Its Kubrick...

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2001)

The Shining is not an easy movie to watch. I will admit that. Its a Kubrick movie and its one at its best. As I wrote in my review for Eyes Wide Shut i state again that Kubrick movies are like a wine or beer, its an acquired taste and its a taste that some will completely fall in love with and some will never want to try again. I can sympathize with both sides as i was once not a fan of Kubrick. Some where along the line i acquired the taste and for me, its one i never want to lose. The Shining is a horror movie for disturbed people (a common trait among Kubrick fans). It does not offer anything easily as most Kubrick films are. For those who love (saturated, watered-down, formulaic) Scream and the like i offer this advise; Don't watch a Kubrick film. Period. Not the Shining, not any. Kubrick films are as far from Hollywood norm as can be and The Shining does not break from his vision. The Shining excels in his vision. He offers tight, long views of hallways, confining you, creating a sense of claustrophobia and a deep rooted fear. A real fear. His use of sound and color to creep into your psyche is infamous. Take for example how he shows Danny riding his Big Wheel around, constantly. In one such scene Danny rides on and off carpeting and wood floor and the repeated badgering of quiet, then loud, jogs your brain to wonder what is going on. He makes you start to think that something is coming from it and then...nothing. Later, you see Danny riding the Big Wheel again but unlike before Kubrick jogs your brain with the terrific image of the two girls. Then quick flashes to the horrors that occurred in the hotel before. For me, the constant use of the big wheel several times gives you the sense of being in that big wheel. Sitting there, peacefully like Danny, and then being confronted with a living nightmare.
As far as the acting goes Kubrick loves to draw out something different from his actors. All his films present very over-the-top performances from Alex in Clockwork to George C Scott in Dr. Strangelove, even to HAL ( i know he's not an actor) but Kubrick is an extremist and he shows you this with his lead actors and characters. He presents a minimalist, simple, dehumanized story with people out of their element and acting insanely. Most all his films offer this wild assortment of range within the confines of a man/woman.
I tend to think of Kubrick's work as filmed nightmares. They may not be your nightmares but nightmares never-the-less. He brings you into a story where people are being animals in one way or another. As Alex being a physical animal and Dave being an animal one step lower on the food chain to the Monolith (and a human's own creation in HAL). Full Metal Jacket speaks for itself in this regard showing how our own government creates (or tries to create) animals for war when you can't afford to have human emotion. Dr. Hartford in Eyes Wide Shut wants to be an animal when his wife tells him of her fantasies and he goes out on the hunt but comes up realizing what he really is, a human, and his wife, a human, with frailties and shortcomings.

In the end, since this is about the Shining and not Kubrick, i say you give the movie, on its own, not compared to the book a chance. Watch it with an open eye and don't wait for the typical. Don't expect a movie like Scream or even Halloween ( a horror masterpiece in its own right). The formula to Kubrick films and the Shining is that, as with life, there is no formula.

Beyond everything that i have said here, Kubrick's film is definitely better than the later TV movie.