Well made and ambiguous psychological horror

Rating: Null/10 (19 June 2010)

Director Stanley Kubrick and star Jack Nicholson collaborated in a very interesting, very well made but ultimate slightly flawed horror film.
It is a measure though of Stanley Kubrick that a flawed film still gets 9 out of 10! The film is more populist than most of Kubrick's films, however he still keeps many aspects of the film non mainstream and original, despite this coming from an existing story, in the form of a Stephen King novel.
The plot is typically ambiguous, challenging the audience by not having a neat structure, and this applied particularly to the intriguing ending. However, I wonder if a little too much development of the story got lost in the editing as for me this was the area where the films main, and only fault was. While I understand that the time line in the film moves in jumps I found that Jack Nicholson's character psychosis happens too quickly, and I felt it would have been more interesting to see this disintegration of character, which is well played by Nicholson, happen more subtly. Shelley Duvall's performance is very good as the wife who becomes more terrified when she realises what is happening to her husband, but again it would have been interesting to see her change more gradually. Kubrick alumni Philip Stone (as Delbert Grady)and Joe Turkel (as the bartender) are both excellent in small parts, as is Scatman Crothers at the head chef, but for me the real acting kudos in the film has to go to child actor Danny Lloyd as the Daniel Torrance character. He is amazing, especially when performing both the slightly sinister alter ego as well as his Danny character. He carries off his performance with subtlety and charisma. This character is the emotional anchor for the story, and Danny Lloyd pulls it off magnificently. Kudos has to go to Kubrick for getting this level of performance from a young child actor.
Technical credits, as usual for a Kubrick film, are first rate. Kubrick alumni John Alcott's photography is complemented brilliantly by Kubrick's signature use of wide angle lenses. This is particularly impressive as Kubrick makes wide and large spaces look really scary, and eschews the more stereotypical approaches of darkness and tight framing of shots to induce claustrophobia with the audience. Mention must also be of Garrett Brown's use of the Steadicam in this picture. As the steadicam operator, he worked this camera system into the production very effectively as for it to be almost not noticeable. Credit however, must go to Kubrick for realising the potential for it to be a storytelling tool, rather than for it to be a practical solution to certain shooting problems, as it had been in previous films. His work here certainly inspired many modern filmmakers to use steadicam in their films, sadly rarely with Kubrick's level of sophistication.
Editing and production design are excellent, particularly the work in realising both the Overlook Hotel and Maze, for which huge credit has to go to Roy Walker, another Kubrick alumni. In fact the snow bound atmosphere is brilliantly realised, as are the winter scenes, particularly with most of this film being made in the UK at Elstree studios.
Kubrick again chooses most of the music from a variety of sources, both scored and existing music. It works very well with the film
In summary, a very good psychological horror film which left me thinking long after the film was over, despite some aspects of the characters journey in the film not really working for me.