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The Shining
(***1/2)
Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of the Stephen King novel works well, even today. In a genre plagued by films that become dated within a few years, The Shining stands in an elite group of horror films that have remained universal. Although I certainly understand criticisms that it was only a distant cousin to the King novel, I don't really agree with them. Those who want a faithful representation of the novel may turn to the well done 1997 TV movie, those who want a Stanley Kubrick film turn to Jack Nicholson's role.
The best thing it has going for it, in my opinion, is the fact that it's so far removed from the King novel. I've read the novel a few times, and have loved it. However, what we see on the screen here is something that was never explored in the same way in the book. What do viewers want, to see what they've already imagined? Or do they want to see things that they've never imagined? Kubrick was an auteur filmmaker as far as I'm concerned; a man willing to take the source material and adapt it to his vision, and not become a slave to it. To date, little is more recognizable than a camera being directed by Kubrick.
For those of you unfamiliar with the film, The Shining concerns a large hotel in Colorado named the Overlook. Being forced to close every year for the winter, a caretaker is needed to keep the winter elements from taking their toll. But not is all quite right with the hotel; Nicholson's Jack Torrance is told by the operator of the hotel that it was reputed to have been built on an Indian burial ground, and a previous caretaker once took an axe to his wife and daughters. There's more to it than this, as Jack's son Danny eventually discovers.
I must admit, the casting is strong all around. Nicholson's Jack Torrance is over the wall, and brilliantly conceived. While I admire the novel's portrayal of a man being driven to insanity by the ghosts in a house, I love Nicholson's illustration of this fact. Nothing is as terrifying as "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", and "Here's Johnny" is so famous it's been parodied and copied in dozens of films and television shows since.
Similarly brilliant is Scatman Crothers' role of the Overlook's cook Dick Halloran. It's Halloran who gives us a name for Danny Torrance's gift. He calls it 'The Shine.' "Some people shine, some don't," Halloran explains. "Most people got it and they don't even realize it." We learn that Danny is not sick, but psychic. He has the ability to see and hear other things around him that shine. Jake Lloyd is quite good as Danny, but it's Crothers who is brilliant. Not only is it a refreshing change to see a black man take such an integral part in a story, it's refreshing that this role has been done nearly to perfection. He plays his role not as a man who is a hero, but as a man who has been given a gift and he knows he has to do his part. He's lived his entire adult life fearing the power of that hotel, and when it appears Danny's in trouble, he realizes he must do something about it.
I'd like, specifically, to address the montage of scenes showing Halloran's journey back to the hotel in the dead of winter. He has no reason to go back, just a barely perceptible call for help from a young boy he met once. Why take all this trouble to go back on a hunch? He could have easily called the police and asked them to take a look. But no, he goes himself. Every time we see him until his arrival at the Overlook is similar. This is not a man who is afraid, or excited, or really anything. Look at Crothers on the airplane. Everyone sits around him reading, or talking. And he just sits there, staring straight ahead. He has no look on his face, and he has no expectation of what he's seeing there. Like all Kubrick films, the emotions are layered underneath; gifts to be discovered as you search for them. What we see here is not a gallant knight facing his dragon, but a man who's been turning his back to the demon for years. He knows his 'shine' is what brings him to confront the house, and he simply accepts it.
As I said before, casting is all-around strong. I lied. There is one error in the film that keeps me from giving the film a 4 star rating. Much like Kubrick's 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, there is one problem that just makes me cringe. The problem here is in Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance. She makes it through the film on a two-note performance, screaming and terrified combined with optimistic and happy. Neither is very entertaining, and in fact she only succeeds to grate on my nerves. I've seen her in several films, and I can't understand why in hell anyone would hire her. True, she hasn't been seen in nearly a decade, but she used to be in movies occasionally. I just don't understand why. While it becomes evident that it was the movie's intention of painting Wendy Torrance as a force that the hotel underestimates, she only manages to come off as a whiny petulant weakling who only survives her possessed husband because she gets lucky. She seems to be caught in between her smart and resourceful husband and her smart and resourceful child. Unlike Eyes Wide Shut, the problem here is not something that comes and goes after 30 seconds. This problem is there until the credits roll.
Despite this, she doesn't really ruin the movie, and it's not very difficult to simply overlook her in favor of the strengths in the film. After all, this isn't her story. It's about Danny and his father, about something unknown and its ability to turn a relatively normal and happy man into a monster. Sure, oedipal and numerous psychological lines can be drawn in The Shining; a son fighting his father for control of the mother. Or perhaps the father just got old and weak, and now his son picks him off. Whatever. It's just a story, albeit a very well constructed one.