The Shining : (first published elsewhere in 2002)


THE SHINING : INDEX

Welcome to your complete guide to Kubricks best movie. If you're particularly interested, each page covers one particular subject and, if read in order, acts neatly as a scene-by-scene analysis and commentary upon the film and it's production. When you've finished read the rest of the site as well!

THE SYMMETRY OF “THE SHINING”



Synopsis:

The Shining is a motion picture directed by Stanley Kubrick. It was released on May 23, 1980. It was based upon a novel by Stephen King. It is now available on DVD and home video. It depicts the events that surround a few weeks in the lives of The Torrance Family as they spend the winter season maintaining The Overlook Hotel in a remote mountain region of America.

Analysis

Stanley Kubrick once ventured so far as to say that “anything that presupposes life after death has to be optimistic.”. In this respect, The Shining is probably his most optimistic achievement. Whilst critically starved upon it’s release, time and repeated viewings have shown this film to be, in the opinion of some, Kubricks finest work. Other people call the film a failure. And if it is a failure, then it is certainly a far more competent and ambitious one than the finest work of many others. The film is, in many respects, a banquet : with each layer one experiences, another is revealed. And, in my opinion, it’s one of the best films ever made. Kubrick was regarded as a master : this is his masterpiece.

Here I will examine the film scene by scene and shot by shot, from its cold opening, to its frozen end.



THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF PERFECTION

Kubrick was also apparently legendary as a perfectionist - though this is clearly not always the case given the number of continuity errors some of his works contain, such as the helicopter shadow mentioned earlier : it is apparently hotly debated by some due to Kubrick’s perfectionist nature, but it could be a simple error. On the other hand, Kubrick could be drawing our attention - albeit in a haphazard and ineffective manner - to the artifice of the experience we are about to witness, and also to the fact that we don’t, or shouldn’t, trust all that we see.

Throughout The Shining , objects of normal household uses take on, slowly, but surely, an altogether more sinister tone. A typewriter becomes the first visible sign of Jack’s psychosis. A child’s tricycle becomes the vehicle by which Danny unwittingly stumbles onto the scene of a murder. A tennis ball becomes an invitation to an obscene attack. A fire axe becomes a murder weapon. A mirror becomes a window into an alternate reality. It is the very banality of these objects that makes the Overlook so threatening, the intention by which the ordinary becomes the dangerous, the comforting the threatening, and in such a slow and precise manner that the true intentions of these objects only become apparent too late, it seems, to head off these apparently unstoppable events.

The nature of this opening sequence is to present a seemingly normal scene, yet present it in a disconcerting fashion - cars are parked and abandoned at seemingly random places - a stationary limo just before the tunnel, parked halfway up the mountain, for example, unusual camera moves (such as the shift from one view to another, from grass to snow, etc) seem to add an otherworldly, disjointed look to this scene, as if things are incoherent, and that transitions are not always linear or related, jump-cutting from one scene to another later in the same sequence of events whilst missing out the connecting action : from grass to snow, from rising in the bath to suddenly standing up and walking far away from it, and back again.


THE PERVERSION OF ORDER

All these scenes in the opening sequence were shot not by Stanley Kubricks second unit, who discovered the location at the Glacier National Park in Montana, but by noted surf film maker Greg MacGillivray. The spectacular location was regarded by a second-unit camera crew as unsuitable. Kubrick is reported to have said that “It was plain that the location was perfect but the crew had to be replaced”.

Two years after the release of the film, Ridley Scott contacted Stanley Kubrick so that he could use exterior sequences similar to The Shining for a studio-friendly version of Scott’s “Blade Runner”. Instead of providing names and numbers of suitable companies, Kubrick sent 30,000 feet of outtakes from the opening sequence over to Scott from which he could choose some suitable shots.

Even from the first shot, Kubrick reverses and rearranges the natural order. The camera that is tracking and following the car, isn’t just recording the events, but also demonstrates that it is a character in the play - by sweeping up behind the vehicle and then swooping up over and beyond it as if it were a bird. This inventive use of the camera is also dominant throughout the rest of the film. The camera is always in motion, always observing events, but rarely as a passive observer, more of a presence that follows and stalks the characters, and often representing the Overlook itself as it watches and manipulates events around it.



THE TRAPPINGS OF THE ENVIRONMENT

SCENE 2 : THE INTERVIEW

The exteriors of the Overlook were filmed at the Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood, Oregon by a second unit. In fact, the decor of the hotel was certainly meticiulously planned : the men’s room of the Gold Room was based upon the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Colarado Room was based upon the lobby of The Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite Valley (shown above on the right, with the film lobby on the left for comparison), and all the carpeting and tiling was specifically designed and manufactured for the film according to the commentary provided on The Shining DVD by Kubrick’s daughter. Production design Roy Walker also spent several weeks in the USA in the pre-production period taking photographs of hotels and other locations to provide the film with an authentic feel.

However, the interiors of the hotel were filmed on a huge lot at Elstree studios in London - the same lot that was used for “The Spy Who Loved Me“, on what was known as the “007” lot.

Kubrick had previously visited the lot during the filming of “The Spy Who Loved Me” to advise on the unusual lighting required by that film and, in order to prevent rumour spreading that Kubrick was involved in the filming of a Bond movie, he visited the set during the early morning hours when the set was deserted.

At this time, in 1977, the nature of Kubricks next project was still unclear, and in fact the first indication that Kubrick was to film The Shining broke in an American newspaper, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner on 5th June 1977.



THE WRITERS DEMONS

For many years prior, Kubrick had been interested in making a film dealing with the horror genre, but had yet to find a suitable vehicle for it : he was offered The Exorcist by Warners but did not accept it : as a text it was probably too unambigious regarding the nature of events. The Shining though, was adapted, as was almost all of Kubricks works, from a literary source : the novel by Stephen King.

Kubrick later described the manuscript of The Shining as:

"One of the most ingenious and exciting stories of the genre I had read... It seemed to strike the extraordinary balance between the psychological and the supernatural in such a way as to led you to think that the supernatural would eventually be explained by the psychological - 'Jack must be imagining these things because he’s crazy' - and this allowed you to suspend your belief of the supernatural until you were so thoroughly into the story that you could accept it without noticing."

However, Kubrick was not sufficiently pleased with King’s own screenplay - which, like the source novel, emphasised Jack Torrance’s alcoholic past and his battles with the bottle - preferring instead to emphasise alcohol as only one of the many internal demons Jack Torrance is to face. This was the source of a displeasure in King who was deeply emotionally attached to the project, as the alcoholic subplot of the novel and screenplay were heavily autobiographical, and dominate vast portions of the book.

As it stands, Jack’s drinking is barely referenced in the film, excepting that Jack is a functioning and apparently recovered individual who battles, and for the most part, succeeds in resisting temptation : he never actually partakes in alcohol throughout the film in a realist sense.

However, despite this, it is clear that the family unit Jack heads up, completed by Wendy and son Danny, is obviously dysfunctional and fractured. Affection is sparse, conversations tilted and clipped, and the family unit is already at best strained before the family is joined by it’s fourth, malicious member, The Overlook Hotel itself, which seeks to manipulate and amplify the existing divisions- unlike Kings novel, Kubrick’s Jack is man trying to maintain a tight grasp upon a reality that is often slipping out of his control : his career, his finances, and his self-control have already failed him, and it is only through determined effort that Jack is able to keep his life in check. However, with the introduction of a meddling, extra party into this situation - The Overlook itself - Jack loses control, and yields it to forces outside himself, as often he does in his life, being a pawn of alcohol, or circumstances, or finance, or - as implied through the hopelessly poor match of The Torrances - unwanted pregnancy.

In effect, The Shining is also Kubricks ‘divorce’ movie : depicting, by using supernatural presences to represent the psychological terrors and forces that tear couples apart, the collapse and fracture of a marriage by partners who, forced by circumstance to stick together, tear themselves apart.



