STUART: Stacked them neatly in one of the rooms of the west wing, then he uhm well he uh put both barrels of a shotgun in his mouth. The light of the unseen window, through the shower curtain, is as prominent as was the light of the window in Ullman's office. For a while I misinterpreted a little sculpture next to salt and pepper shakers as an elephant. BILL (closing door): How do you do? -When Wendy tries to convince Danny that moving to the Overlook Hotel won't be so bad, she says, "It'll be a lot of fun.". THE DOCTOR: we can always think about having some tests done. 16 MCU of Wendy. Doing so, we see Snoopy's little yellow bird friend, Woodstock, using the helium balloon to fly away from the tub in the direction of the window. It also worked well with the circa 1920 building we were living in. (8:04) The website of the Timberline Lodge notes, Curiously and somewhat ironically, room #217 is requested more often than any other room at Timberline., The iconic sentence actually changes meaning for foreign translations of the film, at Kubricks request. SUSIE: Yes, I will. Stuart introduces his secretary, Susie (Alison Coleridge). I don't know, but Danny, surrounded in Boulder by his toys and cartoon figures, is very much in the fantasy world of the child, and his relationship to his mother may be somewhat described here in her being on par with these toys and cartoon figures, which is not to denigrate her but to point out how "real" such fictional figures can be to a child. The silver service he was carrying isn't on the table between the man and the blond woman, nor do we see it with the two older women. The picture is an x-ray of a quite different interior world. 29 MCU of Stuart. It was one of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 1980. "I can't remember everything." Notice also that there are toys scattered about the floor including, to Jack's left, a small black teddy bear with its torso clothed in red - a foresight of Halloran's death. He took one of his fathers bloody hands and kissed it. The Greatest of All Time, aka . An owl sits above the rainbow and another image of Snoopy. However, he forbids him from entering room 237. Dressed in light blue dresses with long pink bows, they stand in an unknown hall decorated with blue carpet and blue flowered wallpaper, staring at the camera, clasping hands, reminiscent of Diane Arbus' famous photograph of the twin girls, but while he was photographing for LOOK Kubrick was already taking pictures of girls in similar attire. Hinting at what will happen serves multiple purposes (such as building tension and suspense). The move of the duck from the bathroom to the bedroom window is a fun tidbit, and one can perhaps concoct a story for its journey if one superimposes the bathroom scene over this one. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. What connects the secretarial area with the exit? His manifest goal or desire (writing a novel), meshes well with the offered circumstances (spending five months of peace and quiet in the isolated hotel). (16:09) If you happened to miss the link just above, here first is a short post on the blog with repurposed shots from Google Maps street view pinpointing the location of the Boulder apartment. Because they do. DANNY: Yeah, I guess so. Some behind-the-scenes footage shows Nicholsons Method acting before filming the iconic scene. Hanging above the sink is a green and white dish towel that may read "Golf with the Greats". Two brown leather chairs face a large brown desk situated before a bright window on the sill of which appears to be a wood carving of an eagle or other predatory bird. We briefly have the feeling of being within the confines of the hedge maze with the Boulder greenery filling in the wall to the left, and the potted plants spilling their greenery from above. Film reviewer Tim Robey noted, It was not the commercial success Warner Bros. had been hoping for. The film cost $11 million to make and earned $9.5 million in the United States, though it did have a good life in foreign box offices. Opposite them sit two older women. 47 MCU of Jack. Cut to the camera zooming in on Danny facing the mirror in the bathroom, speaking to his reflection. He doesn't just cut it out, he jumps a few seconds into a following segment, letting us hear the elastic kind of sound (like rubber bands) of one of those boxes with a handle you press down so TNT goes off, and there's a big explosion that follows that in the cartoon but Kubrick cuts that out. Seems it's a question posed with some caution. We had already observed he was wearing a red and blue and white raglan sleeved shirt decorated with stars around the armband, but while he was in the kitchen we were only able to see the number 4 above that band. So there are some shots where Ullman's white pen is pointed toward him and there's a cigarette in the tray; some shots where the pen is pointed away from Ullman and there is no cigarette; some shots where the pen is pointed away from Ullman and there is a cigarette. The view also shows the oven with matched pots arranged on top, an exhaust fan above, and perhaps a coffee maker. Danny is the first to make contact with the evil forces of the hotel. 