(Fig. 1 – Movie Poster)
“The Shining” created by Stanley Kubrick in 1980, based on
the novel by Stephen King, is an amazing horror film that scares not with
special effects, but incredible subtlety and a threat that is as real as
everything in the film. Insanity created by isolation and surroundings that
evoke the worst in the already mentally unstable Jack (Jack Nickolson).
The Guardian talks about the unique set and lighting used in
the film: “The Shining is another chance
to savour, first of all, those magnificent interior sets. Instead of the
cramped darkness and panicky quick editing of the standard-issue scary movie,
Kubrick gives us the eerie, colossal, brilliantly lit spaces of the Overlook
Hotel (created in Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire), shot with amplitude and
calm.” (Bradshaw, 2012)
The Empire Online talks about Kubrick’s quest for perfection
and the challenges the actors needed to endure in order to achieve it: “In accordance with the Kubrick legend, the
process of making the movie took meticulousness to staggering levels — Shelley
Duvall was reputedly forced to do no less than 127 takes of one scene;
Nicholson was force fed endless cheese sandwiches (which he loathes) to
generate a sense of inner revulsion, and the recent invention of the Steadicam
(by Garret Brown) fuelled Kubrick's obsessive quest for perfection. The result
is gloriously precision-made.” (empireonline.com, 2014)
The movie is full of symbolism and symmetry, but in every
scene with perfectly aligned objects and almost always portrayed using a 1
point perspective there is something slightly moved to one sight, as if to create
more tension in a seamlessly perfectly symmetrical scene as shown on fig 2. where
the carpet extends to the left or the “exit” sign hangs above the right.
( fig. 2 – movie still)
Roger Ebert Talks about the film: “The movie is not about ghosts but about madness and the energies it
sets loose in an isolated situation primed to magnify them. Jack is an
alcoholic and child abuser who has reportedly not had a drink for five months
but is anything but a "recovering alcoholic." When he imagines he
drinks with the imaginary bartender, he is as drunk as if he were really
drinking, and the imaginary booze triggers all his alcoholic demons, including
an erotic vision that turns into a nightmare.” (Ebert, 2006) The movie is
an incredible example of collaboration and adaptation. Stanley Kubrick not only
created a film based on a novel, but made a masterpiece which was equally his
and Stephen King’s.
(Fig. 3 – movie still)
Images:
Fig. 1 - MoviePosterDB.com,
(2014). The Shining posters. [online] Available at:
http://www.movieposterdb.com/movie/0081505/The-Shining.html [Accessed 28 Nov.
2014].
Fig. 2 - Collativelearning.com,
(2014). THE SHINING (1979) analysis by Rob Ager. [online] Available at:
http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining%20-%20chap%205.html [Accessed 28
Nov. 2014].
Fig. 3 - The Book
Smugglers, (2013). Old School Wednesdays: The Shining by Stephen King. [online]
Available at:
http://thebooksmugglers.com/2013/09/old-school-wednesdays-the-shining-by-stephen-king.html
[Accessed 28 Nov. 2014].
Bibliography:
Bradshaw, P. (2012). The Shining – review. [online] the
Guardian. Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/01/the-shining-review [Accessed 28
Nov. 2014].
empireonline.com, (2014). Empireonline Reviews | Reviews |
Empire. [online] Available at:
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=132700 [Accessed 28
Nov. 2014].
Ebert, R. (2006). The Shining Movie Review & Film
Summary (1980) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980 [Accessed 28
Nov. 2014].