UNSEEN EYES

The Shining was filmed in England and America between 1 May 1978 and April 1979. Production overran significantly, and several other major films scheduled to use the studios at Elstree - including The Empire Strikes Back and Flash Gordon - had to relocate as the film overran. In addition a fire destroyed the hotel set, requiring a reconstruction of one of the Elstree stages at the cost of $2,500,000 and delaying the production slightly : Kubrick initially was planning reshoots of some scenes in which the film stock had been damaged (notably the confrontation on the stairs), but the fire had destroyed the set and the production instead recovered by repairing and colour-correcting the printed takes so that the scratches on the usable footage were barely noticable (and removed completely in the remastering process for the DVD release of the film).

It is partly a testament to Kubricks perfectionism, and partly due to his single-minded vision, that this catastrophic event is unnoticable in the finished version of the film.

Kubricks use of camera angles throughout this scene, and in fact the film, take advantage of the Steadicam system, and were used extensively for the first time in the film. Though the system Kubrick used was actually a jury-rigged version of the Steadicam, being actually a camera mounted on a wheelchair mechanism.

Cameras tend to follow the characters as if someone - or something - is watching closely, and following all the events that take place. There are few scenes that feature any movement in which the camera remains static. This camera technique is also used to implicate the viewer, at home or in the cinema, as a willing accomplice in the unfolding horror - we too, in our seats, are goading on and encouraging the unfolding tragedy : that’s what we came here for. To see an alcoholic wife and child-beater collapse into madness in a deserted hotel and murder his family : through Kubricks use of the camera he implicates the viewer, the voyeur, as implicitly as involved as the Overlook itself.

This - murder - is our entertainment. And the use of televisions as a motif, and a character in themselves, is made clear in the American version of the film : we spend time watching people watching television as their family collapses, using the screen as a surrogate family in the absence of, and collapse, of the genuine article.

THE BANALITY OF EVIL

Like the majority of television programmes, the quality of the conversations we see on screen in The Shining are often mundane. Conversations stop and start, repeat themselves and flounder (Jack’s subconscious repetition of “per second, per second” during his conversation with Lloyd the barman being a great example of this), in a manner that appears natural and unscripted. Whilst some have suggested that this is lazy, it is, in fact, the highest form of acting : making it look as if its not acting at all, but cinema verite. This was a trick Kubrick was later to repeat in Eyes Wide Shut with his depiction of the characters inner lives : endless shots of characters washing, shaving, and changing clothes. We saw inside them.

But the inner lives of Jack and Wendy are odd, mismatched rhythms, with an odd, mismatched couple. Despite their best efforts, they clearly don’t always like each other and have instead settled into a comfortable form of prison : the loveless marriage. Only once do they show affection to each other in 144 minutes, and this is too brief, fleeting, and cross-faded in a bat of an eyelid.



SCENE 3 : A FRAGMENT OF A PICTURE

This is the first scene where we are introduced to Wendy and to Danny / Tony.

Then moving onto the second part of the interview where Jack is introduced to Bill Wilson. In the European cut of the film, personally supervised by Kubrick, parts of this scene were cut. Other scenes were removed, for reasons which Kubrick has never really explained. However, revising films after their release is something that Kubrick frequently did. Approximately 20 minutes were excised from 2001 a few days after its release and have never been restored. In the European version of the film, Kubrick removed approximately 29 minutes. These cuts serve to accelerate the film and make it a pacier experience, perhaps stung by reviews that suggested it wasn’t a horror thriller, but more of a leisurely stroll : however, by executing these deletions, Kubrick removed several aspects of the film that are far clearer and expanded upon. Altogether the European cut is no less powerful, but nowhere near as rich and deep an experience.

To the untrained eye these missing scenes are not noticable, however, the cuts do appear to be at odds with the flow of the film. The cuts tend to be quite abrupt, whereas many scene transitions are achieved with crossfades in the American version : the pace of the horror is unhurried. The Overlook has all the time in the world. After Jack and Wendy and Danny are gone it will be there - waiting for the next winter.

During the extended version of the interview, Torrance describes himself as a writer, but as we see, he isn’t a writer, but like many in the artistic trade aspires to be one, yet is without an idea, or the discipline to forge one. Plenty of ideas : such as killing your family, but no good ones.

Whilst this cut ‘works’, to the close watcher of the film, a second character appears without introduction, whereas almost every character with a speaking part in the film - and some such as The Overlook Hotel, and The Hedge Maze without - is explicitly introduced to the Torrances, and by implication, the viewer.

The latter part of this interview touches upon the incidents involving Charles Grady. As we will see later, this is the first foreboding of the true nature of The Overlook hotel, and, like all evil is presented with an air of being a merely factual footnote, without drama or import.



SCENE 4 : EYES WIDE SHUT
In this scene, Jack contacts Wendy by telephone. He talks in riddles and in ambiguities so as not to betray his true feelings - possibly the first sign that the hotel is influencing his behaviour or that he is economical with the truth. Behind him stands a motionless concierge dressed in a crimson red - which becomes quite unsettling on repeat viewings - a throw back to a bygone age of serfdom and slavery, of privilege, power, and perversion.

Danny then has a vision (as used in the trailer), and blacks out. The use of the two girls seen first in this sequence was inspired by Diane Arbus’ photograph “Identical twins”. The photograph, showing two near identical sisters, was taken by a friend of Kubricks in 1967. In the film, the Grady twins were played by two sisters, aged 8 and 10, who were almost - but not quite identical : in keeping with the distorted symmetry of the rest of the film, where there is both the yin and yang, the light and dark side, good and evil, left and right, Danny and Tony, Charles and Delbert Grady, The Overlook and Jack.

The following scene with the doctor is excised from the European cut of the film. This scene makes it explicit the nature of, and the relationship Danny has with Tony : Tony is the boy who lives in his mouth, in the fashion of many persons imaginary friends, and appeared at the time that Jack Torrance first struck Danny : Tony is in many ways, Danny’s guardian angel. In the European Cut of the film, due to this deletion, this has to be largely assumed.

The other factor missing from this film is of larger significance. The information regarding Jacks alcoholic past and also the issue of domestic violence is not revealed until far later in the film : in the European version, the viewer/voyeur does not know that Jack has brought his own demons into the hotel with him, and he is fighting a losing battle with those, as well as those of the Overlook.



Scene 5 : CLOSING DAY

The opening shot is a reprise of the beginning of the film - a car snaking up a mountain road : as if being sucked upriver like Captain Willard‘s boat. Wendy’s opening comment indicates that they are - almost - entering a different atmosphere, and the implication here is that they are leaving the ‘normal’ world behind : even the air feels different.

Jack’s conversation with Danny touches upon cannibalism, and it seems that Jack is more versed in the macabre than Wendy, despite what Jack said in the interview that his wife was a horror film buff. Perhaps she watched the films with Jack, and he really took note. But in this conversation, Jack foreshadows a motif of the film with the telling comment that “It must be alright - he saw it on the television.”. Here Jack’s giving a tacit approval to the television : it can fill the role that he might not be able to. And, as we see later on, the television becomes an important factor in the films visual makeup.

As the conversation fades, Kubrick allows his only traditional use of a horror film motif : The use of the clouds in the cross fade onto the shot of the Overlook is imagery reminscent of traditional horror : Spirits are present.

THE PALE WHITE DEMON

As they then enter The Overlook, it becomes apparent that the decor of the hotel is purposeful.

Take close note of the patterns and motifs that are used in the decor of the film. For example, the designs of the carpets, the paintings and decorations on the floor, and the curtains all touch upon ancient designs used by Navajo and Apache Indians, and in the extended American cut of the film, this connection is made explicitly clear through some additional dialogue. Taking its cue from the ancient Indian burial ground the Overlook, is supposedly built on, the hotel is adopting visually as well as in character, the dominant characteristics of the lands occupants.

