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The Shining Customer Reviews (16 - 18 of 131 Reviews)

One of the All-TIme Classic Horror Movies
I went to see "The "Shining" in the movie theater back in 1980 when it originally came out. At 13 there were some parts of the plot I couldn't grasp at the time, but even then I knew a great movie when I saw it. The movie, like the book, takes place in the heart of the Rocky Mountains of Colorodo. As an Oregon native, however, I immediately realized that the shot of the outside of the Overlook Hotel was made using Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon. The inside shots were filmed in England I believe. Trust me, though Timberline Lodge is a beautiful place, it doesn't look like the inside of the Overlook Hotel.

The movie deviates some from the book. The 1997 miniseries version is much closer to the book. Kubrick and the writers use so many great suble tools to make the movie effective. The characters are interesting enough. Jack Torrence is a former school teacher who is insecure (we see in the movie he fears having to work in a car wash). He is also a recovering alchoholic. There are hints that he left the teaching profession under duress and that he is an abusive father. Still, the Jack we see for the first half of the movie is a steady person. It is during the second half of the movie that the more sinister parts of his character start seeping through.

The Shining reminds me of The Ring in some aspects as it uses quick but powerful images to direct the movie. As you see the movie more times, you pick up on more subtle details of the movie that you missed before. Therefore it is definately worth owning. Some details of the movie remain a mystery to me. What did Mr. Grady mean when he told Jack that "you have always been the caretaker here"? This idea is apparently revisited at the end of the movie when we see him in a photograph at a New Year's Eve Party from early in the century. Though the movie leaves many mysteries behind, it is a modern masterpiece and is definately worth buying and adding to your library.

Kubrick Flips The Horror Genre Upon Its Head
The Shining is one of those rare films in which you may see some aspect of the story differently for the first time after your third viewing, or you never saw something at all until the 7th viewing, or you belatedly came to understand why Kubrick did something you originally thought was either superfluous or a waste of time.
Ironically, Kubrick took Stephen King's book and threw out everything but its skeleton, infuriating King so badly that the "king of horror" had to buy the screen rights back from Kubrick so he could make the "definitive" version on television. We're talking major genius here, where you can make a horror film that arguably is a domestic drama and the true horror is not the ghostly inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel, but the manner in which the Torrances react to a severe case of "cabin fever."
But, there are ghosts. You just don't know for certain who they really are, or what they can or cannot due, or if, maybe, they're figments of imagination for the entire family. The whole family shines!
For a minute, though, let's forget about that and look at some of the other Kubrick touches. He didn't create the steadicam, but Garrett Brown did, and the film features the first extensive use of it to create long and elaborate tracking shots. The Overlook Hotel was, at the time, the largest set ever built. Most uninformed viewers, myself included at the time, believed the film was made in a real hotel. Most of the film's music came from orchestral works by composers Krzysztof Penderecki, Bella Bartok and Gyorgy Ligeti.
There's dark humor all over the place, from Jack Torrance (Nicholson over the top in a mostly misunderstood performance), to hotel manager, Mr. Ullman (Barry Nelson), to chef Hallorann, to barkeep Lloyd (Joe Turkel), even to Shelley Duvall's Wendy Torrance ("We're going to have a real good time," she tells the child Danny, who already knows better.)
The film received generally poor reviews initially. Subsequent viewings over the years have altered the opinions of many critics. The Shining did reasonably well at the box office, though most audiences exited the theater with puzzled looks and much head scratching.
Today, it ranks near the top of most horror film lists. Nicholson's improvised, "Here's Johnny!" was picked #68 of the American Film Institutes' "100 Years...100 Movie Quotes."
Only Stanley Kubrick could have made such a film. The Shining is still an underrated masterpiece, but most all of Kubrick's latter films are treated similarly.
Time will be the test of the cinematic genius of Stanley Kubrick. One day, Kubrick will rightfully stand above, dare I say it, even Orson Welles.

Mental horror doesn't get better than this
It's been years (tens of years even) since I saw The Shining. Recently I purchased it from Amazon.com on DVD and what a treat! The film looks and sounds great and was a wonderful (scary) trip down memory lane. I know there was a "made for TV" version of the film that was supposed to be more faithful to the book but when it comes down to the feel, this film captures the dark atmosphere of the book much better.

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