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84 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
Heeeere's Johnny! A modern horror classic on DVD, August 27, 2003
It's tough to believe that Stanley Kubrick received a Worst Director Razzie nomination for "The Shining." While "The Shining" may not be given the classic status of some of his other films like "Dr. Strangelove" and "2001", it's actually the least polarizing of this highly-praised and atypical filmmaker's work.This atmospheric thriller is sure to creep you out with its pacing, eery editing and cinematography (those tracking shots are highly effective), and Jack Nicholson's powerful performance as Jack Torrance. Horror films often tend to divide audiences into genre fans who follow the gore and those who laugh in the face of so-called scares, insisting their own resiliancy to cheap thrills and lamebrain plotting. Fortunately, "The Shining" doesn't make you take sides, because its chills come from plotting and character study as much as they do from odd sights that will make you jump. It may stray from Stephen King's book and not all of it may make sense, but "The Shining" has so much going for it that you won't mind. It's a gripping and satisfying film experience, and in my opinion, one of the best films of the '80s. This Warner DVD re-release is definitely the version to get. The fullframe presentation comes at the wishes of Kubrick and the video and audio offer significant improvement over the drab initial release. (Unfortunately, the original Mono audio track has been dropped altogether in favor of an effective 5.1 remix. They could have included both with no problem.) In the way of extras, there is an engaging half-hour on-set documentary, filmed by Kubrick's daughter Vivian. It provides a candid experience of the film's creation, and interviews with some of the actors. In addition, this DVD re-release includes an audio commentary on the documentary (sort of a "making-of the making-of") by Vivian Kubrick. There's also the spooky trailer, which shows how a movie preview can perfectly pique one's interest in a film, without spoiling (or even saying) much.
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49 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
Redrum! Redruuuum!, April 14, 2005
Love it or hate it, the horror genre never felt the same after Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining." Adapted, as we all know, from a Stephen King book of the same name, the legendary director of such classics as "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Barry Lyndon" created a picture here that leaves a chill running down your spine long after the credits roll. Too bad King never liked the picture. It's been well documented in the intervening years how the author blamed Kubrick for fundamentally altering his vision. I saw somewhere that King believed that Stanley Kubrick thought his novel was inferior material that needed to be elevated on celluloid. Well, everyone has an opinion. For my part, I don't think Kubrick thought it an unfavorable book even though it is. I read "The Shining" and really didn't care for it that much. It is, in fact, one of my least favorite Stephen King novels. Only "Cujo" ranks lower--and in that case the film version didn't ride to the rescue. King is a great novelist capable of producing fine work, but long after he is gone people will forget his novel and remember Kubrick's translation. Of course I could be completely wrong, but I don't think so.
The film opens with the Torrance family--father Jack (Jack Nicholson), mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and precocious son Danny (Danny Lloyd)--driving out to the Overlook hotel for the winter. Jack took a job there as the winter caretaker, a big task considering the resort sits high up in the mountains where heavy snowfall virtually assures his family will be snowed in for months. A struggling writer and recovering alcoholic, Jack sees this opportunity as a great way to churn out a novel. It's not as though he has much else to do in the hotel: there aren't any guests loafing about and the staff isn't around to hassle him. All he's got to do is keep the lights and heat on, call in to a ranger station on the radio every few days, and he can sit back and collect a paycheck. Problem is, spending five months cooped up in a hotel in the mountains can bring on a powerful case of cabin fever resulting in...well...bizarre behavior. It happened before at the Overlook, actually, as Jack learns during his job interview with the manager of the hotel. One previous caretaker took an axe and slaughtered his entire family. Fun! Jack doesn't think such a gruesome event will present any problems for him or his family.
Boy, is he mistaken! Jack Torrance has absolutely no idea of the supernatural horrors that lurk in the bowels of the Overlook hotel, but his son Danny does. It seems Danny has the ability to "shine," or read people's thoughts and see things that the rest of us don't see. And what he'll see at the Overlook hotel would give the stoutest among us a massive coronary. Suicides from years past, rivers of blood pouring out of the elevators, and the deceased daughters of the aforementioned caretaker appear as if by magic in front of the terrified Danny. One of the worst horrors resides in room 237, a room a departing employee named Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) tells Danny to avoid like the plague. Hallorann has the ability to shine as well, and is fully cognizant of the powers the Overlook can unleash with ease. As the days turn into weeks, Jack descends into total insanity, terrorizing his stricken wife and son even as he falls under the spell of the spirits in the hotel. There's no sense in dragging this out except to say that the movie unfolds like a relentless, evil dream. "The Shining" isn't so much a film as it is an experience to savor--for those who can stand the terror, that is.