Again note the use of rugs, tiling, carpets and patterns that are reminscent of the traditional Red Indian - Navajo/Apache designs. The scene with the tour of the main room is trimmed brutally in the European cut. At this point, the Navajo/Indian similarities are only suggested, and not made clear.

If you look at Wendy here, and the manner of her dress, you will see that her appearance resembles a traditional Red Indian woman, with hair in two bunches, being dark and long, wearing brightly patterned clothing, and a brown leather overcoat. The confrontation between the two becomes the symbol of new America (in red tweed, a plaid shirt and denim) versus old America (a red Indian Woman). Since the site was also reportedly built on a red Indian burial ground, in some respects the Overlook can be seen as trying to repel the new infidels, and re-enacting the battle between Red Indian and Alpha White Male : in the words of Rambo, “Do we get to win this time?”

This is clear by a careful examination of the Kitchen locker sequence - the cans and tinned items around Nicholson are red tins of Calumet baking Powder which bear the image of a red Indian. Like the ghosts which the family battle, and which they never see, The Indians are everywhere and yet nowhere.



PERMANENT GUESTS

And here we have the first of the many personalities that The Overlook presents us with. Only Danny sees these two girls : only Jack sees the father figure. It’s as if The Overlook is tailoring the appearances to the viewer. It’s only showing them things they can relate to. It’s starting to connect with these two on a basic, psychological level.

Again, as Ullman gives the family a tour note that the camera is always moving. A silent observer, watching and knowing all things. Seeing all, but manipulating those around it with unseen hands.

The introduction of the Hedge maze was cut in the European version of the film. The maze therefore is reduced in importance to a bit part. It is not introduced as a character in its own right.

The introduction of the Gold Room has also been excised, as has much of the conversation. Dick Halloran is not introduced to any of the characters, and the lack of this introduction adds an altogether less civilised feel to the film. The full and clear introductions of many characters in the extended version of the film present an air of manners, of times gone by, or an age where people would show each other courtesy.

The opening conversation between Dick and Wendy is also excised / trimmed. It should be noted that nothing is seen or heard in a Kubrick film by accident. The use of Wendy’s comments that the kitchen is akin to a maze is given extra gravitas by the introduction of the maze. With this excised, a throwaway comment becomes only implicit in the films imagery.

The tour of the kitchen is seen as almost decadent. In a time where almost all people are living frugally and without any extras, the huge list of items in the kitchen and its store seem to hark back to former, more affluent times. This is also seen in the use of manners through the film - it’s as if the hotel exists in a different age, a different time. Marooned out in the snow, the day, month or year cease to be meaningful.

In this scene, where Jack and Wendy move away from Danny and Dick, you see the only sign of affection between the couple. Again, Wendy seems oddly prescient of events : the use of the phrase ‘just like a ghost ship’ seems to predict future events. Namely that of the Marie Celeste, an abandoned ship of old folklore.



Scene 7 : TALK OF THE SHINING

Tony is introduced again, this time to Dick. This conversation was cut slightly in the European cut, as Danny suggests that he is scared of the Overlook. The conversation between the two has been described by some as dull, and repetitious, being without pacing. However, as earlier indicated, Kubrick tended to want to use a naturalist approach to his characters - they act in a very realistic fashion : it doesn’t even look like acting, but being.

A MONTH LATER

The opening of this scene has been cut for the European version. The use of long, expansive shots following Wendy and Danny as they explore the hotel are specifically placed to give a sense, not only of the vastness of the hotel, but also to allow the viewer to create a sense of what could be called ‘virtual memory’, whereby the viewer can create a mental image and map of the layout of a building they have never visited or of something they have never experienced. In fact, some people have made and drawn maps of the Overlook based upon the layout of the film, and whilst there are occasional errors in the continuity of the film and the design, this sense of the Overlook being a proper location and not as a film set is reinforced by these long shots.

The conversation between Jack and Wendy has been truncated. The use of mirrors and the symmetry of the framing is such as to suggest that everything has a dual personality and often as a precursor to a supernatural episode. However, it is not just the use of mirrors but also of symmetry that indicate the encoming reversal of an established order. For example -

- The opening shot of the film with the mountainscape vista
- Danny’s first vision occurs whilst staring in a mirror
- Wendy brings Jack breakfast in bed as Jack sleeps
- Danny talks with Jack in the bedroom
- The symmetry of Dick Hallorans bedroom and the patterning of his clothing
- The symmetry of the long rows of vegetation that enclose the road in/out of the Overlook
- The mirrored walls of Room 237
- The symmetry of the carpet pattern which also resembles a maze
- The symmetry of the maze (which can be mirrored or cut into quarters)
- The Grady Twins
- The use of a ‘mirror image’ wall during the Elevator flooding sequence
- The row of mirrors that back the wall of the Gold Room
- The revelation of the seemingly innocuous phrase “redrum” into “murder” in the mirror
- The sudden inclusion of two fractured door panes during the Bathroom Axe Attack sequence

(This is also described in “Full Metal Jacket” by Private Joker as “The Jungian thing - The duality of man, sir!”)

THE GREAT ESCAPE

Jack, despite his role as the caretaker, is seen as not doing a very good job of caretaking. By increments his sense of responsibility and adherence to them tends to disintegrate. He sleeps in until 11.30, and then instead of either writing or caretaking the hotel, bounces a ball against a wall.

A scene was deleted just prior to this : despite being filmed, the only reference to it was made by composer Wendy Carlos who scored the sequence in an interview : in this scene, Jack, whilst suffering from writers block and pacing aimlessly around the hotel follows what he thinks are ghostly voices down a corridor. As he approaches a corner, the voices cease, and a tennis ball rolls to a halt travelling from the corner to the end of the corridor. This scene would have further underlined the tennis ball as an example of how the hotel perverts normal objects and gives them sinister intent : when Jack is later seen throwing what is presumably the same ball around the main lounge he is playing with the ball for his own amusement - and the hotel is playing with him.

This is reminscent of Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. The family are trapped now by the hotel and within its confines with no real hope of release. Jack’s character then plays ball because he imagines that that is something he could do if he were outside. The feeling of being confined and trapped is further reinforced by Danny and Wendy entering the maze.

This exploration of the maze will become critically important later in the film as Danny and Jack enter the maze together.

Jack is seen looking at a scale model of the maze - the same maze that Danny and Wendy are in, and the imagery indicates that he is a powerful, huge deity that is overlooking the characters as if he could play God with them. This scene is perhaps the only sign that Jack too, in a latent, unconscious form, also has The Shining .

Being that the power of God, if he or she exists is to give / take life, perhaps Jack is starting to fail also in his duties as a parent and father., as a protector. He is unable to look after both the Overlook and the Family. The crux of the film is about the battle between opposing responsibilities. Like HAL in 2001 Jackis torn between mutually opposing demands and tears himself apart.



TUESDAY

The opening section of this scene sees Wendy working in the kitchen. Again, in some respects she has taken upon the responsibility that Jack has ignored. There is also talk on the television of a missing person in the snowdrift - much like those discussed in the car on the way to the Overlook - and there is a possibility that the missing party in the mountains could have resorted to cannibalism.

Danny is then seen stopping outside Room 237. In the novel by King, the room number is 217 : The number of the room King stayed in a hotel - the Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado - which inspired the novel. In the film this was changed to 237 as the hotel where the film’s exteriors were shot - the Timberline Lodge in Mount Oregon actually had a room 217.

Without being prompted, Danny knows of something in Room 237, but not of what it is. On the patterned carpet he plays with his toys, and something unseen rolls a ball down the corridor to Danny’s feet : an open invitation. And the carpet, patterned in the colours of the Navajo and Apache tapestries that adorn the walls and shaped like a huge, infinite maze, invite Danny in, but offer no way out.

