The Shining
Chad'z rating: ** (out of 4 = fair)
1980, R, 143 minutes [2 hours, 23 minutes]
[horror]
starring: Jack Nicholson (Mr. Jack Torrance), Shelly Duvall (Mrs. Wendy Torrance), Danny Lloyd (Danny Torrance), Scatman Crothers (Dick Hallorann); written by Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson; produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Stephen King.
I've always been fascinated by Stanley Kubrick's ability to tell deep, thematic stories using bare essentials. Unfortunately, this is what keeps "The Shining" from being any kind of intriguing or scary film. The film goes out of its way to avoid becoming a generic bloodbath, but in turn alienates itself from all plausibility.
The basic setup is quite simple, we meet our main character, Mr. Jack Torrance (Nicholson), who is about to become the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado mountains. He's a recovering alcoholic and prospective writer, and he hopes the job will give him the privacy he needs to write his masterpiece. Jack brings his feeble-minded wife Wendy (Duvall) and his nearly schizophrenic child Danny (Lloyd) along with him. But since this is a horror film, there must be a catch, and this element comes into play when we learn a former caretaker went crazy and killed his family with an axe. Jack scoffs at the notion that "cabin fever" like that could happen to him, but the more he denies it, the more it's clear what's going to happen.
The first act of the film is very straightforward in its establishment of the mood and atmosphere of the hotel. Every character is so normal here they seem stiff, except for Danny. Danny is a disturbed child who has an imaginary friend "Tony" living inside him who often speaks through his finger. Danny also has constant visions of dead bodies, a river of blood, and two girls so innocent-looking they seem evil. He obviously has some kind of psychic power, but where did it come from and how will he use it? What's so frustrating is the fact this element is built up so much and yet it has almost no relavance in the long run.
The mid section accounts for the majority of the film's running time, but it's amazing so little happens. One minute Jack is normal and sane, the next he is obviously insane - how and why this change came about so abruptly isn't justified well (if at all). Meanwhile, Danny becomes completely possessed by Tony and he keeps chanting "redrum." In an earlier scene, Dick Hallorann (Crothers), the head cook of the hotel, told Danny he's not the only one with special powers. But it's just left at that without any further explanation. If this is supposed to be a long-term scare tactic it doesn't work. The suspense is probably supposed to be elaborated through our fear of the unknown, but everything's too bizarre to take seriously.
Where the script fails, the direction attempts to make up for it. Kubrick does a fine job in establishing the gigantic size of the hotel and the emptiness to it all. There are some great Steadicam shots of Danny riding his Big Wheel throughout the hotel, which is nicely complimented by loud echoes and the eerie music. We also see reality through Danny's over-active imagination and Jack's twisted mindset. Everything seems like one big illusion and after a while it's nearly impossible to distinguish reality from fantasy.
I believe the film tries to provide a back story through Jack's hallucinations, but even this efforts seem futile. He has conversations with a bartender and an English butler (who turns out to be the original axe murderer) who tell him to "fulfil his destiny," but this only progresses the story a little bit.
The entire last act, and the ending, especially, are both weak and disappointing. When Jack attacks his wife with an axe, and Wendy screams her head off, it doesn't seem any more intelligent than any other slasher flick. The finale itself has almost nothing to do with all the surrealistic and supernatural devices present throughout the film, so you really have to wonder what the point was.
It's a shame "The Shining" turned out the way it did. There was so much potential here and somehow it was wasted. Some films are over-written, this one was over-directed.
e-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C) 1997 Chad Polenz
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