 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I bet there was murder with the copyright.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The book is terrifying (or certainly was to this teenage reader, back in the day).
I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with the film.
It looks fantastic and the (classical) music is scary, brilliant and unsettling.
But the mangled story (compared to the novel), the miscast actors and the pedestrian pace kills it dead.
And yes, it isn't remotely scary.
It's such a frustrating botch job.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Sep 3, 2023 - 3:49 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
MikeP
(Member)
|
The book is terrifying (or certainly was to this teenage reader, back in the day).
I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with the film.
It looks fantastic and the (classical) music is scary, brilliant and unsettling.
But the mangled story (compared to the novel), the miscast actors and the pedestrian pace kills it dead.
And yes, it isn't remotely scary.
It's such a frustrating botch job.
It's a clusterf*ck attempt at horror. Aside from the screenplay, the worst offender is Nicholson. Who knows if it was his choice or Kubrick's choice, but he's way over the top, playing literally lip smackin' googly eyed comedy. At times it's like he's in an old Abbott & Costello Meet some ghost or something wacky romp.
Constantly you can read comments or articles claiming its THE MOST TERRIFYING FILM OF ALL TIME... what the f*ck are these people smoking ? At the thrilling climax the Ebil Daddy Jack basically gets tired, sits down and freezes to death.
It feels like a Kubrick dark satire. No way is it scary. My brother and i caught a matinee opening day, we were both big fans of the book and Kubrick fans, but walked out saying "what the hell was that all about?" 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I took a day off from work and stood in line all morning on Friday, May 23rd, 1980 so that I could see the first showing of "The Shining" at the Sutton on NYC's Upper East Side (the ad I found in an archive for the NY Times shows 12:45 as the first playtime). I stayed and watched the film three times that day (maybe four times actually as the ad indicates that they had a midnight showing, too) with different audiences.
The hospital scene came right after the shock reveal of Jack frozen in the snow. So it was Danny backtracking and escaping, getting into the rover being driven by his Mom, Jack wailing incoherently and swinging his axe in the maze then collapsing, then the shock cut to Jack frozen in the snow, then the ping of an elevator in the hospital with Ullman getting out, talking to a nurses station, then going to the room where Danny and his Mom are, with Danny in a bed. There is a mundane conversation, which actually made the audience, at all of the showings that I saw that first day, laugh (whether in derision or nervousness I don’t know). Then the tracking/dolly shot to Jack in the old photo ended the film.
For me at least the problem was that the film had been built up as the epitome of terror and horror -- and the trailer with the elevator gushing gore, while brilliant, really "oversold" the film in terms of gore and bloodshedding terror. The audience was really primed for an ultimate, gory, horror film. "The Shining" certainly wasn't that film. I recall that there were also a few laughs when there was an insertion of a simple time and date with a loud and ultra dramatic music cue. The film has grown on me over the years but I find it more of a black-comedy domestic tragedy now rather than an all-out horror film.
Update: I believe that when Ullman gets off the elevator and stops at the nurse's station, Danny was there with the nurse looking fine and untraumatized. Then Ullman went to Wendy's room and had the mundane conversation which faded out to transition to the dolly/tracking shot into the photo. If anyone else needs to correct what may a faulty memory, please do so!!!!
Update Update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWKVTx1hlQ
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
