Over appreciated film and director butchers the world's most brilliant modern day writer's tale

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2008)

I don't dislike The Shining. I just feel, as did King, that Kubrick's The Shining butchered his story and it does exactly that. I guess supposedly The Shining's artistic value is huge being that Kubrick is such a brilliant director but I don't see anything to the film that makes it such a Kubrick masterpiece. The core ideas are still in tact from the film but it seems as though Kubrick rushes everything through and in the process leaves all the meat and potatoes of the characters and the story in the dust. The characters in the film have virtually no depth, they are very shallow characters and the casting for the important roles couldn't have been more wrong. That being said Kubrick's The Shining makes a great horror story and is downright disturbing in numerous scenes. It gets a lot of it's "classic" status from many of it's more disturbing scenes including the blood in the elevator, REDRUM, the disturbing portrayal of Danny, and of course Nicholson's infamous portrayal of the madman but the problem with all of this is the story around it is so weak. You don't see Nicholson's decent into madness, it practically happens on a dime, and you don't get a sense of the evil hotel, everything just lumps together quickly, and the ending of the film makes such little sense that it leaves you frustrated and scratching your head.
Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance. Nicholson is a master actor, even nearly thirty years ago he was brilliant on screen and although his performance and character doesn't really match that of the novel he is still a decent choice for Torrance. The problem is Kubrick doesn't give Nicholson any depth to his character at all. So he gets to show sane, and then completely insane with nothing in the middle. Still it's easy to see why Nicholson's performance is so memorable because he is terrific. Shelley Duvall might be one of the worst actresses I've ever seen and casting her in this role might be one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. She is god-awful in this role and not to be mean but MAN is she ugly...holy crap. She was nominated for a Razzie for this role and I usually hate the Razzie's but they were dead on for this performance. She doesn't come close to fulfilling King's novel version of Wendy and she's just terrible in the role. Her facial expressions and downright hilarious acting makes her performance really, really awful. In his one and only performance on the big screen Danny Lloyd plays young Danny Torrance with a certain mundaneness. I mean I give him enormous credit for the scenes where he's "talking to Tony" and his belting out "REDRUM" which still gives me nightmares but apparently Kubrick shielded him even knowing he was in a horror movie (which surprises me and I gain a little respect for Kubrick for doing that.) Still Lloyd's performance is just adequate, nothing really huge about it. Finally veteran actor Scatman Crothers plays Dick Hallorann in a small role that isn't even really a "supporting role" but that's what they consider it. He does alright but doesn't even come close to the terrific role played by Melvin Van Peebles in the King Mini series version. But then his role is very small and like with the other characters, Kubrick gives them nothing to work with.
Apparently I'm not a Kubrick fan because if I could pin point one thing wrong with The Shining, it would sum up into Stanley Kubrick who wrote the script and directed the film. I mean the man was rumored to be a monster on set forcing hundreds of re-shoots and yet manages to get no depth to these amazing characters? He focused far too much on the horror aspect of The Shining and missed all of the key elements that makes it brilliant. The film is okay and mostly okay because of Nicholson's performance once he becomes the maniac, and the hedge maze idea is cool but NO substitution for the Hedge animals from the novel and the later mini series. Some people passionately love Kubrick's The Shining but I think it's a matter of feeling like they have to because if you really watch it from a King fan perspective you'll realize there is so much missing and you'll understand why King himself didn't like this version. Still it is a classic and very watchable (except for Duvall's horrendous performance) so definitely see it but read the book and watch King's version of the mini series as well because that will give you a true look into The Shining. 7/10