A masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (2 August 2011)

The Shining-****- A Masterpiece- Directed by: Stanley Kubrick. Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson, Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Joe Turkel.
Kubrick's intense film based off Stephen King's novel follows the story of a writer (Nicholson) who takes his family to an abandoned hotel, which causes a violent reaction from him as surreal images flood his mind. His wife (Duvall) does not know what to make of her husband's sudden descent or their young son's strange behavior. Much horror follows this up.
Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King had well-known creative differences over the project. King had a more paranormal approach to the haunting of Nicholson's character which is more straightforward in why these events are happening. Kubrick's adaptation is more focused on the dehumanization of Nicholson's character and less clear on what his evil behavior is coming from.
That is the reason Kubrick's version prevails is because it is hazy. The film could be a psychological reaction to the claustrophobic environment of the hotel, a schizophrenic fantasy, or like King would have it, a response to the paranormal entities of the hotel. Or it could be all of the above. Perhaps Nicholson's character is provoked into violence by the spirits.
The next question we must ask is if it should be taken literally or as a work of symbolism or both. Kubrick is not stuffing words and explanations to the change of character into our mouthes, but he gives us enough explanation to at least make sense of the horror going on.
Nicholson is excellent in the main role because his change in attitude is not too quick nor too slow. Pairing him up with Duvall, Kubrick contrasts the two personalities and better shows Nicholson's hatred as in comparison with Duvall's innocence. Duvall gives Kubrick and Nicholson a frame to work with in order to display how horrible the lead character really is. The genius of the film is how Kubrick portrays his characters in a claustrophobic and hallucinatory backdrop.