The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd and Scatman Crothers. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. 1980.
Reviewed by John Carroll.
In a year of the horror film, people always tend to look back at the classics. In a few years, people will undeniably be looking back at films such as The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense as classic horror films. But for now, there are other classics to look after. The Shining, directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick and based on the Stephen King novel, is regarded as a classic. And despite being an entertaining movie, The Shining did not age well.
The premise for the novel is that Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has become the housekeeper for a ski lodge that is closing down for the winter. This is because the snow becomes to much to travel. Right from the get-go, Kubrick establishes the "trapped in the house" scenario that many horror films have tried to accomplish. The other plot involved is with Danny Torrance (Danny Llyod). He would be best described as a "weird" little boy, as he talks to his imaginary friend, which turns out to be his finger. As Kubrick later on reveals, the boy has a sense known as "The Shining", a trait that the Overlook Hotel chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) also possesses. As the film progresses, Kubrick develops the rage and isolation in Jack Torrance.
Jack Nicholson, as Jack Torrance, gives a wonderful performance. In a film that tends to drag on at certain points and become rather tedious, Nicholson steps up and brings the film back up, despite losing it once off the screen. Nicholson portrays Torrance as the psychopath he truly is, and despite knowing what will happen in the film from the start, Nicholson will have everyone second-guessing themselves.
The rest of the supporting cast, which basically consists of Duvall, Llyod and Crothers, does not add many dimensions to the film. Duvall has the role of the nice country wife, and gives a decent performance, although has trouble standing out, particularly when paired with Nicholson on screen. Danny Lloyd, the boy with "The Shining", has a particularly important role, and utterly fails with it. Any drama with children tends to rely on their performance for the film's success or failure. Films like Taxi Driver that get great performances from their child stars, in Taxi's case, Jodie Foster, those films tend to succeed much more than subpar child performances. Danny Lloyd fails miserably. His performance is as dry as can be, with no emotion shown in any of his lines. He even has trouble acting like a child, when in the backseat of the car driving up to the Overlook Hotel, he cannot even do the "Are we there yet?" correctly. His performance bogs the whole film down and takes away from the great performance of Jack Nicholson and will basically bore the audience when he makes his on-screen performance.
Despite the terrible acting from Llyod, Kubrick still manages to piece this film together. As said before, Nicholson brings such a demonic presence to the screen that you cannot help but get chills. His good, sensible personality goes awry right before our very eyes. As Nicholson starts chopping down the doors at the end of the film, the whole theatre will be on the edge of their seats. However, the ending goes stale. A tedious segment develops with Jack Torrance chasing little Danny through the garden maze and this part goes on way too long. I will not spoil the ending, but it is definitely not something to write home about. It will leave you wondering why it took an hour and a half to get to this finale. Nicholson works so hard to pick up the pieces left by Llyod's atrocious acting only yo be hampered by a subpar finale.
In the end, The Shining is an experience within itself. While it might not please all audiences, it is definitely a film that needs to be seen to make a proper judgement. The ending may not be great and Llyod may bore you to tears, but in the end, Jack Nicholson proves why he is the best of the best and anyone with an interest in the horror genre should pick up a copy of The Shining.
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