An Analytic Classic

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2006)

The Shining is Kubrick's attempt to develop in an intimate way the dynamics of a young family. The horror is the maintenance of the mother-son bond that is under threat by the overzealous father. No matter how hard he strives, this bond cannot be broken. He sees women as whores, as the objects that relieve his desire. His son is a mere token of his abnormal sexuality.
In isolation, without the counter reliance of men, he is held hostage to the redundant role of men in the family situation. He is unnecessary and feels he should be punished. His psyche shifts and lives in self-destruction, the mode that attracts the attention of his wife and child. But he is overcome. The male is signaled as deceased. The killing by each man, is the determination of the male role in the family unit. Redundant, obsolete, violence offers only a vacant reprieve.
Kubrick follows Nicholson's destruction with an eye for the decline of the creative enterprise. Either way, the role of storyteller is overtaken by the wife and the clairvoyant son, who seek refuge from this male self-destruction. We hope for Jack's vacation, but his impotence pollutes any attempt to bond with his family. History repeats itself. If only Jack could lesson his grip on dominance the trio would be saved by unitary fear of the unknown. Jack doesn't recognize this fear, doesn't confront his impotence as the "male" and relents to the massacre.
One of the best films of the twentieth century.