keep his family in line.    Are these hallucinations?   Dreams?   Ghosts?    Whatever they are, they soon compel Jack to pick up an ax and stalk Wendy and Danny.    Making matters worse is a major winter storm which snows the place in, so the Overlook Hotel is now further isolated from the outside world.

Kubrick evokes a strange sense that even in a giant hotel, one can feel as if the walls are closing in.    Is it the isolation that is driving these people mad?    Did "The Shining" act as a conduit for these spirits to awaken?    Kubrick is more interested in creating an overall creepy experience than he is answering these questions.    Just like his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, he supplies no answers to the ever-growing number of questions that pop up about the plot.     A 1921 photograph of a July 4 ball at the hotel provides clues, or does it?    Kubrick's film is about the forces at work which propel Jack to carry the ax around the hotel and then in the snowbound maze of trees, screaming in vain as he chases Danny.     One can surmise that Jack was a bit off anyway when he interviewed for the caretaker job and that the Overlook Hotel was the last place he should've gone to work out his demons.

I haven't mentioned the performances yet, mostly because I'm fully aware of how Kubrick put his actors through take after take so he can get what he wanted and nothing more.     Actor Matthew Modine, who starred in Kubrick's 1987 Full Metal Jacket, once questioned the director about his large number of takes.    Kubrick referenced Nicholson here, stating, "When Jack arrived on set, he sort of knew his lines.    After 50 takes, he began to play around with them in interesting ways.    At 100 takes, he began to truly feel them."    Shelly Duvall was driven to tears by the director's relentless pursuit of perfection.    He would reshoot the scenes with Danny riding the Big Wheel so he could get the perfect angle.      Because Kubrick worked without any studio interference or any timetable except a self-imposed one, his film shoots would be longer than most others, but he had a vision which he could clearly see and relay to the audience.     Strangely, he had a great reputation for fostering creativity from his actors despite his supposed iron-fisted control over the material.    It works.   Fascinating.