Movies I haven't seen in a while: The Shining

 

          Well, it was a long and winding movie trip, but I'm finally done watching all of Stanley Kubrick's filmography. Duh! Wait, a minute, oh no I got everything checked I have every Kubrick's filmography taken out, and yet the only one movie needed to watch to complete the Stanley Kubrick journey is of course The Shining. No, not the shining, I don't want to get sued, sorry to anyone who hasn't watched the Simpsons where they spoofed the Simpsons. Anyway, since my internet was out, I decided on the movie on Blu-Ray as well as have full appreciation to the movie no matter what the choice of actors. 

           Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes a winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and Danny's visions become more disturbing. Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family. 

          Fun fact I went to Estes Park sometime in 2021 to celebrate my brother's fortieth birthday and his birthday he got to stay the night at the Stanley Hotel, the very Hotel that inspired Stephen King's the Shining. Moreover had the opportunity to sleep in room 217, and for me it was in really cool place as well as interesting history and the funny story I'll tell to my grave is asking someone where is the hedge maze, and they just pointed to the direction of where it's at almost like he/she is about to say "you see that over there", and you know that cringe face that the gang from It's Always Sunny, has when Mac says fist, that was the reaction I had, like someone told me this was the famous hedge maze was like seeing the iconic Wrigley Field and not being able to see the impressive stuff besides Harry Carey's booth. I haven't seen the Shining in quite a long time and for good reason's it was mostly due to the fact that Jackie Boy's performance in the movie was just way to over the top, now watching the Shining for the first time I did in the best of my abilities was to look at the film through Stanley Kubrick's eyes, and rewatching the movie it still holds up in terms of the haunting aspects and not relying a whole lot of just jump scares or high body counts and with the Shinning it still holds up in terms of the haunting and very creepy visuals and it was one of those things that I forgot but the way Kubrick was able to shoot the film as well as keep the colors more colorful, and more importantly the camera movement with scenes like Danny in his little bike along with sound effects of the wheels rolling from carpet to hard floor is just fantastic. Moreover what Kubrick does best is trying to find something new to the horror, not just creating gore or body counts but more disturbing imagery or somethings to give you a good shock and really that's always something when it comes to horror is that it doesn't have to be either gory or anything to be tasteless like the first Friday the 13th, it just has to have something that takes us aback and when you see scenes of Danny having seizures of foreseeable futures or the chilling music of Shelley Duvall just running for dear life, is what makes the movie so memorable. Now that being said I will say that if they're was one critique I would say about the film is of course the choice of actors and I'm not going to say a whole lot about Shelley Duvall's performance because true it's questionable but you also have understand both Duvall and Kubrick we're in a grudge match with each other but I could understand that Kubrick was trying to make the character of Wendy venerable as well as feeling that dread or not understanding what is going on with her husband so, in all fairness Duvall's performance I can get by on, but it's Jack Nicholson's performance that's just all over the place, like I'd say Nicholson's performance is the one that just drive me bonkers because the man was clearly chewing the scenery all the time where you can't even see the compassion for his kid all you see is just the crazy side to him and when we get the scene where he's throwing a fit to Shelley about interrupting him and I looked at my time code on my Blu-ray player and see that it's only forty-three minutes for which to me, I was shocked to find out that he's now going crazy forty minutes in. Also, just to let everyone know I did listen to Stephen King's the Shining before I watched Kubrick's version and granted it did take a long time, but again you don't see a ton of Nicholson's compassion to his own son nor doing any work around the Hotel, and even after having a nightmare or being accused by his wife of strangling his son, all he has is a disillusioned face, and that's all he has like can't you show SOME CONCERN instead of a bewildered face? I mean there so many things on why Nicholson's performance is so, over the top but you also need to remember that this is Stanley Kubrick here, this is a man that will make almost two hundred takes to get a shot that he likes. Now between which is better, the movie or Stephan King's book, I don't think it really matters because as a visual standpoint Kubrick's movie does have the edge as well as a tense and creepy vibes you get with the movie, and Stephan King's book has the edge in terms of story and character but we can all agree on that an axe is more scary then a wooden mallet I mean sure you can break a few limps or legs but you’re not going to break down door with a mallet sorry not sorry. I keep thinking on why this film gets so much praise by so many people, I mean sure the film is defiantly a great movie and on a technical stand point is one of the greatest visual horror movies ever made but everybody who talks about the Shining tends to forget Nicholson literally being all over the place, and in my honest opinion I think it's because of the haunting feel and sense of dread that you never get in any other film, and you never have that sense of dread or creepiness in any other film and the way Kubrick directed the Shining you can't help but be sucked into this haunting and creepy world of Kubrick's Overlook Hotel. Also, if it wasn't for Stanley Kubrick and Jack Nicholson, you wouldn't get the greatest Simpsons spoof to the Shining just like the lost ending to It's a Wonderful Life on SNL. If you are looking for an amazing haunting movie, I would highly recommend watching The Shining. And in terms of finally completing Kubrick's filmography, I will say I finally got my list in order though I do need to write all the films down so I can remember what I forgot or remembered to jot down. So, hopefully I will have my list ready and published by November for all of you to see and enjoy.