Moving on from this, Wendy and Jack have their first confrontation. Notable for the first sign of a domestic disagreement and a lack of harmony between the two. Jack also utters the first swearword of the film - placed quite late into the film as if to suggest, through swearing an escalation of the divide between the two.

However, this couple are blatantly dysfunctional anyway : they only shown affection to each other once, and then it is brief and fleeting. Like many a marriage, they were poorly matched but desperate for love, and are now stuck together by circumstance whilst their paths divide. In some ways then, The Shining can be seen as a parable about the collapse of a relationship, and the rise of divorce.

In addition, this scene sees the first sign of the Overlook feeding Jack’s state of mind. It’s probably a continuity error, but after Jack tears off the piece of paper he was ‘working’ on in his sterile creative endeavour, a later shot reveals that the typewriter has been refilled off-camera. Has the hotel refilled this for him? Given the appearing / disappearing chair that sits behind Jack’s shoulder in the scene - and comments regarding a handful of deleted shots in the scene by editor Gordon Stainforth - probably not, but it would be a nice touch if it did.

THURSDAY - this title card is deleted in the European Cut.

The scene seems less coherent as it moves from Jack being lucid and articulate to, in the next shot, staring vacantly into space, unkempt, mute and dumb. As Jack becomes more possessed by the hotel, his language, gait, articulacy and composure collapse. In some respects, whilst the Overlook itself becomes more alive, Jack becomes less so : The Overlook is a vampiric force feeding off the energies of those who shine.

Wendy is then seen grappling with an old-fashioned telephone exchange. As Jack withdraws into him/itself, Wendy is seen to be desperately reaching out to others in a need to generate a connection with others. The compounding sense of isolation and loneliness is only amplified by how little human contact there is.

The next shot, where Danny is followed by the steadicam as he explores the hotel shows that someone - or something - is following him and his every move. As he comes around the corner he stumbles upon a vision of the Grady Twins. Whilst it’s never made explicitly clear, it’s fairly obvious that these two daughters are those murdered by Grady, and made noticable by the use of short (8/12/24 frame) shots of their mutilated corpses. And they make him an invitataion.

“Stay with us Danny. We want you to play with us. For ever. And ever. And ever.”



MONDAY

The scene featuring Danny and Wendy watching television during the snowstorm was deleted from the European cut of the film. The two sit in silence and do not talk for a while. It seems to make it clear that television is acting a substitute for conversation and a surrogate father for the fractures within the modern family. Hence, the comment earlier that Danny learnt about cannibalism from the television and Jacks statement that it was OK....“because he learnt from the television”.

Danny then enters the family bedroom wearing a Mickey Mouse top. Perhaps it is co-incidence that the end of ‘Full Metal Jacket’ features Marines chanting the “Mickey Mouse” theme tune. Perhaps not. But the use of very American motifs throughout the film (especially seen on Danny’s jumper - with Mickey Mouse and the Apollo space programme) seem to clearly place this film as a battle between America (represented by the imagery and appearance of the family) and it’s opponents (represented by the distinct Navajo / Apache decor of The Overlook).

As Danny enters, he sees his father staring vacantly, unshaven into the distance. Again he appears unkempt, and the way in which he strokes Danny’s hair whilst Danny reluctantly but politely sits on his knees seems to suggest that Jack is, and never was, very good at being a father, a parent, or of handling responsibility. As if Jack is somehow mentally already divorced form the family in all but the eyes of the law.

Danny asks Jack how he feels by the traditional phrase “Dad” - as if to remind Jack of what he is as he is forgetting who he is. Jack then says he has too much to do. In the fashion of the rest of Jack’s actions, whilst having much to do - to write, or to maintain the hotel, he seems able only to fail at his duties and instead stare vacantly off into space.

Repetition. Jack is unknowingly speaking with the personality of the hotel at this point ; the first stage of possession appears to be in place by his use of the phrase “for ever and ever and ever”, which was also used by the Grady sisters in the previous scene. Jack may very well have found a place where his only responsibility is that of occasionally checking the boiler - which Wendy does anyway - and reverting to a childhood state of being carefree. No wonder he wants to stay.

When Jack says that he loves Danny more than anything else in the world the Overlook has taken over. The Overlook seeks to take and contain Danny so that it may amplify and enhance its powers with his abilities : and yet Jack’s a willing accomplice in this, having been seduced by whatever it was the Overlook offered him.

WEDNESDAY - FURTHER INSIDE THE LABYRINTH

Danny is seen playing on the second floor landing of the hotel. Unprompted, a small yellow tennis ball rolls before and then comes to a halt. It is no coincidence that Danny is wearing a hand-knitted Apollo USA space programe jumper : he is deserted and cut off, alone in an alien envionment, and going where he has never gone before.

The use of the Apollo jumper is indicative of a second level of interpetation - reminiscent of 2001 and also of the link between the two films and their three act sequence. The first sees the characters lost and surrounded by a landscape of enormous proportions, the second sees a small team of isolated characters entrusted with looking after a property of decadent opulence, and third being where the protagonist descends into being inarticulate, homicidal, and unrecognisable as a result of the pressures of the caretaking mission.

The use of the carpeting in this scene is clearly imagery to describe Danny being within a maze. The use of the ball rolling along to Danny’s feet as he plays becomes of some significance in a scene removed from the film after a few days of release, as explained later. In the full version of the film, as indicated in the two deleted scenes described elsewhere, the tennis ball is another normal object that is perverted into an object of terror by the hotel and a precursor to an escalation of the situation.



DREAM STORY

Cut to : Wendy working in the boiler room, flanked by the symmetry of two huge boilers. Wendy seems to be the Caretaker of the Overlook in a far more practical fashion than Jack is. Again, Jack - as he does throughout the film - neglects his responsibilities in favour of sloth and temptation. Jack then begins the next stage of his mental collapse, or his possession by the hotel : a series of animalistic grunts and screams emanate from a distant room : despite being asleep, Jack is now becoming little more than a grunting, dribbling, animal.

Jack awakes from his dream and tells Wendy, in an unguarded moment, his vision of their murder. This motif - of a dream revealing the innermost desire - is also used in Eyes Wide Shut with equally painful (but smaller) consequences.

The use of the camera underneath the table indicates that we, the viewer, are seeing something that perhaps we shouldn’t. We’re looking up at the couple as if we are hiding under the floorboards in order see something hidden. As if we are in the fabric of The Overlook itself.

And into this scene of shouting and screaming, of a family tearing itself apart, Danny wanders in, shaken and stirred, and with bruises inflicted by unseen hands upon his neck. Jack, unable to relate to other human beings or to emphasise with them, can only stare mute, and confused by events, unable to defend himself.

After Danny’s appearance, Jack is shown staring, speechless, scared of the enormity of the situation whereby Danny appears injured. In this respect he is the hotel at this point, unfeeling, uncaring, a mute observer watching all and sundry for its own entertainment. However, as Jack regains his old self, he begins to look confused, lost, and alone. As if he’s lost and can’t find his way back home anymore.



THE GOLD ROOM

The next scene sees Jack walking alone, pacing and thrashing in frustration as he cannot explain himself. In everything Jack tries, he seems to be a failure - he’s a writer who cannot write, a caretaker who cannot look after the hotel, and a father who cannot protect.

In the European cut of the film, this is the first scene in which we see the Gold Room. The typography used makes it ambigious - it could be seen as the Cold Room. Jack takes a seat at the bar where the seats constantly shuffle and rotate between shots - a continuity error that adds to the overall air of unquiet menace and that the time and space that the hotel exists within have become distorted.

At this point, the colour scheme of the Gold Room, dark reds - the same as the blood that pours from the elevator at the films climax - become of critical importance. Jacks outfit is framed by a threadbare, dark red corduroy jacket, at from this point on, Jack is not seen without it. The correlation, and assimilation of Jack into the hotel, to become a permanent resident is already occurring as Jack begins to adopt the uniform of The Overlook Hotel’s bar staff and concierges : a blood red and white outfit that stands in sharp relief to the antiseptic, clinical white tiling of the bar.

