A Spectacular Movie

Rating: 9/10 (13 September 2012)

Stanley Kubrick is probably the best film maker ever in the English speaking world. In The Shining he once again shows his wonderful imagination, attention to detail, and obsessive nature that made him the master he was. This is a complex movie about horror, ghosts, deep psychological issues and the effects living in an empty very large Hotel in the middle of nowhere...may have on a fragile individual. Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall ...with their 9 year old son Danny Lloyd move in as winter caretakers to the very remote Overlook Hotel. Jack plays a recovering alcoholic and he intends to use up a lot of the spare time he will have...writing a novel. The Hotel is built on an old Indian burial ground...and a few years earlier a caretaker had chopped up his wife and children...because they were...mis-behaving. Cracks soon begin to appear in Jacks personalty, and the appearance of ghosts don't help him. What he needs is a good stiff drink. The sets in this are in a grand scale..as you would expect from Kubrick..and the use of the Steadycam (new at that time) is a huge plus. Its a great movie, but you should not expect to get all the answers. There are loose ends. But thats perfectly O.K. in a movie like this.