27:20 - It occurs as they enter the C1 storage room. Wendy Torrance is driven by a desire to improve her marriage but, beyond all, protect her son from any injuries that might come his way. The Second Interview, Shots 61 through 95 JACK: I'm a writer. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Notes on the Timings of the "Sha" Sounds This scene, not in the book, seems to have been inspired in part by a photo Kubrick took for LOOK magazine, in 1948, of a woman and her dog at an art auction, this woman appearing to be the same one who held the dog in The Killing. Fig. DANNY: No. This information was ostensibly available to Kubrick and if he was aware of it there's the chance it could have influenced his decision to connect the Overlook with the Ahwahnee of Yosemite for reasons other than design. He also cuts out the following escapade of Coyote on a revving motorcycle and its crash, Kubrick exiting with music heard during the next escapade in the cartoon when Wiley E. is pouring Acme bird seed out onto the road. JACK: Well, you can rest assured, Mr. Ullman, that's not going to happen with me. DOCTOR: Yes. The only thing that can get a bit trying up here during the winter is a tremendous sense of isolation. Is "The Great Mother" intended to be their mother? Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. 25:11 - "Dick (sound) if you're ready to do it now, show" The scene where Stuart has Dick show Wendy and Danny the kitchen. The "spectator" shoes in combination with the camera is an interesting choice of attire for this opening shot. Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, The Shining is about a family who takes residence in a secluded hotel for the winter during its off season. Jack cockily decides for them. The rainbow precedes a focus on Danny's eyes during his visionary experience, after which all goes dark as his vision is covered with the blood flowing from the elevator. Kubrick repeatedly used trains in his films as a symbol for synchronicity and cyclings of events. Perhaps this simulated psychic vision is another root of the film's sense of unseen menace. Alot of the foreshadowing in the book is Shmuel and Bruno talking about certain things that the Nazis do, like when it smelled bad outside they didn't know what it was but in the book you knew it was the Nazis burning the Jews in the chambers, . When the editor goes to the Golden Elephant Mine to investigate, he is killed by Davis, who sneaks the editor's body back into his office, and the rumor is begun that, as the editor was against the railroad, it was someone connected with the railroad who killed him. When her hair is pulled back we observe that she has not only bangs but that a portion of hair is cut about chin level. Jack is not even worried about the tragedy that occurred in 1970 but of course this functions as an omen/foreshadowing for the audience. When you overlay then the elevator hall with the next scene of Danny's bedroom, the bathroom door fits neatly into the left up to the 2nd bank of wall, and the far right of the elevator aligns with the bedroom's right corner. (5:01) The camera has cut to Wendy while Danny/Tony said "Mrs. I-10, V-6, D-4, H-5. STUART (removing glasses): Yes? Later, a painting above the double bed in the apartment used by the Torrances will provide a view of the lodge's mountain from a similar vantage point, only from across Mirror Lake during either spring or summer. 29 - Crossfade from Jack in Ullman's office to the Boulder bathroom. Again, in the apartment in Boulder, Wendy is watching a film about the building of a railroad track and there is the painting of the horse running down the train track toward a pre-scripted destiny. The two most distinct instances of the sound here are during the two reaction shots of Jack, when he's saying his wife and child will love it there, and then again his reaction to the idea of the tragedy occurring because of people shut in together over long periods of time. The sound is abrupt and a little disconcerting. The above scene is also a subliminal link to the deaths of the twin girls. Comin' Through the Rye JACK: I don't believe they did. Tim Messenger, a local journalist claiming to have information for the police, is brutally killed by falling masonry as he's standing waiting to see Sergeant Angel. This is the same television as will be observed eventually in the Torrance's suite at the Overlook, but we will not see it until Wendy paces the floor deliberating on how she may have to leave the mountain without Jack. A garbage trucks license plate reads RM237. And Trixie chats online with a dinosaur toy down the street who happens to have the screen name Velocistar237.. Lunch with Danny, Wendy, Tony, The Catcher in the Rye, and the Kensington, Shots 12 through 20 30 - Danny in the Boulder bathroom, seen from his bedroom. The Shining essays are academic essays for citation. We will be looking, constantly, to see where the elevator hall fits into the labyrinth of the Overlook. Note the loud echoing bang of the ball and compare it with the slamming thud as Jack chops through doors. The 30-minute film, which aired on BBC, was a very rare look into Kubricks directing styles. It gives the appearance of a female form on the left, and checking out an earlier scene (when Bill enters the office) in which the photo is shown in full doesn't help with identifying what it may be, for if it is a female form, where the head should be we have simply a gray expanse. 