Here Jack meets Lloyd - The Barman.

At the point that Jack says “I’ll sell my soul for a drink”, it appears the hotel accepts the offer. Before he takes the drink though, he says “White Man’s Burden” - this may refer to the practice of offering Indians ‘firewater’ (alcohol) to perform evil upon them, and by implication, Jack is the Indian that is being subverted - or is it the spirits of the Indians in the burial ground returning the favour?

But Jack also represents the White Man : his coat - the deep lush red, is the same shade as much of the hotels upholstery, and once he dons this coat about halfway through the film, he’s not seen without it : Jack is becoming a chameleon, even so he blends into the surroundings of the hotel without necessarily being seen, much like the spirits that surround the Overlook yet are unseen by its occupants. How many people slept in Room 237 unaware of the dark secrets it held?

Another example here is of how The Hotel acts as a character in itself : the “Two twenties and a ten” that Jack feared would burn a hole in his pocket mysteriously disappear. By buying Jack a drink, or providing him with a spirit, the hotel makes a devils bargain : it trades his soul for something of nominal value. This is not removed from the practice, in old-fashioned times, of drinkers finding a coin at the bottom of their glass - by keeping it, they’d been unwittingly conscripted into the under-subscribed and desperate military forces of the era.

This concept of the hotel removing items from their physical existence has basis in fact. From personal experience, I know that when I spent time living in a haunted house, the spirits within would often move items of importance - such as car keys and cheque books - if it disapproved of the actions or intentions of their owners. It is no coincidence that later on the notes mysteriously reappear in Jack’s wallet : now that he has traded in his soul, he doesn’t need the physical currency. From this point on in the film everything Jack says could be seen as that of The Overlook speaking in human form and manipulating Jack for its own entertainment and amusement whilst allowing Jack just enough of his own personality to operate, use motor skills and function : in effect Jack has become possessed - or spiritually lobotomised - by the large, sterile institution he is trapped in ; in the same way that the civilised Grady is reduced to a menial, and unthinking role, Jack too will become reduced to The Entertainment, the court jester, to amuse the Overlook and its inhabitants.

Parts of the conversation between Jack and Lloyd have been excised in the European cut : Jack describes his wife as a ‘sperm bank’ - dehumanising her so that she would be easier to dispose of later on. At this point he also describes his son as a “son of a bitch”. In the next line, he describes Wendy as a “bitch”. In order to perform the evil he must in order to protect the hotel, he begins to reduce the woman he may once have loved into component parts : a sperm bank, a bitch : it’s always easier to kill someone if you pretend they aren’t human. And as Jack becomes less than human, he becomes easier to kill.

As Wendy appears - interrupting Jack‘s interlude with the spirits, Jack asks her “Are you of your fucking mind?” Given Jack’s state-of-mind, that he has just had an shot of spirits from a spirit and being talking in cliches with a spectral bartender who he‘s on first name terms with, he could be asking is she is completely sane based upon his idea of what is ‘normal’.



THE SYMMETRY OF THE SHINING

We then cut to Dick Halloran. Kubrick uses his traditional zoom/pulback techique to reveal greater detail with time. Note the symmetry of the rooms, and of the opposing shots, and if the room could be cut into identical quarters. Dick is wearing clothes that pattened by without a motif so that they do fit perfectly into this symmetry / mirror image.

The use of mirrors are very important in this film as they reflect the duality of personality. Symmetry, reflections, mirrors, and dual personalities dominate this film.

Through the use of a shot of Danny and Dick, it is then unclear exactly what we are experiencing when we see the panning shot entering Room 237. Given that previous use of pans have been to indicate / suggest the hotel following and observing, we then see that whomever it is, is actually venturing to meet the hotel instead of being persued by it instead.

The hand we see is unclear, but directly echoes Kubricks “Lolita“, in which a man is seduced by something equally beautiful and comfortable, and brought to ruin by the consequences. The ambiguity is clarified by the next shot, where we see a seemingly regressing Jack almost in awe of a naked woman. His grin extends to almost cartoonish qualities, as he regresses further. The link between Danny and Jack is clear. - Since we do not know whom it is who is exploring the room at the begining of the scene, we are not surprised by seeing Jack or Danny. Jack then approaches Danny’s childlike state of wonder when confronted by a naked woman. Danny is lured by a ball and assaulted by something. Jack is lured by sex, and also assaulted.

The identity of the woman in the bath is never made clear. However in the novel, the woman in the bath is shown to be that of an old, rich lady, who had taken her young lover to the hotel to relive her vanishing youth. Abandoned by her lover, she committed suicide in the bathtub she may now use to lure Jack. It is only by looking in the mirror that Jack sees the true side, the reverse face of this naked temptress : a rotten, dead woman with clumps of putrid meat falling from her sides.

Jack is further seen to regress into a childlike / inhuman / inarticulate state. He is unable to say anything or respond, except to grunt in an animal fashion and cower in terror. At the same time, the hotel, which often manipulates Jack, is equally inarticulate. The old lady, personifying the hotel, can do nothing but cackle. Again, with the lady in Room 237, we see the dual/mirror imagery Kubrick employs throughout the film. He only sees the true side of the hotel through looking in the mirror. The beautiful exterior, the vile reality. Akin at all points then, to the opulent decadent riches and comfort of the hotel, and its repugnant true personality.

This shot, that of a man involved in an embrace with the forbidden whilst being watched through glass by another, is taken directly from Kubrick’s “Lolita” : in which Humbert is in bed with Charlotte while looking at a picture of the younger Lolita over Charlotte's shoulder - a shot which caused great controversy when Lolita was released in 1962. In “The Shining ”, Jack kisses the naked woman in the bathroom, then sees her older, decomposing reality in the mirror over he shoulder.

Reality is always looking over your shoulder, haunting the things you see and the things you think you see. Upon Jacks return to the family bedroom, he pretends he saw nothing. To do so would be to admit that this ’dream home’ where Jack feels so comfortable is nothing but a prison - and a troubled, threatening one at that. Jack, knowing that to admit the reality of his situation is to admit that he is deluding himself prefers to live in a state of denial. With his eyes wide shut.



THE CORRECTED WAY

This, and at this stage, Jack may very well be a mouthpiece for the Overlook, is to admit that there was anything there is to admit that there is something amiss. He keeps his eyes wide shut in wilful ignorance, much similar to Grady - who at one point says he doesn’t know where his daughters are, and yet a few moments laters says that he ominously- “corrected” them.

In frustration,. Jack is then seen throwing cutlery around. Again, as a writer is unable to articulate himself and instead acts in an uncivilised animal fashion through violence and ignorance. Later on in the film, you will see that this cutlery has not been picked up and tidied. (So much for looking after the hotel!)

Jack then re-enters the Gold Room - this time in the midst of a period ballroom party. He is greeted as an old accomplice by name, and also is greeted as a regular by Lloyd the barman. Jacks’ first words are “I’ve been away and now I’m back”. Based upon the factor revealed later by Grady that he has “always been the caretaker” it appears that at this point Jack’s personality has been subsumed by that of The Caretaker, a role of the Hotel that possesses whomever is taking the responsibility. Jack has literally become his job, but is not very good at it.

Jacks following line “hair of the dog that bit me” is reminiscent of an earlier caretaker. Having been in a situation with unpleasant outcome, Jack/The Caretaker then decides to repeat the experience. Not just with a dose of ‘White Man’s Burden’ but also through his action being similar to Charles Grady.



