CONDE NAST GIVES THE OVERLOOK HOTEL FIVE STARS AND CALLS IT “THE MOST HORRIFIC HOTEL EXPERIENCE” OF 1980
Movie Review – The Shining
Review by Mary Gent
I’m sure that “The Shining” has been discussed more times than a math wiz could calculate and I’m more than positive that it has been discussed somewhere on this website as well. But I don’t care. I find that it is the appropriate time of year to talk about this film again. For those of you who live in bitter, snow-ridden towns, I’m sure that you can relate to the old phrase “cabin fever”. Living in Los Angeles, more specifically Venice Beach, I do not suffer from said disorder. However, I grew up in Buffalo, NY and am MORE than familiar with unacceptable weather conditions. I myself many times found my mental health to be less than desirable in these bleak winter months, forcing me into seclusion and/or dark desperate drinking binges. Much like our unlikely protaganist, Jack Torrance. Yes I said it. Contrary to popular belief he is not the antagonist in the film. Just a pawn or puppet if you will, having his strings pulled by the real evil force: The Overlook Hotel.
What we don’t get from Kubrick’s menacing version of this film is that the Hotel is the supernatural entity that preys upon Jack’s weaknesses so it can get to the real target, Jack’s young son Danny. Danny as we all know (because if you haven’t seen this film or at least read the book I have zero patience for you!) has the ability to forsee events. ESP if you will. His gift is strong and allows him visions of not only the near future but much farther down the road as well. The hotel covets Danny’s innate abilities and will stop at nothing to possess them for it’s own purposes. What we also do not know from Kubrick’s film is that Jack falls victim to the hotel’s whims through old musty newspapers he finds in the boiler room chronicling the murderous events that took place at the hotel. This distraction from his own novel and recovery process is his ultimate demise.
But all that aside, Kubrick’s version is it’s own horrific masterpiece. This film was the cause of much distress in my household when I was a young gal. My morbid fascination with all things “horror” led me to beg my parents to allow me to watch it. They caved and I sat in front of the television frozen in terror and can still taste that fear to this day. The illusion of isolation that Kubrick creates is perhaps what terrifies me most of all. He sets the tone from the very beginning of the film with ariel shots of the Rocky mountains and maybe two cars driving down the spiraled road with the ominous soundtrack looming quietly in the background. He managed to remove the beauty of the Rocky Mountains and create a type of monstrous entity instead. This feeling of aloneness intensifies when the Torrances arive at their new digs and the staff is closing up shop for the winter and the knowledge that it will just be them for 6 months echoes loudly in the silence.
Jack Torrance is a brilliant character, born out of the beautifully demented mind of Stephen King. Again you don’t get a real sense of who he is in the film. Kubrick’s coldness resounds in Nicholson’s amazing performance right at the get go. You NEVER like him! Nicholson turns Jack Torrance into a monster right from the beginning. In Stephen King’s reality the character of Jack is one of human fallabillity. King’s gift to create complex characters is uncanny. Jack has been dealt some pretty shitty cards in his life. His profession as writer and teacher create great turmoil in his personal life. He is a raging alcoholic. He is abusive and he is a tender and loving father beneath it all. His determination to overcome his past and his addictions are what push him to accept the job at the Overlook, hoping it will restore his family unit and remove his writers block. You like Jack in the book. You relate to him and you secretly cheer him on through all his mistakes.
In the film there is nothing warm or loving about Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack. He is a madman. The lurking mental crack is apparent immediately. (I love that about the film, but Stephen King hated it. Oh well!) So as they settle in as the new inhabitants of the Overlook, things start to go wrong. Danny’s senses are heightened and he begins to have horrific visions that the hotel allows him to see. The knowledge that the previous winter caretaker went crazy and chopped his little girls up and killed his wife and himself begin to manifest as entities in the hotel.
Jack’s inability to cope as a normal human crumbles more and more everyday and his desperation leads him to the hotel bar where he encounters all the visions and people that the hotel has hoarded over the years (like the fictional bartender Lloyd who faithfully serves up Jack’s poison, further leading him into the abyss of insanity).
As his reality begins to blur, the hotel can gain strength through the meeting of the aforementioned caretaker Delbert Grady. Grady creates doubt in Jack’s head about the behavior of his family, in particular his son Danny. He convinces Jack that they need to be “corrected” just as he had “corrected” his family. Jack’s loss of rationale gets the best of him and he confronts his timid wife, Wendy (Shelly Duvall) in one of the most disturbing scenes of the film. It is horrifying to me to watch a human act like a monster and lose all sense of reason. The taunting lilt of Nicholson’s voice as he walks Shelly Duvall backwards into the stairs is bone chilling.
The movie’s stress level is amped up at this point and nothing good can come anymore. What happens over the next hour is excruciating. Jack’s slipping down life is irreversible at this point. Danny’s preternatural gift is at a boiling point as he understands the immediate danger he and his mother are in. The writing is on the wall, literally, as Wendy awakes to find the fateful message written in red on her door.
There is a double climax of sorts at this point. As she reads the words of doom on the door the horrific sound of her axe-wielding husband’s taunts of “little pig, little pig let me in” begin. Thus leading to the famous “Here’s Johnny” moment. As Wendy runs through the hotel trying to escape, she begins to witness the hotel’s malevolence as the visions become more and more tangible.
We all know how the movie ends: the legendary maze sequence which honestly still makes me nervous, even though I know the outcome! The terror of this film is not the supernatural aspects that surround it but the truth behind the reality of human weakness and the mental breakdown that could ensue from complete isolation. I will forever love “The Shining” and it’s unique and brilliant imagery and I still consider it the best pyschological horror film ever made.
“We all go a little mad sometimes.” -Norman Bates