50 Crossfade from office interior to Boulder apartment interior. Not to mention everyone grew up eating white bread peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This includes alcoholism, battles against evil, disembodied villains, corruption, and insanity. 78 MS Danny's bedroom. (sound). Well, maybe things that happen leave other kinds of traces behind. So, there are two interviews, and perhaps even three if we count the doctor speaking with Danny. 16 - The Boulder apartment complex. I also wonder if the novel wasn't partly used for the antipathy of the novel's protagonist for Hollywood films and the feeling his brother had squandered his talent by going to work for Hollywood. So he manufactured ways in which other people could do it, lopping a piece at a time off himself and their family. Film footage displays a desert scene, the heat of the boiler is raised, everyone sweats and thirsts. (9:29) 496 votes, 38 comments. Though we may not even be aware yet that what we're seeing is a model of the maze, that we're first introduced to the idea of the maze within the lodge comments on the lodge itself, which, as discussed above, if we compare our assumptions to its reality, is irrational and nonsensical at nearly every turn. On a psychological level, Jacks fatal flaw pertains both to the fear of failure and particularly in the 144 version to alcoholism. STUART: Susie? When they used the phrase, they meant that they aimed to kill Danny, making him a ghost in the hotel. A fortune teller might use foreshadowing, warning that a short life line is a sign of some impending disaster. 22 - Bill, Stuart and Jack in Ullman's office. STUART: This is my secretary, Susie. 10 - Jack enters the secretary's office. It is through the three consonants of the name spelled out: IVD HH VV. She's a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict. We see beyond her an elder woman in tan, who had been in that earlier grouping, and is now seated opposite the lobby's television and catty corner to where the man with the camera had been earlier seated. Some claim that it would have been characteristic of the director to individually prepare each page. Kubrick Corner further points out that the Avis car rental pamphlets on the counter beside Jack could be taken as echoing the name Jack Davis. However, interpretation is unavoidable: Will the evil cycle repeat itself in the future like it did in the past? Return to Table of Contents for "The Shining" analysis Shot 142. When the reader is introduced to Jack Torrance, they learn about his alcoholic past and the reasons why he decided to quit drinking. He feels as though he finally understands why his father had to hit his mother. There is no door in that area through which he could have passed for the doors to the hall beyond are blocked by seating and if there did happen to be doors to an exterior patio (which there are not) he hasn't the time to exit them. To my eye he looks like Marcello Mastroianni, and, with his camera, I've thought of him as perhaps being a reference to Fellini's 8 and 1/2 in which Marcello starred, playing, in effect, Fellini. (15:59) 20:03 - On "Closing Day" when Jack says they'd had a bite to eat, the "sha" follows. Four people are seated in an area on the screen right side of the main door. (6:54) The projectionist room in that movie even resembles the boiler room in the basement in The Shining. The pair are an expression of the idea of a struggle of universal forces ever in conflict, and it's held that never can both exist on the same plane. Some other interesting, but slightly less conclusive examples are: There are many examples of the film using subliminal association to force us into experiencing little Danny's terrible shining visions. The color of the pillars is no longer what it was when the film was made, but the trim appears to be the same as in older photos. 40 - Danny questioned by the doctor. On the screen we see a man departing, through the rye, and his lover telling him that before his return the rye will be harvested and her heart as empty as the field. He ended up having a role in a TV film two years later, but that was the extent of his acting career. 