UNDERNEATH THE MASK

The conversation between Grady and Torrance in the bathroom (the bathroom being based upon a hotel bathroom in Arizona designed by 1920‘s architect Frank Lloyd Wright), is where the new age (Jack) and the old-fashioned (Grady) collide. The fact that Grady calls himself Delbert and is referred to as Charles by Ullman is not, as many think, a continuity error, but a motif used by Kubrick to indicate the two sides of his personality. Delbert, hotel employee, Charles - family man. And the faint round of applause that comes at the end of one of Grady’s line is no co-incidence : the audience, sat in their homes or cinema seats, can see the arc of tragedy unfolding. It’s what they came to see, and what they will applaud.

This scene in the bathroom is of critical importance to the film. Here we see the hotel is manipulating and controlling numerous personalities and identities (I can count at least 8 or 9 separate spirits) throughout the film. Each of these seems to have its own role and personality : the Grady Twins, Delbert Grady, Lloyd The Barman, Horace Derwent and the Dog-Man, The Jovial Party Goer, and The Old Lady, just to name a few.

Grady here takes the role of the old-fashioned, civilised hotel. Well spoken on the outside, but as seen in the use of the word ‘nigger’, a brutal, racist, ugly spirit that is merely well-dressed. (this is later also referred to in both ‘Full Metal Jacket’ where the soldiers are dehumanised from people into killing machines, and ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ where characters wear masks to conceal their respectable exterior from their debauched inner desires). Grady is the voice of the Old British Empire, conquering the natives brutally for its own ends. Just like the Native Indians were slaughtered by the colonists. Just like the occupants of The Overlook are ruined by hotel.

The imagery of this scene is particularly rich. There are four aspects to the hotel in this scene, Jack (and his role of The Caretaker),and Grady (Delbert and Charles) ; each of which is seen, especially as the hotel bathroom contains a full length mirror in the background (this imagery may be more apparent in the 1:66-1 ratio cinema projection of the film). In order to further emphasise the lack of a distinction between Grady / Jack (both being The Caretaker) Kubrick breaks the fourth wall and reverses their positions by shooting from opposite angles, so it is never clear or delineated which side of the wall - or of reality - they are on.

Several sequences are shortened here in the European cut. Notably, A scene where Danny repeats “redrum, redrum” and then tells Wendy that “Danny’s not here Mrs. Torrance” has been completely excised. This makes the later sequence less dramatic, as well as making reducing the effectiveness of the split personality imagery of Jack/Caretaker and Danny/Tony. Both of whom seem to have been absorbed entirely by their other selves. Like Jack, Danny has been subsumed by his other self - and at the films climax, the audience breathe a sigh of relief as Danny/Tony calls Wendy “Mummy” : Danny has returned, and Tony is the one who is no longer here.

8AM

The titles move in an ever closer time frame - the velocity of events have telescoped. From ONE MONTH LATER to TUESDAY to SATURDAY to 8AM to 4PM.... The countdown to Something Bad Happening is carefully signposted.

Being 8am, Halloran asks what time the flight is due at Denver (being 8.20). This scene is excised in the European cut - possibly as the plane is flying in clear sunshine, yet lands twenty minutes later into a snowstorm : such a distance however could constitute 200 miles. The following few minutes are also excised completely - where Jack is seen typing, albeit briefly, which at least shows that he has not completely abandoned his original intentions - or his original personality - despite being absorbed by osmosis further into the hotel.

The following sequence - where Halloran arranges the hire of a Sno-Cat and also, likes any clever person, tells someone where he is going in case of anything happening, shows a possible prescience of the tragedy ahead. “Always tell someone where you’re going” is a piece of advice any parent will tell their children. (And, in Kubricks traditional fashion, the scenes claiming to be Denvers Stapleton Airport were actually shot at Stanstead Airport in East London).



COMMUNICATION AND FAILURE

The next scene cuts to Danny and Wendy watching television. By carefully excising this scene, as in fact almost all scenes where characters watch television in the European Cut, an important set of imagery has been removed from the film. These scenes imply that television is being used to replace actual conversation - and the only time we see Wendy and Danny together for most of the film they are sat watching television in silence.

In the next scene, Wendy discovers Jacks writing - and his typewriter has changed colour from earlier scenes. Throughout the film Jack‘s typewriter appears either white, or blue. Things are not as they seem. Jack’s writing is by no means creative, but instead mechanical, and devoid of personality : much as Jack himself is losing his identity amongst the multitude of spirits permanently in residence at the hotel.

Whilst earlier he claimed to be having many ideas, but no good ones, it now appears his writing is creative only in the sense of flower arrangement. He’s not writing anything, merely arranging words upon the page.

This typing was according to rumour, done by Kubrick himself, but recieved knowledge and common sense says Kubrick had enough to do - and a member of the films production team at Ealing studios instead was tasked with the role. One viewer of the film was heard to remark that the arrangement of the text upon the page was highly reminiscent of papers written by patients in mental institutions, and the collapse of order on the page can be seen as a symptom of the fracturing, and battling, aspects of Jack’s personality / personalities.

In the European versions of the film, the subtitles for this writing (instead of literally translating “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”), read, when translated back into English :


- He who wakes early meets a golden day
- The morning keeps gold in its mouth
- One certainty is better than two possibilities
- Although on will rise early, it won’t dawn sooner
- Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today

However, it could be possible that perhaps Jack is deliberately spicing up his life by avoiding all the responsibilities of work (as Wendy performs these), in order not to become a dull boy. Whilst that may appear to be a shallow reading of the situation, it may also contain some currency.

Jack’s speech during the following argument is complete hypocrisy and a symptom of desperation : having avoided his responsibilities for the duration of the film, he has finally been exposed for the fraud he is, and it is at this point that he crossess the line of reasonable behaviour. His ranting about responsibilities is groundless on the basis of his actions - for when he suggests what a moral and ethical principle is - he appears to have completely subsumed his own, by neglecting the hotel as Wendy does all the work (as seen in the boiler room) as well as being completely unable to write.

In this scene, note as Jack tumbles that first he is hit on the same hand as he is later knifed on, and also that he collapses onto his knee as he falls. This could explain the limp he demonstrates through the rest of the film. On the other hand, as we see throughout the films climax, Jack degenerates from a person to an animal, and his limping gait seems to suggest a creature that isn’t yet used to walking except on all fours.

A large portion of The Shining ’s subtext is also based around the concept of writers block. About the distraction that one will go to in order to prevent writing which, when you have lots of ideas but no good ones, is a intimidating task. And someone who cannot write is someone who cannot communicate - and a failure at their job.



ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD

This scene apparently features a shot that according to folklore entered the Guinness Book of Records for the most amount of takes in any film. However, the reality is that the careful co-ordination of the sequence on the stairs, where the steadicam had to track the movement of the actors as well as follow the technical requirements of the shot, was a feat of no small complexity, and required a large number of takes before the shot was achieved. According to edior Gordon Stainforth, Kubrick often did not describe any shot with anything less than derison until at least the 14th take, and thereafter, did not see printable or usable takes until about the 20th take. Part of the reason he chose a large number of takes was so that the actors and technical crew could become completely conversant with the scene and the movements required, so that the choreography of the shot and the performance were technically and artistically perfect.

Another reason for the large number takes appears to be that of versimilitude - of achieving scenes that no longer resemble acting, as the actors were, by the end of the shoot exhausted and performing in extreme circumstances : the trauma shown on screen may not be just acting, but repetition of scenes until they became second nature coupled with genuine physical and mental discomfort : this may explain the natural feel of many scenes. On the other hand, it could just be that Kubrick pushed all the participants beyond their reasonable limits : after all, this was a Kubrick film with the attendant demands and high standards imposed upon - and by - Kubrick.

In the editing suite Kubrick would often choose takes that were described by editor Gordon Stainforth as


“...the most eccentric and over-the-top takes. Nicholson’s first take would be brilliant, and then go stale after about ten takes. Then you can see he’s almost marking time, so that he doesn’t get exhausted. And then he’s going over the top. There were plenty of times when Stanley and I were viewing the stuff where my private choice of performance wasn’t in, whilst the more eccentric was”.