Goodness, where to start! The movie fires on every cylinder. Jack Nicholson is sublime as the mentally unbalanced Jack Torrance, capable of menacing subtlety and raging insanity at the drop of a hat. His line "Hereeee's Johnny" is arguably one of the best-known movie quotes in the history of cinema. Those who hate the film usually cite Shelley Duvall as the primary reason, claiming her whiny and weak personality mars an otherwise acceptable film. Horse hockey. Duvall is supposed to be in a fragile state largely because of her husband's past history and her concern about her son's odd psychic abilities. And when she sees her family falling apart again, she cracks under the pressure. I think she did fine. As amazing as the performances are, however, they pale in comparison to the look and feel of the film. "The Shining" is a cold, detached movie like most other Kubrick films. The dread is a palpable presence in every single frame of the movie, whether we're following Danny's big wheel through the halls of the hotel or watching Jack converse with evil spirits. So many great scenes rise to the forefront of my memory as I write: the chase through the maze, that last soul shattering shot of Jack Torrance, and Wendy's discovery of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" all exquisitely torture the audience. This is a frightening film, and its one that never loses its impact with subsequent viewings.
The DVD? Surprisingly, we don't get much. The picture quality is quite good, as it should be for a Kubrick film, but extras are lacking. A lengthy documentary about the making of the film with commentary from Kubrick's daughter Vivian does help, yet I can't help but wish for more. I could go on and on about how wonderful a find "The Shining" is for the horror fan, but you probably already know all about this film. If you are one of the roughly five people in the world who haven't seen the movie, I pity you. Get out and see it now!
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
One Of The Greatest Horror Films, As Well As Controversial, June 17, 2004
Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING (1980) is a cinematic marvel. Visually stunning, emotionally disturbing, it throws everything at you but the kitchen sink---and purposely attempts to explain almost nothing. Kubrick directed this filmic adaptation of the Stephen King bestseller with his finetoothed artistic brush; his genius as a director always coming from his genius as a photographer. However, this didn't stop his film from raising a firestorm of controversy ever since Kubrick began principal photography in 1979. Starting with the author himself, Stephen King was most displeased over the immense amount of changes Kubrick made to his story. When the movie was finally finished and released in 1980, it received cheers & jeers in roughly equal amounts, from critics to Stephen King fans. I can see both sides to the controversy. What Stanley Kubrick made was a film *based on* the book of the same name, not a film version of the book itself. Although I believe that most people wrongfully assume that a film treatment of a book *has to* be faithful to it, I will agree that Kubrick changed more than what is normal for a book-to-screen adaptation. In doing so, he crafted a movie that was radically different from the novel. On the other hand, many of Kubrick's changes were for the better, the most notable of them being the hedge maze replacing the hedge animals from the book. Besides the fact that the latter would have been really hard to film back in 1979-80, the former added a new dimension of space, shape and horror to the proceedings. It was made effectively creepy and, of course, with the way Kubrick photographs, gave us a real sense of the vulnerability of the Torrance family, being all alone in the middle of a snow-covered nowhere. Then there is the acting---brilliant, just brilliant. Jack Nicholson, who had already established himself as one of the most important actors of our time with his very well-deserved 1975 Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of faux-mentally disturbed Randall P. McMurphy in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, here as Jack Torrance created an equally memorable character that has also been enshrined in movie immortality. Shelley Duvall brings an intensity to Wendy Torrance that was perhaps under-emphasized in the book. Six-year-old Danny Lloyd, in his debut to his very brief film career (he would only do one other film after this one), is compulsively watchable as five-year-old Danny Torrance and completely commands our attention every time he's onscreen. Finally, 70-year-old Scatman Crothers as head cook Dick Hallorann, who shares the terrible gift of clairvoyance with Danny, gives what is probably the most memorable performance in his long and distinguished career. Yes, there are flaws, most notably the fact that Jack Torrance is made to go off the wall too soon into the film. In the book, it was a gradual incorporation of the hotel's evil spirit; perhaps too slow, but in the movie it happens so fast that we don't get any time to actually *sympathise* with his plight. But the film works on so many visual levels that it can be forgiven for its lack of character development. Be forewarned about showing this to your kids: THE SHINING is a rare phenomenon in that it's much bloodier and gorier than the book; usually it's the other way around with Stephen King books. THE SHINING may not be perfect, but it is nevertheless a Horror classic, a Stanley Kubrick classic and a Jack Nicholson classic---and it leaves us with a final shot that is as haunting as it is thought-provoking. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED; AGES 15 & UP
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