The Shining is one of Kubrick's best

Rating: 10/10 (5 March 2006)

The Shining is one of only a handful of Stephen King adaptations that is as successful as a film as as a book (others include, in my opinion, Carrie, Misery, the Shawshank Redemption, the Green Mile, Stand by Me, and Dolores Claiborne.) It is, however, vastly different from the book (Stephen King was highly disatisfied with it), and belongs more to Kubrick's genius than King's. Numerous story changes are made, and there are numerous additions. But the end result of both is the same: a terrifying masterpiece. Jack Nicholson gives his greatest villain performance (not including the Joker) as Jack Torrance, hamming up the role and playing it so far over the top that it is great fun to watch. The story concerns Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall, not a great choice for the role), and his son Danny, who serve as winter caretakers to the secluded Overlook Hotel in the Rockies. The hotel, of course, is haunted, and its aura of death and terror soon intoxicate Jack, driving him into a murderous, cabin-fever rage to kill his family. In his typical style, Kubrick takes his time, with long shots, scenes without dialogue, and visions of the horror that the hotel represents. I have always found Kubrick a sort of icy genius, and his films for the most part are coldly intellectual. The Shining is no exception. One feels detached from the characters, as much as they are detached from each other. This matters little however. If I had to choose one word to define the Shining, I would say disturbing. It is not a slasher flick, and gets its tension from the images and situations it presents instead of from characters. There are great images that have become classic in film history ("Here's Johhhhny!!!", "All Work and No Play Make Jack a Dull Boy,", the two dead girls, room 237, the sea of blood in the elevators, Redrum, the fight on the stairs, the ghost ballroom, and the chase through the hedge maze). Ultimately, it is a horror masterpiece, which, though utterly different from the source material, is just as terrifying as King's classic book.