The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film by Stanley Kubrick and is based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name. Stanley Kubrick directed and produced the film along with co-wroting the screenplay with novelist Diane Johnson. The Shining stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers and Danny Lloyd.
The storyline centres around Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the isolated historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Wintering over with Jack are his wife, Wendy Torrance and young son, Danny Torrance. Danny possesses “the shining”, psychic abilities that enable him to see into the hotel’s horrific past. The hotel cook, Dick Hallorann, also has this ability and is able to communicate with Danny telepathically. The hotel had a previous winter caretaker who went insane and killed his family and himself. After a winter storm leaves the Torrances snowbound, Jack’s sanity deteriorates due to the influence of the supernatural forces that inhabit the hotel, placing his wife and son in danger.
Principle photography almost exclusively took place at EMI Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with the sets used based on real locations. Some of the interior designs of the Overlook Hotel set were based on those of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. The set for the Overlook Hotel was at the time the largest ever built at Elstree Studios and included a life-size re-creation of the exterior of the hotel. In February 1979, the set at Elstree was badly damaged in a fire, causing a delay in the production.
Stanley Kubrick often worked on his films with a small team, which allowed him to do many takes, sometimes to the exhaustion of the actors and staff. For filming a new camera mount system called Steadicam, was used to shoot several scenes. This gave the film a more innovative and immersive look and feel. As with many of Kubrick’s films it wasnt without controversy with many speculating into the real meanings and actions in the film due to the inconsistencies, ambiguities, symbolism and differences from the book.
The inital release of The Shining was unlike any of Stanley Kubrick’s previous films, which developed audiences gradually through word-of-mouth. The Shining opened in ten cinemas in New York City and Los Angeles and was then was released as a mass-market film nationwide within a month. When it was released in Europe, The Shining was 25 minutes shorter than the American version, due to Kubrick’s removal of most of the scenes taking place outside the environs of the hotel. According to Jan Harlan who worked as an executive producer, Stanley Kubrick decided to cut the sequences because the film was “not very well received”, and Warner Brothers had complained about its ambiguity and length.
When The Shining was released it received mixed reviews from the critics. However the following decades, their initial assessments became more favorable, and The Shining is now widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made. American director Martin Scorsese, writing in The Daily Beast, ranked it one of the 11 scariest horror movies of all time. Critics, scholars, and crew members (such as Kubrick’s producer Jan Harlan) have discussed the film’s enormous influence on popular culture. On Rotten Tomatoes it currently holds a rating of 85% with the general consensus being, “Though it deviates from Stephen King’s novel, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a chilling, often baroque journey into madness — exemplified by an unforgettable turn from Jack Nicholson”. Janet Maslin of The New York Times lauded Nicholson’s performance and praised the Overlook Hotel as an effective setting for horror, but wrote that “the supernatural story knows frustratingly little rhyme or reason … Even the film’s most startling horrific images seem overbearing and perhaps even irrelevant. Roger Ebert praised the film and awarded four out four stars, saying “But there is no way, within the film, to be sure with any confidence exactly what happens, or precisely how, or really why. Kubrick delivers this uncertainty in a film where the actors themselves vibrate with unease”.
Film Details
Title
The Shining
Year of Film
1980
Director
Stanley Kubrick
Starring
Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel, Anne Jackson, Tony Burton, Barry Dennen
Origin of Film
USA | UK
Genre(s) of Film
Drama | Horror
Box Office
Budget: $19,000,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend: $622,337 (USA)
Gross: $46,327,744 (USA)
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