the shining summery

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2012)

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) arrives at the Overlook Hotel to interview for the position of winter caretaker, with the aim of using the hotel's solitude to work on his writing. Manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) warns him that a previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and himself. Jack's son, Danny (Danny Lloyd)and Jack's wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), feel terrified about the hotel. Wendy later tells Jack that Danny told her that a "crazy woman in one of the rooms". Jack investigates Room 237 where he encounters the ghost of a dead woman, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue about whether Danny should be removed from the hotel and a furious Jack returns to the Gold Room, now filled with ghosts having a costume party. While searching for Jack, Wendy discovers his typewriter; he has been typing endless pages of manuscript repeating "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" formatted in various styles. She is confronted by Jack, who threatens her before she knocks him unconscious. Jack awakes and chops through the door where Wendy and Danny are hiding. He then chases Danny through the maze. After Danny throws him off his path he escapes with his mother and Jack freezes to death.
The scene where Jack first meets Lloyd, he's lit from beneath, which illuminates his already ominous features. When Wendy finds "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", she is positioned right in the center of the scene and it's red right behind her (Kubrick always makes interesting use of red). Then, what appears to be a POV shot moves towards the chamber, but it turns out not to be; Jack moves into the scene. The camera views Crother's TV through his bare feet as he lies in bed, under the portrait of a naked women. His camera placement is original. Often the scenes are brightly lighted and the characters seem to be without makeup and the conversational pauses and hesitations stretched out. Camera-work had this quality of making the viewer expect that there is something around the corner.
Nicholson is an artist who uses his face and various features in a brilliant manner. His expressive eyes, broad smile, ever moving eyebrows, deep crackling voice. He displayed cold frustration as effectively as outrageous anger. Portrayal of a frustrated madmen who slowly looses his mind was very detailed and must have resulted from a lot of homework. I found it to be very entertaining, very suspenseful and a visual treat. Those visuals were so good that I didn't mind the slow pace. Jack Nicholson was perfect for the role. Shelley Duvall was fascinating with her "Olive Oyl" face especially with the camera pan.
Something obviously falls out when you're watching the movie on a 67" high def. This scene was heavily planned and Kubrick was obsessed with aesthetic symbology. My theory is that the elevators represent Danny's mouth and him screaming was the elevator doors opening and Tony spilling out. All the bloodshed from melanin-eating white people killing native Indians and black people was all symbolic for the hotel being America and the history loops back in the destiny of evil white men. White men's novel is the destiny he writes for himself and that destiny is rage. "all work and no play (murder) makes jack a dull boy".... even when they first showed him throwing a ball at a wall that had a native painting of Indian deities that look a lot like the dead twins in blue outfits; the scene first started off with the blank typewriter. Him throwing the ball was symbolic for throwing or chopping an ax. (the ax in the hallway scene of the dead twins)
I feel it was a slow long movie. I enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who likes a horror or mystery. I haven't read the novel but i guess the movie wasn't what Stephen King wanted it to be. There was some disturbing images (not being scary) but who wants to see a fully naked rotting women, it was a raw movie, you saw their bare faces and true expressions. You felt the crazy.