Editing of the film continued up to, and beyond, the films premiere on 23 May 1980, as shown by Kubricks re-editing of the film following its US premiere, and further editing of the film for the European market.



THE MIND IS THE SMALLEST PRISON OF ALL

Note that when Torrance is locked inside the kitchen locker, you never actually see the door locked, you only hear a sliding bolt. However, given Wendy’s inability to negotiate the unlocking of the door, there is no guarantee that she actually locked the door.

The conversation between Grady and Torrance may not actually have happened. You never see Grady on the other side of the door, and only hear the sound of something that could be a sliding bolt. In fact, bar the bruises on Danny’s neck, again which are never seen to be inflicted by anything but only implicated, everything the hotel does to influence the outcome is can be seen as purely psychological. Even at the stage where there appears to be no other explanation other than the intervention of the spirits of The Overlook in releasing Jack, its never conclusively seen that Jack is locked in, and given Wendy’s difficulty in opening the lock, it’s equally possible that the door was never locked. Nothing perpetrated by The Overlook that is seen in The Shining is conclusively real - it could all be psychological, inside the smallest prison of all : the mind.

After Torrances release, note that instead of using the Roque Mallet as described in the book, Jack now uses an axe. An alternate word for a small axe is a hatchet. Here Jack, as a failed writer, is performing a hack job and literally burying the hatchet.



THE INNER CHILD

As soon as he enters the family bedroom, he says “Wendy I’m home”. Whilst this may have a brief moment of comic relief, it also has a far deeper, darker meaning. Jack wishes he could stay at the Overlook for ever, and ever, and ever. By calling this place home, he fully accepts that he belongs here, that the Overlook has now absorbed him and it is his home.

The famed line “Here’s Johnny!” was improvised. Having not left England since 1975, nor been to America since 1968, Kubrick was unaware of the popularity of The Johnny Carson Show. However, by Jack calling himself Johnny he not only delivers a moment of comic payoff, he also shows the division between his selves - he doesn’t even know his own name anymore.

By this stage, Jack is clearly not a fully functional human being anymore : his gait has descended to that of an animal limping. Emotionally also he has regressed to a childlike state by repeating children’s nursery rhymes, and being able to exhibit only the most primitive emotions : anger, hate, violence.

The use of children’s nursery rhymes and other imagery is also of significant importance : in the same way that the hotel uses the images of children to connect to Danny, it also presents adults, and the use of childlike and regressive imagery to connect to the ‘inner child’ of Jack, who is retreating further inside himself - perhaps to hide from, or absolve himself, from the horror he is surrounded by.

These deliberate references to childhood icons such as Mickey Mouse, Road Runner, Bugs Bunny (“What’s Up Doc?“ asks Halloran at one juncture), Hansel and Gretel and the ‘Three Little Pigs’ nursery rhyme were inspired by a book - called "The Uses of Enchantment" by Bruno Bettelheim - which postulates that all things - persons, objects, and buildings - can possess a spirit, be it good, or bad, benevolent or malignant.



THE RETURN OF THE CAVALRY

This sequence is cut short by Halloran literally arriving to save the day : however, as we cut back to Jack trying to devise a way to enter the bathroom we see the most obvious of the films continuity errors - the second door panel has been smashed in. However, as earlier suggested, this may be another attempt to reinforce the imagery of mirrored and symmetry within the film. For the viewer not aware of the importance of the mirror imagery of the picture though, this is a error of glaring proportions.

Further breaking with the established conventions of film, Kubrick brings Halloran back into the action at this point : the feared ‘nigger cook’, armed with his gift of The Shining has returned. He does not know what he is about to face - it could a pile of corpses - or Jack Torrance leaping out of the darkness with an axe.

This is a disturbance of established convention : having endured many trials to arrive at the hotel, Halloran, who presumably will save the day, is dispatched quickly and mercilessly by the White Demon with an axe. It is this event that works on two levels : firstly, the subtext of the White Man vs. The Red Indian is made explictly clear, and secondly the convention of cinema has been violently broken. There will be no happy endings in this film.

And Jack here, regressing further into himself, smiles and grins like a child whose done a bad thing, but is secretly proud of it. And Jack here, at this stage, has transgressed the bounds of reason. Previously he might have been able - if the Overlook had let him - walk away from the situation. Torn between his responsibilities to The Overlook, and his duties as a human being, Jack has gone beyond reason. But with this murder, he has reached the point of no return. The Overlook has claimed him.

Here then, with Jack having done his work as Caretaker and dispatching the cook, the Overlook decides it is also time to explicitly target Wendy, who has previously shown slight tendancies for The Shining , as well as being closest to Danny. Jack goes after Danny, and the hotel goes after Wendy through a set of psychological warfare : like Danny, Wendy has a ability to tune into the hotels influence, and whilst it is only a limited ability, the Overlook does its best to assault her by presenting her with things that may not be real, but seem it : it has already splintered Jack into a tool of its own making, and shown Danny as it will Wendy, glimpses from it’s past - the Grady Twins -, its present , and its future - the sea of blood gushing forth from the Elevator, which may have been an element in the ending of the original screenplay, where Jack, Wendy and Danny are seen as ghosts haunting the hotel as as the next caretaker is given a tour of the hotel the following winter.



THE ANIMAL AND THE MAN

Firstly, Wendy heads to the upstairs bedrooms, where she is presented with an unusual tryst between Brent Derwent and an unnamed male suitor dressed as a dog. This is never made clear in the film, being just one of a slew of bizarre images from an unexplained history : however, in the novelisation it is shown that the person in the animal suit was besotted with a rich benefactor of the hotel, (Horace Derwent), who then suggested the only way that a relationship may be consumated would be by indulging a fetish and dressing as an animal. It is possible the first part of this scene - in King‘s novel - where Jack encounters Horace and his young admirer in the hotel ballroom was filmed but deleted in the final cut. In isolation, the shot is confusing, jarring, and contributes to the overall feel of the film, whereby an attempt to make sense of all the available information on screen still leaves a great many things unexplained. However the cumulative effect of the continuity errors in a text such as this is to create a feeling, however slight, of dislocation and an unnatural arrangement of ordinary objects : similar then, in many respects to the hotel room at the end of 2001, where events are also ordered and manipulated by an unseen force in order to observe human behaviour in unprecedented circumstances.

This image is one of the most confusing that there is in the film - but in its confusion, it makes a point : that sometimes there are things that you may be ignorant of, you may not understand, and that may shock you. Presumably, the Overlook chose this image to assault Wendy’s seemingly conservative ideology. On another level, it reveals the gulf between appearance and reality : those who present the most conservative appearance and the most repressed, civilised public manner are often those who are debauched and decadent behind closed doors. A man in a tuxedo receiving fellatio from a male dressed in an allover dog suit is certainly an image that can only be seen as debauched and morally quite extreme.

This then, is the Overlook. Respectable in appearance, beautiful to look at, but repugnant, morally reversed, and without mercy. This theme is later revisited by Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut, where almost all of the characters are extremely well-dressed and spoken, yet indulge in depravity and immoral behaviour of an altogether threatening kind.

In a scene excised from the European Cut of the film, Wendy ventures into the Main Writing Room, only to find it covered in cobwebs and skeletons. The appearance of a motley selection of skeletons is by no means as cliched as people may think. Kubrick had surely watched many horror films up to the point of proceeding with The Shining (and listed The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby as his particular favourites of that genre), and the use of the skeletons taps into Wendy’s knowledge, shown earlier, of horror films and ghost stories. It also echoes Wendy’s comments of the hotel being a ‘ghost ship’ : this is the skeleton crew. The Overlook has entered her psyche, found what she fears, and presented it.

