Great Book awful casting

Rating: 1/10 (3 February 2007)

I started reading the book on the Thursday before a long weekend. From the time I picked it up, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. While I'd loved Salem's Lot, it paled next to The Shining. When I heard it was going to be made into a movie, and Stanley was directing, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I stood outside the theater hours before the tickets went on sale so I could be the first to see it.
Why Stephen King didn't encourage his fans to boycott this film remains a mystery. It's well known he was not pleased with the production. I'm with him. The book was about the Hotel and our own demons.
Unfortunately Jack Nicholson decided he need to take over the movie and make it about himself. While there are times and movies when Jack's over the top portrayals are amusing and spell binding, this was not the film he should have used or misused his talents.
Years later, Stephen remade The Shining, casting Steven Webber as the father. It was a much more interesting version, focused more on the story and less on one egomaniac's stealing of the spot light.