The Shining (1980)

The Shining
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson from a novel by Stephen King
1980/US/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Di

Dick Hallorann:  I can remember when I was a little boy your age… my grandmother and I could hold entire conversations without ever opening our mouths. She called it “shining”. And for a long time I thought it was only the two of us who had the shine… just like you who thought you was the only one. But there are other folks who don’t know it or don’t believe it. How long have you been able to do it?

Nobody could play a psychopath better than Jack Nicholson.  This is one scary and beautiful movie.

The Torrances are a typical American family, at least on the surface.  Father Jack Torrance (Nicholson), a recovering alcoholic, has just left a job teaching school.  He wants to be a writer.  Mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall) stays at home and cares for their young son, Danny (Danny Lloyd).

Jack accepts an offer to be the winter caretaker for a huge isolated mountain hotel that closes for the season because all roads to the place will be blocked by snow.  The family will also live there.

It soon develops that little Danny has an imaginary friend called Tony and that he and Tony are telepathic.  Also, that Jack resents his family mightily and blames Wendy and Danny for his many failures.  This resentment will grow into something else.  As winter sets in, it appears that the hotel may be haunted by evil happenings in its history.  Particularly one instance in which a winter caretaker took out his entire family in an axe murder/suicide.

I’ve put this movie off since the day it came out.  A Clockwork Orange was so traumatizing to me there was no way I wanted to watch Kubrick do out and out horror.  But I worked up my courage and was rewarded by some extremely well-done horror.  It is made more horrifying because one of the people terrorized is a small child.

The film did not get a single Oscar nomination and, in fact, Duvall and Kubrick were nominated for Razzies. Its acclaim has grown over the years.  I thought it was perfect for what it was and that Duvall was excellent in a very difficult role outside her comfort zone.  The movie is two and a half hours long and not a second is wasted.  My first thought was that this was more of a psychological thriller but by the last third we are definitely in horror territory.  I’m surprised that the film did not at least garner nominations for its cinematography and extremely effective art direction. Highly recommended if you can stand being terrified by the end.

There is a documentary called Room 237 that explores various theories about the meaning of the film which I will probably watch next.