However, with Halloran murdered - making this a horror film with probably the lowest body count ever - Wendy has a way out. The previously sabotaged Sno-Cat (still in use at the actual hotel even now), has been replaced by Halloran’s rental model. Now all Wendy needs to do is find Danny, and leave the murderous Jack to looking after the hotel.



INSIDE THE MAZE

Finally then to the elusive, and oddly cold chase between Danny and Jack inside the Maze. Danny - having visited the maze before - is well aware of its geography, and with his footprints inside the maze, is leaving a thread. This ties in neatly with the Minotaur legend : Danny, being the underdog, battles against the Minotaur (who cannot see as well as Danny can), and Danny, being able to see the things that Jack cannot, sees a way out.

It is probably worth explaining the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. Greek mythology is such that a fearsome creature - a Minotaur, cross between a man and an animal such a bull - lived inside a vast maze - the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth was designed in such a manner that once inside, it was to all intents and purposes impossible for anyone to find their way out.

The Kubrick FAQ (at www.visual-memory.co.uk) states this expliclity :

“The Labyrinth and Minotaur in Greek Mythology can be read as symbols of the dark side of humanity, the Minotaur represents the 'Beast' in the human psyche that we hide away in the 'Labyrinth' of the unconscious mind. As Kubrick said: "One of the things that horror stories can do is show us the archetypes of the unconscious: we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly." The structure of a maze allows for just such an indirect confrontation of these dark forces.”

In mythology, the only way for the Labyrinth to be conquered was for someone to ascertain the layout of maze by either memorising the layout of the maze, or leaving a trail of breadcrumbs - much like Wendy would need to - to prevent getting lost in the kitchen.

Inside the maze, the dark forces both battle for control of the diminishing Jack, and also for possession of the child, which they may intend to use in a similiar fashion as an antenna for the Overlooks psychic signal : here, Kubricks use of the television as a motif for non-verbal communication is clear. Television is a medium for communicating with those who have the appropriate equipment. Some do so with the power of their minds. Others with transmitters. In his current state, Jack cannot communicate anything but violence, and fear, and hatred.

But we’ve not seen Jack inside the maze, and he appears to be lost physically, but also lost within himself. It also appears to be snowing, a device that works effectively on many levels : it allows Jack to track Danny through his footprints, and yet the snow (which is never seen inside the maze, but outside, and reflected in a thin drizzle of snow and wind) is serving to cover Jack’s footprints. He can’t go back on himself as he doesn’t know the way back - there are no footprints.

But also, and this is never seen, the viewer themselves are disorientated within the maze through the innovate use of the steadicam, which constantly shifts and circles the actors so that the viewer is unable to place themselves anywhere except somewhere lost inside the maze, and the implication, as Jack tried to retreat on himself but is faced with walls and dead ends at his every turn, that the hotel has shifted and moved the walls of the maze to contain him within. What happened to Jack must remain a mystery, the secrets of the Overlook must be kept, and those who do not care for the Overlook, find that The Overlook will take care of them to protect itself.

Trapped inside the maze, limping, inarticulate and grunting like an animal, Jack’s final regression is to that of a non-person. He resembles a cross between a werewolf and the unnamed lead character (also known as The Moonwatcher) in the opening segment of 2001. His dialogue earlier in the film : “Hair of the dog that bit me”, and his quotation of lines from The Big Bad Wolf Nursery Rhyme further show the link between man and animal, as as exhibiting his regression to an immature emotional state.

By this stage, The Overlook has in effect, absorbed his personality and left Jack with a retarded shell of a personality. Having stripped Jack of all that is of use to it, and having failed The Overlook in his responsibilities (as with all the responsibilities Jack has tried to handle : father, lover, writer, he has failed), The Overlook discards Jack and absorbs him into it’s psyche.



THE THOUSAND YARD STARE

The next shot sees Jack staring, frozen in the ice. Whilst this scene again seems to have a ‘shock factor’ and seems to rely on a crass shock pay-off of cheap horror, repeated viewings show that Jack is simply acting out the thousand yard stare seen on numerous occasions earlier in the film. The thousand yard stare being a description of the distant, unfixed gaze of shellshocked Vietnam veterans who have seen too much of the darkness and cruelty at the heart of existence. Jack too has seen the darker recesses of existence, and too has that shellshocked look having realised that having failed to fulfill the hotels only request, has broken his contract with the hotel, the one he held so dear just a few hours earlier as sacred and binding, and therefore, as he warned in his argument with Wendy, has had his future, his career - and his very life - taken from him.

“Has it ever occurred to you what would happen if I failed to live up to my responsibilities?” He asks.

If The Caretaker cannot take care of The Overlook, The Overlook takes care of him.



(pic : The Ahwanee Hotel, and The Overlook)

CODA

The final scenes of the film are also the most controversial, in so much as the vast majority of viewer have never actually seen them. They were deleted by Kubrick shortly after the films original cinematic release and have not been seen since, which, given their content, lessens the impact of the film, and the deletion also fails to make much sense.

In this scene, Ullman visits Wendy and Danny in hospital and informs her that searchers have been unable to locate Jack - or his body. The closing shot of the original cut of the film is that of Ullman throwing Danny a tennis ball - the same colour as the one rolled to Danny by the hotel outside Room 237 and the one used by Jack when avoiding his work - with the closing line “Hey, Danny, you forgot this”.

Barry Nelson, who played Ullman said in Premier magazine that


“...It was evil. And what it implies is that Ullman is the mastermind of the whole thing.”

However, it is equally likely that Ullman, like Jack, and Grady, is merely a puppet of The Overlook, and that The Overlook is manipulating Ullman in order to ensure the hotel’s continued survival - and it wants to let Danny know that the veil within The Overlook continues despite their escape. It is merely waiting for its next opportunity.

The Hotel itself is immortal : the land itself is cursed, and manipulates it’s occupants for its own amusement.. Already, as the current version of the film closes ominously, The Overlook has absorbed Jack into its timeless psyche. The final shot is that of Jack trapped forever within the hotel, inside a glass frame as if he were an animal trapped in a zoo for the amusement of onlookers - or The Overlook itself.

The camera closes in on a photograph of a smiling, jubilant man at a party at the Overlook Hotel on July 4th 1921 celebrating American Independence, America‘s triumph over both the Britons and The Indians. For native Americans this date is no celebration, but the final nail in their defeat and the rape and pillage of their homeland.

That man is Jack Torrance - not only was he the caretaker of the Overlook that winter, but as he has been told : he’s always been the Caretaker. He’s not been absorbed into The Overlook : he never left. Not only did he spend a winter inside the prison that was the Overlook - it is where he will spend all his winters, in the home he wishes he could stay in forever. And ever. And ever.

As the credits roll, the ghostly voices of the song fade and a distant roar of applause, polite and murmured, is heard on the soundtrack. As the sounds of indistinct conversation echoes over the final frames of the film, Kubrick is again making a final, subtle comment upon those still in the theatre. We too are among those at the party, and those who have built our empires on the ruins of other. We too are those who paid our money to be entertained by watching a man descend into psychosis and murder his family. We too, are, in our banal way, as evil as The Overlook itself. The Overlook itself is not just a building, or a character, but the darkness that lurks in the hidden corners of all men.



OFFLINE SOURCES :


“The Complete Kubrick” - David Hughes
“The Shining” - Stephen King
“Jack Nicholson : Complete Film Guide” - Don Shiach
“The Films Of Stephen King” - Ann Lloyd
“Creepshows : The Stepehen King Movie Guide” - Stephen Jones
“The Films Of Jack Nicholson” - Douglas Brode
“An Interview with Diane Johnson” (scriptwriter) - by C.G.Jung
“Leon Vitali Interview” - DVD Talk
“The Family Of Man” - Bill Blakemore
“Gordon Stainforth interview” - The Kubrick Site

Some of these are available on the web in part or in whole. Look closely. Things are not always as they seem.
- posted by Mark @ 8:48 pm