The Shining

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The Shining Review

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The Shining

Figure 1 – Poster Art
The shining is about a family that move in to a hotel to look after the building and maintain the
structure. The hotel has had some bad things happen in it, which is bought up with Jake Torrance
(the father of the family) during his interview; at this point in time he says he does not mind and
neither would his wife. Once he gets the job, he moves his family in to the hotel, during the car ride
you can already tell that there is something wrong or off with this family. Once moved in to the hotel
the family spread around the hotel and barely ever talk to each other. Jake’s child Danny has this
sort of six sense about him, another guy who works in the hotel has the same sort of sense but he
calls it “shining”. This “shining” allows the people who have it to see what might happen or what
has, as well as letting them sort of talk to each other without actually talking. As the film goes on the
family acts stranger and stranger. This is especially true with Jake as he starts to act strange by
drifting off into daydreams and seeing things. By the end of the film Jake is completely insane and
tries to kill both his wife and son. Roger Ebert says “There is no sense that the three function
together as a loving family.” (Ebert, 2006) I believe Roger says this as before they go insane, the
family spends most of their time apart. The father, Jake spends all his time either typing at his
typewriter on his so called story or maintaining the hotel, well that is what he is meant to be doing.
The son Danny spends his time driving around the hotel on his little trike, seeing so called “ghosts”
and talking to what could either be his imaginary friend or a “ghost”. The mom Wendy spends all her
time watching TV and walking around the hotel. So with the family being in a huge hotel completely
alone and being miles away from any other people you would assume that they would spend time
together. This could only be because before they got to the hotel they already had family problems,
but this is nether really bought up in the 1980 version.

Figure 2 - Snow footsteps.
During the film both the Wendy and Jake mention about fairy tales. When I say they mention about
fairy tales I do not mean they tell a story about them just that they say a certain thing about them.
Wendy mentioned when she first goes in to the hotel that “This place is such an enormous maze, I
feel like I’ll have to leave a trail of bread crumbs every time I come in” and later on when Jake breaks
down the door to the bathroom he says “Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair on
your chinny, chin, chin. Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in.” Wendy’s comment
refers back to Hensel and Gretel, this could give both the feeling that the hotel is a mythical place
and alone with the fact that you could get lost and come across a strange evil looking witch; which in
turn basically happens when Jake checks out if there is only one in room 237. This is the scene Jake
finds a naked woman in the bath in room 237, as Jake gets close to her and kisses her she then turns
in to what could be described as a witch; to the point where if you compare a picture of the naked
woman once she changed her appearance to the original imagine of the Hansel and Gretel witch you
can see similar features. Jake’s comment goes back to the three little pigs. He says this just before he
takes an axe to the bathroom door. You could say that his character uses that quote as the wolf in
that fairy tale really wanted to get in to the pigs hurts, which Is similar to Jake wanting to get in to
the bathroom. Both Jake and the wolf really wants to kill the people that they are after. Alison Flood
wrote a recent review on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales; these fairy tales are the original dark and
gloomy visions of the Disney fairy tales. So when watching the shining these original dark fairy tales
come to mind, “It ends direly: a boy cuts the throat of his little brother, only to be stabbed in the
heart by his enraged mother.” (Flood, 2014) this is just one of the dark Brothers Grimm’s tales. While
the film goes on the more you watch the more you realize that Jake starts to act sort of like a wolf
from these tales, I am referring to the maze at the end where Jake has gone completely insane and
chases down Danny by using Danny’s footprints in the snow to find him. It’s only when Danny
realizes that this is how Jake is finding him and walks backward in his only steps to lose Jake. It is
almost like Jakes animal instincts has taken over and got rid of all his instincts to think probable, to
the point where he could have just have thought to wait by the entrance of the maze as sooner or
later Danny would have had to have come out.

Figure 3 – losing it.
Throughout the whole of Jake Nicholson performance you can tell that he was completely
committed to his role as an insane, mental break down father that may or may not have hit his child.
His acting is so well played which makes it all the more memorable. “Nicholson's performance as the
abusive father who is tipped over the edge is a thrillingly scabrous,” (Bradshaw, 2012) what makes
this film great along with the performance of Nicholson is the sound track that goes along with it.
This sound track is not like the normal sound tracks you get in films, this sound track is basically just
orchestral. These sounds help create tension with in the film scenes, even at times it seems that
there is music yet it is just what is happening with in the scene. This comes in to play with the scene
where Danny is driving around the hotel on his trike, this sound like a drum roll when his driving on
the wooden floor and stops once he goes on the carpet. This keeps happening as the carpets are
spaced out with wooden floors in-between, making you feel as if something is going to happen but it
does not. This idea of the build-up of the music to make you think something is going to happen
when it does not Is used a lot within this film, but most of the time it is not the sort of scary you are
expecting but more cheap scars.

Figure 4 – Here’s Johnny!!
Out of the whole film the scene were Jake Nicholson axes through the door and says “Heeere’s
Johnny!” is the most iconic scene. In general I believe that the acting produced by Nicholson in the
scenes like this one is the reason why he got his part for the joker in the 1989 batman film. In both
The shining and Batman. Nicholson plays the insanity role too well, as most as if he could truly be
insane. Due to this this scene has been said to be the top scariest scene in a recent online poll. “The

"Here's Johnny" scene from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is officially the scariest movie moment of all
time, according to a new study.” (Child, 2013) this poll was taken by 10,000 users from a website
that used heart rate monitors to see what scenes and from what film raised their hate rates the
most; this then show what was general the most scariest film… The Shining.

Illustration list
Figure 1 – Poster Art
http://www.impawards.com/1980/posters/shining_ver1_xlg.jpg
Figure 2 – Snow footsteps.
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m41x5yItLs1qivkxn.png
Figure 3 – losing it.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wt4LamXDeY/Ufa8EOuU1wI/AAAAAAAAhYg/ptp6r2UPNsA/s1600/The+Shining+%25281980%2529.png
Figure 4 – Here’s Johnny!!
http://pioner-cinema.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shining2_008Pyxurz.jpg

Bibliography
Ebert, Roger. (2006) The Shining, rogerebert At:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980
Flood, Alison. (2014) Grimm brothers’ fairytales have blood and horror restored in new translation,
theguardian At:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/12/grimm-brothers-fairytales-horror-newtranslation
Bradshaw, Pater. (2012) The Shining – Review, theguardian At:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/01/the-shining-review
Child, Ben. (2013) 'Here's Johnny!': The Shining scene is scariest in movie history, claims study,
theguardian At:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/31/the-shining-heres-johnny-scariest-movie-scenejack-nicholson

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