Ssssshinnnninggg

[Sola]

Its one my favorite Stephen King novels, and I think Kubrick did a great job at creating a good, scary movie. It's full of incredible visuals, and camera angles (Danny through the hotel hallways). Nicholson gives his standard over-the-top performance (nothing new there).

There are King fans who really really dislike this movie. But I think Kubrick did a great job, but perhaps in a different way. It ranks up there with "Psycho" and "The Exorcist" among the great horror pictures of all time.

If you haven't seen it, rent it. It's worth it.

[Proman]

I must say that I really like this movie. And I also think think that Kubrick did a great job of changing the original novel. He's version is so much better! About a year ago I saw a new version of "Shinning"made by the "Sci-Fi" channel (it even has a a cameo by King himself). It wasn't exactly horribe but I thought the ending was very stupid and very cliche' (not to mention it wasn't as scary). That's probably the reason why King wasn't satisfied with the Kubrick's version. Most of the movies that are based on his novels are translated without any major changes.
BTW, did you know that the actor who palyed Danny didn't even know he was in a horror movie? Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. Through clever and creative directing, Danny didn't know he was working on a horror movie until after it was released.

[Johann]

Danny Lloyd now works in a Wal-Mart in the midwest. He only acted in one other film after the Shining.

Betcha didn't know that, huh?

[Ansonm]

A cable remake is a mistake for something like the Shining. I suppose the name has enough recognition to make it a financially viable project.

If you're going to get one acting job in your life, mine as well be in Kubrick film!

[Proman]

Actually I did know that but I found out about it not long ago.

[Scottsteaux]

As a Stephen King fan I was appalled by Stanley Kubrick's film THE SHINING. To be sure, Kubrick was a genius at creating unsettling visual images; however, THE SHINING requires more than just scary pictures.

Time and again, Kubrick demonstrated that he was hopeless at directing actors. Stephen King's novel depicts a man being driven slowly out of his mind. Jack Nicholson goes off the wall so early in the film that before it is half over the actor has nowhere to go with the character. Also, most of the people I know who have seen the film find Nicholson's performance not frightening but hilarious.

Shelley Duvall gets treated even worse. King's Wendy is a bright, resourceful woman; Duvall comes off as a helpless birdbrain.

Making the kid talk with his finger is another device that drew laughs when I saw the film.

And the kid simply can't act. Period.

All in all, and absolutely dreadful film.

Read the book. Don't bother with the movie.

[Meejoir]

I love horror films. But I can never watch the Shining beyond the part where the corpse stands up in the bath. I just have to switch it off, it's just too much! The tension in that movie until that part is unsurpassed.

[JustaFied]

I'll try to add my two cents about this movie, though I have a tendency to get the film mixed up with the book, as well as with The Simpson's Halloween Special of "The Shinning". I have not yet seen the cable TV remake of the film, thankfully.

What I like about this movie is that it's more than just a typical horror movie, though Kubrick still does a good job of retaining key elements from that genre. However, Kubrick goes beyond just the standard "slice-em-up" action of horror movies and ventures (once again) into a study of human nature. And (once again) Kubrick comes out with a pessimistic, nihilistic conclusion about that nature and mankind in general.

The first time I saw this movie, I was 12 or so, and it was little more than a scary horror movie to me. It wasn't until I saw the Simpson's version of "The Shinning" that I thought about the other aspects of the film. Basically, in The Simpsons, Homer goes nuts and tries to kill his family because "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy". And that's what I picked up on in Kubrick's version as well. Kubrick challenges the traditional idea that a comfortable life in a bucolic setting leads to man's happiness. Perhaps instead, he suggests, it leads to man's facing his own true nature, one that may involve aspects of paranoia, depression, or violence. (This theme, by the way, is similar to that seen in "The Iceman Cometh", the fascinating play by Eugene O'Neill). True, in the real world the man probably won't end up hallucinating about imaginary bartenders and trying to kill his family. But that's what keeps the film in the horror genre, I guess.

[pipsorcle]

Yes, Stanley Kubrick did dishonor Stephen King's novel but you know what? Kubrick made a hell of a better film than the miniseries that starred Steven Weber. I swear, aspiring filmmakers should study Kubrick because he seriously knows how to make a film visual and tell the story right. The miniseries was just formulaic, standard crap, no real images that I could remember or get frightened off. That's the problem with a lot of Stephen King films. They end up just not being developed well. Hmmmm Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile might be different choices but they're dramas, not horror/suspense.

Now forget the fact that Kubrick did a horrible adaptation of "the Shining." If he didn't, his methods of directing would still hold the same. So what if he doesn't know how to direct actors? Acting doesn't make a good film. It helps but take into consideration that there's a major difference between theatre and film. Theatre is all about acting. Film on the other hand, is visual. People need to see a "motion picture" and something unique happen on screen.

Part of why Kubrick is such a great storyteller in "The Shining" is his ability to slowly develop the fate of the family when they're living in this mansion amongst an isolated environment. How Jack Nicholson's character evolves into such a monster is realistic because you slowly get to see him become worse and worse.

Plus how can one not appreciate the classic "redrum" line?

[Scottsteaux]

Everybody keeps saying that THE SHINING is a great horror film. I am here to tell you that when I saw it in a theatre the entire audience HOWLED WITH LAUGHTER AT THE ENTIRE FILM. Nicholson's performance is hilarious, not frightening.

Good acting may not make a great film, but nothing sinks a film faster than TERRIBLE acting, and THE SHINING is a textbook example of how NOT to direct actors in a film.

I did not find this movie frightening AT ALL. I found it ANNOYING. And considering that Kubrick cut out most of the guts of Stephen King's story, the film takes WAY too much time to tell what's left of the story.

Sorry, but THE SHINING is no masterpiece. Even "great" directors can make really shitty movies, and that is what THE SHINING is: a REALLY shitty movie.

[pipsorcle]

I find it very strange to hear that an entire audience laughs at "the Shining." I'd like to hear just EXACTLY how Stanley Kubrick's film fails in its narrative.

Admittingly, I wouldn't think "The Shining" is the most incredible out of films of its kind. I don't even know what is.

Hopefully this isn't the same audience that praised the "Scream" trilogy or any of these so called horror/suspense films of modern day because those aren't real horror films, just films with cheap thrills.