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 There
are several scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in
which the dialogue and character interactions are almost bland to
the extreme. Laconic and casual, comfortable but distant, the characters
relate in a manner devoid of any drama or import. Such a scene is
the conversation over synthesized chicken sandwiches on the shuttle
en route to the lunar excavation. It's almost as if director Stanley
Kubrick wanted to lull the audience before upping the ante. I had
a very similar reaction as I watched Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson)
being interviewed by Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) for the job of
winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's The Shining.
Torrence is indeed offered the job. He accepts, even after the
uncomfortable manager feels compelled to describe how, years before,
a previous caretaker went berserk, slaying his wife and two daughters
with an axe before committing suicide with a shotgun blast to the
head. Despite the prospect of the Torrences being isolated for months
by severe snows that will make the single access road impassable,
Jack is undeterred. He welcomes the quiet, the privacy; he's trying
to kickstart a writing career. He returns with his wife Wendy (Shelley
Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) laden with luggage, ready to
move in as the hotel staff moves out. But all is not quite right.
Danny has an imaginary friend, Tony, who speaks through Danny in
a gravelly voice. An imaginary friend who may have psychic powers
to see things, past and future. And Tony does not want to spend
the winter at the Overlook Hotel. As they're given a tour of the
hotel on this last day staff will be present, Head Chef Dick Hallorann
(Scatman Crothers) invites Danny for some ice cream. In a private
exchange, Hallorann explains that he's recognized Danny's special
powers, something called The Shining. A psychic bond forms between
the two, one that would draw them together again.
 As
the weeks pass, each Torrence experiences some form of chilling
episode, visions, hallucinations, waking dreams. Each reacts in
a unique fashion. Danny, the most psychically gifted is first, glimpsing
visions of the bloody murders that occurred so many years before.
He sees two young girls who invite him to play with them, for ever
and ever. His curiosity lures him into the room in which the murders
occurred, only to be terrorized by what he finds. Danny's fear causes
him to withdraw; his alter ego, Tony, begins to emerge, to become
dominant.
Jack begins a slow and inexorable decent into madness. He finds
himself among acquaintances and guests who couldn't possibly exist
but whom he readily accepts. He first encounters bartender Lloyd
(Joe Turkel) behind the bar in an empty ballroom, then the murdered
wife at the death scene. Later, in another ballroom sequence, it's
filled with revelers dressed in garb from the '20s. A waiter accidentally
spills a drink on him and insists that they go into the men's room
where the stains can be rinsed before they set. The waiter is Delbert
Grady (Philip Stone), the infamous caretaker responsible for the
bloody carnage. In a chilling exchange in which dominance slowly
shifts from Torrence to Grady, Jack is encouraged to discipline
his family most severely for their "interference." Jack doesn't
consciously acknowledge any of these experiences, but with each
encounter his behavior becomes more and more erratic, violent, and
abusive.
Wendy is the last to experience the visions. She'd been so distracted
by Danny's withdrawal and Jack's irrational behavior that her emotional
state may not have been receptive. She's painfully aware of her
imminent danger and despite her near-hysteria manages to avoid every
misstep. To no avail.
Stephen King wrote the novel from which Kubrick and Diane Johnson
based their screenplay. The Shining is dark and disturbing and despite
the huge hotel, remarkably claustrophobic. No hotel is large enough
to escape the horror that is to come. Kubrick demonstrates his mastery
of the art, creating an atmosphere of great dread. Carefully selecting
his camera angles and rhythms, he draws us into fear. Jack Nicholson's
descent into madness is wonderful to behold. (It's no coincidence
that his Joker stole Batman from the rest of that cast.) Shelley
Duvall is surprisingly good, fiercely protective of her son, trapped
and panicked by her husband's incomprehensible insanity.
 Classic
King. Classy Kubrick. Highly recommended.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Fully remastered and restored, this new transfer of The Shining
simply blows away the previous, highly disappointing DVD and laserdisc
releases. Of course, the question of whether or not an anamorphic
widescreen option should have been included, even as a separate
DVD release, will probably never be answered to everyone's satisfaction.
(Check out an interview
with restoration supervisor Leon Vitali for more on the Kubrick
remasters and the how and why behind the decision-making process.)
But since it seems that for the foreseeable future The Shining will
only be available full frame on home video, let me sidestep the
debate and just take a good long look at what we've got.
