A Building Without its Foundation

Rating: 5/10 (3 June 2007)

Stanley Kubrick probably wasn't the director who should have taken the helms of translating Stephen King's classic of modern horror into the big screen. For that reason, neither was Mick Garris, who would go on to direct the miniseries and throw everything but the kitchen sink and re-define the concept that doing a faithful, literal rendition of a complex novel can be like being the holder of a whip and full permission to flog a dead horse into even more submission, but that's another story.
However, Kubrick chose this among the heap of novels he was reading at the time and he decided to make his own vision -- which should have surprised no one, least of all King, although maybe he did not know Kubrick was known for making a story his in every respect of the word. In a lot of ways, THE SHINING succeeds, and is more unsettling than outright scary. The dark ambient music and the squealing violins bring a textured madness within the picture, a sense that things are bad from the get-go and will only get worse as the story proceeds. As a matter of fact, one of the best uses of sound that accentuate the concept of the "pounding" that makes its appearance in the nightmarish passages of the book is the one scene when Hallorann is trying to reach through to the Overlook Hotel and senses a growing trepidation that something horrible is about to take place. That implacable heartbeat insinuates itself with deadly accuracy until I, as a viewer, could literally feel the impending disaster (knowing the novel well).
However, THE SHINING is packed with missteps that detract from its punch. One of the movie's glaring flaws is the casting of Jack Nicholson. True, he's come to define the psycho with the tongue sticking out and those devilish eyebrows as his silky voice promises more mayhem and he yells his trademark "Here's Johnny!" to the camera. However, where in the novel Jack Torrance was a deeply flawed man, one who had an enormous baggage stemming from his broken home, his drunken, often abusive father (one scene in particular pops up several times in flashbacks, as the senior Torrance pummeled his wife with his cane over dinner while little Jack and his brothers watched in horror as their mother actually did nothing to defend herself or accuse him later on to the authorities), a man who was trying to do what he could to pull through with his family, whom he himself had hurt in similar ways.
The movie's Jack is nuts from the start. That's not a spoiler, it's practically the movie's premise. It was a rather novel concept, making the hero crazy from the beginning, but not making it clear until the moment Wendy discovers how long his mental instability has been going on.
Another big problem is having the character of Danny turned into little more than a talking moron. The Danny in the book is articulate and smart as a whip while still being a child at heart; this one is a step away from being idiotic. Wendy in the book was stronger, less of a simp... here she's drowning in her simpering mousiness and turning it into an art form worthy of the Smithsonian Institute. Again, an issue of miscasting -- Shelley Duvall was simply not right for this role.
If anything, THE SHINING holds the essence of the destruction of the American family intact in both the book and the movie version. While neither Jack nor Wendy are given back stories that might shed light into their current state of affairs, they're not a happy marriage and it's only time before irrevocable problems will arise and cause a dent within their fabric. I think that in eliminating these elements from their characters, Kubrick did want to indicate that it didn't matter; disintegration was disintegration whether one came from a broken home or Stepford. Here, it happens rather quickly; Kubrick just doesn't show it until late in the movie when Jack lets his inner crazy out and his "Honey, I'm home" is so drenched in irony that it almost brings the message full circle: violence starts at home.
So Kubrick's vision, indeed.... excellent for 2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY, but middle-of-the-road for this type of movie, especially when using the oldest fright-gags the book that will cause laughter than actual discomfort. Stick with the book, it's perfect, and hope someone will come and re-make it the way it deserves to be.