I specifically chose The Shining as one of the movies I wanted to review for one simple fact — I’ve never seen it. It wasn’t on purpose! I love Kubrick’s films and tore through most of Stephen King’s books in high school and into my adult years, and I absolutely loved The Shining as a novel. It has always been on my list of movies I need to watch, but every time I had the chance to view it, something else popped up, and I said, ‘Next time.’ Well, shame on me for waiting for so long, as I have been missing out on a great movie that I wouldn’t really consider a straight horror film, but a masterpiece in filmmaking that deftly delivers suspense and thrills that anyone watching it won’t soon forget.
I don’t think I need to spend much time on the plot, as I’m sure just about everyone is aware of the basic premise; even if all you know about The Shining is what you saw in the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror spoof. I also think we can gloss over the fact that this is not a literal translation of the King novel, and more a collaboration between writers, Kubrick and Diane Johnson, who picked and chose the parts of the novel they wanted to translate while inventing the rest. Is this a ghost story, a descent into madness? We are never really given a good answer, and are only left with more questions, especially given the last shot surrounding the picture of the 4th of July ball.
Despite some of these issues, my biggest problem with the movie was that I never really connected with any of the members of the family, and I’m not sure if I was supposed to. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was very good; seeing Jack Nicholson go crazy and start chewing up scenery was a lot of fun, and he definitely did a tremendous job playing an insane maniac. Shelley Duvall was great as this meek and innocent women who was put in extreme and extraordinary circumstances and was just doing whatever she could to survive and keep her child safe. And the wonderful scene between Scatman Crothers and Danny Lloyd where he explains what it means to ‘shine’ was beautiful and riveting in its simplicity. I just never really identified with anyone one the screen. One of the horrors of seeing a person go insane and do unspeakable things, as Jack Nicholson does here, is to show just how evil and out of character these things are for that person. Mr. Hyde would not be as evil if we didn’t have his foil as Dr. Jekyll to compare to. Unfortunately, we don’t get that here as Jack is pretty much a bad person from the moment we meet him. He’s not a family man, he used to (and still would) drink and is a child abuser. There is no reason to like him or feel sorry for him as he devolves into madness, as it becomes something we could believe his doing on a bad day, in a cranky mood after a few too many drinks. Or maybe, this is how Kubrick wants us to view this, and I’m not sure I agree with this presentation.
What I can not praise enough though, is the technical genius and mastery of direction that Kubrick displays here along with a phenomenal score that, combined, are more gripping than anything else displayed here. His sweeping long shots do wonderful things to set up environment and the sense of isolation that permeates the movie and the mood of the characters within. Time and again, there are these incredible scenes that were obviously shot in one take, and one can only imagine the tremendous amount of patience, study and work that had to go into each one, as it must have been excruciating to complete. By investing into this torturous technique, however, Kubrick was able to deliver an impact that would not have been reached through multiple shots or takes. The score also perfectly sets the mood and never falls into the normal pitfall of telegraphing when there is going to be a spooky or gotcha moment that leaves the viewer honestly guessing where they will be taken to next.
So is this really a horror film? It is definitely thrilling, suspenseful and creepy, but it does not quite fit the bill of what the average audience would now consider horror, and perhaps this is a sad reflection on what modern moviegoers are looking for in a horror movie nowadays. Will this movie scare you? Well, I certainly wasn’t scared by it, and I’m a complete wimp when it comes to these kinds of movies. Is it one everyone should see? Definitely, as it is a technical and directorial masterpiece, and deserves to be considered a classic, whatever genre you decide it belongs in Rarely do I come across a movie that delivers on such a visceral level and leaves the lasting impression that The Shining did, and that alone merits its place in your horror movie marathon.