The improvements are obvious right from the opening credits. This
digital transfer was derived from a freshly-minted interpositive,
and looks great. Gone are all the dropouts, nicks, scratches, blemishes
and other anomalies that plagued the previous video releases. This
is as clean as a whistle, with a stability to the contrast and black
level that greatly enhances detail. Colors are noticeably more vibrant,
and the film does exhibit a intentionally subdued color palette
(especially during the beginning sequences of the film). But when
the movie goes all "redrum" on us in the third act, Kubrick's
striking compositions and color choices are mighty impressive. Whereas
on previous video releases the reds bled all over the place, here
all the colors are rock solid. Fleshtones also appear a bit more
accurate; before, everyone looked slightly pink-faced. Not so here...even
Lloyd the bartender now looks the correct shade of orange!
The new print also greatly reduces the level of grain that plagued
previous video releases. This is most noticeable during the climatic
"hedge maze" sequence, which before was full of distracting,
heavy grain and lacked shadow detail. It is now much cleaner, revealing
a much better sense of depth and purity. Thankfully, edge enhancement
is minimal and there doesn't seem to be any effort to over-tweak
the image and "improve" contrast. The compression is also
top notch, with no noticeable pixel break up or artifacts. This
is a very smooth, vibrant, film-like image, and the widescreen question
aside, this is the way I always hoped The Shining would look on
DVD. And now it does. While this is not a reference-qualty transfer
by today's standards, this film is over twenty-years old and certainly
has never looked better. (For a closer look at some screenshots,
click here.)
 Audio:
How Does The Disc Sound?
Along with the newly remastered transfer, the audio has been remixed
and rehabbed in glorious 5.1 Dolby Digital surround. Since, oddly,
the original mono track has been dropped from this release (which
seems strange given all the talk of remaining faithful to Kubrick's
original vision with the transfer), is this new remix a revelation,
or a desecration? In my opinion, neither. Since Vitali had mono
stems for the dialogue and effects and stereo originals for the
music to work with, the mix is still largely confined to the front
three channels. Dialogue is firmly rooted in the center channel,
with the effects well-balanced between the left and right. The music
is the main element that has been spread to the rears, though for
the most part surround use is subtle, giving an echoey, reverberant
quality to the score. (But since this is a haunted house movie,
this processed surround effect generally worked for me.) Though
this is technically a true 5.1 mix, the surrounds still seem to
lack a truly discreet quality, with the majority of the music and
a few spare shock effects equally spread across the rear channels,
as if they were mono surrounds.
But going back to the original stems has noticeably improved the
fidelity of the track. The previous DVD had a pinched, flat quality
to the dialogue, though here the voices seem to be a bit warmer
and more full. The effects can still sound a bit shrill in the high
end, especially some of the creepy vocals, though the music has
never sounded better. While the sense of dynamics here can't rival
today's modern sound recordings, this is certainly due to the techniques
of the time and not the fault of this new mix. The .1 LFE is good
for a film of the is age, though sounded a bit more weak that I
had hoped, and more forceful than the previous DVD. While some may
balk at the idea of remixing a Kubrick masterpiece in 5.1 at all
(especially when the original mono track is not included) I felt
that even when resorting to 2.0 stereo mode and letting my player
downconvert the 5.1 track, the overall improvement to the track's
fidelity and range was worth the effort.
 Supplements:
What Goodies Are There?
Just like the previous DVD, this new release features Vivian Kubrick's
The Making of The Shining, which just may be one of the best
"making-of" featurettes ever made. Emotions run high on
a Kubrick set, and I found this to be very fascinating and revealing.
Just watching that mean old Kubrick bring poor Shelley Duvall to
tears is worth the price of admission alone. As a bonus on this
new release, Vivian Kubrick has contributed a new screen-specific
audio commentary (for the documentary, not the feature) While
this is a bit weird, as it is essentially a making of the making
of, Kubrick is very funny and is candid that she was totally green
going in, having never really shot anything professionally before.
A nice surprise, and she is so informative I wish she would have
done a track for the entire film, not just the documentary. The
film's theatrical trailer is also presented in full frame.
Note that the restoration has also extended to these supplements,
which have been fully remastered as well. The Making of The Shining
is even in full 5.1 Dolby Digital surround! It sure looked pretty
bad on the old release, and though it still looks a bit aged and
doesn't overcome its low-budget 16mm origins, it looks much so much
better here. Nice!
Parting Thoughts
Freshly restored and remastered, The Shining has certainly never
looked better on home video, perhaps even besting its presentation
theatrically. Aside from the contentious issue of not offering a
widescreen option, I was quite pleased with this new transfer. The
image is near-flawless and new remix, despite some reservations,
heightens the experience. And The Making of The Shining documentary
remains one of the best of its kind. If you are a fan of this film
and already bought the previous, mediocre DVD, I'm afraid that unless
you are totally put off by the lack of a widescreen option, you're
going to have to buy this one again.
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