90 MS Doctor from Wendy's side. He didnt even see the actual film until he was 16. I just personally dont find it scary because I saw it behind the scenes," Lloyd later said. (8:24) STUART: The problem is the enormous cost it would be to keep the road to Sidewinder open. (13:12) We can see beyond him the TV on which the Summer of 42 movie will later be played, while beyond Wendy, as already noted, we have the apartment's TV playing the Western, a parallel established between the two scenes visually, the television in each shot weighted to screen right, while Jack leans to screen left and Wendy faces to screen right, the scenes dialoguing with one another. Foreshadowing holds the reader's interest because they try to use these clues to figure out what happens next. JACK: Well, that hmmm just happens to be exactly what I'm looking for. (7:13) The rainbow has become a symbol of happiness, good luck, peace and the promise of a pot of gold at its end for those who can find it. STUART (smiling): And for once I agree with them. THE DOCTOR: Mrs. Torrance, most of the time these episodes with kids are never explained, they are brought on by emotional factors, and they rarely occur again. The same happens in 2001, the 2nd half beginning with almost all shots of Frank's space walk replicating, with slight changes, shots from when Dave was doing his space walk. DANNY: Now, Tony, tell me. King Kong in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The dialogue between the two, the boy and himself, brings to mind Ullman remarking on how the story of Charles Grady sometimes gives people "second thoughts". On this duplicitous and confusing note, Kubrick chooses to end "The Interview" section. Looking up the works of Ina Seidel, I find Literature and Film in the Third Reich, by Karl-Heinz Schoeps, relates: An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers expands on the book, The Wish Child: This all plays in with Jack's later devotion to the harsh ideals as set forth by the lodge and the demands on its caretakers, as well as Kubrick's interest in the Shoa (the preferred term over holocaust). 38 - Not in the movie. We're all going to have a real good time. She then stands by the window . BILL: Well, this ought to be quite a change for ya. Note that the Ahwahnee elevators have a variation of the fylfot, which would be American Indian or at least American Indian inspired. 9 - Jack crosses the spot where he will later kill Dick, leaping out from behind the pillar on the right. WENDY: Only about three months. Uhm, let's see. 31 MCU of Stuart. Woodstock, a friend of Snoopy's, wasn't very adept at flying, thus the balloon. Stephen Kings use of character development throughout this novel is what makes the book so thrilling and moving. I'd like you to. "Tony" now refers to himself in the first person. Flashbacks also reveal that she has seen a marriage dissolve firsthand (her parents) and fears that what happened to them is going to happen to her. (16:11) But we tend to accept the office as it is, ignoring the impossible window, because all else appears to be so normal. This can be part of the general atmosphere of the work, or it can be a specific scene or object that gives a clue or hint as to a later development of the plot. Hallorann finds out that Danny has his own power, the shining, and thus gives him some advice: he explains that bad things happen and leave traces, though implying that these are innocuous (as when someone burns toast); he reassures him that the things he sees through the shining are just like pictures in a book. Then there is Jack himself as Dannys antagonist, representing what the boy may become if he does not accomplish his own journey. But the individual pages in the film contain different layouts and mistakes. WENDY: Anyway, something good did come out of it all because he said, uh The Nazis eyes, "shining with greed," continued to bring their wrath down upon the thousands . That doesn't mean the maze is itself irrational and nonsensical. He has said, "Pleasure to meet you", "Fine", "What line of work are you in now", and "Well, this ought to be quite a change for ya" and now falls into silence, only observing. Run away. When Wendy is sitting there with the Salinger book, its back cover perfectly mirroring the front cover, with the hidden reference to Mather's Comin' Through the Rye, she is reading a book on history repeating itself. This gives the reader the ability to picture the horror of the surroundings and also the isolation. The velociraptor kitchen scene has multiple references to "The Shining." The end credits contain a reference to Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." . So when Jack Torrance is seen reading a Playgirl in the lobby of the Overlook before he gets hired, its probably not meaningless. She is author (with Valerio Sbravatti) of Shining: King vs. Kubrick, Segnocinema 209 (2018), pp. Later in the film her appearance normalizes. Or we may just be seeing through the blue cloth the white of underslilps. The characters accept the window and, trusting the characters, the audience assumes this must be an external wall. Once again, Jacks and Dannys paths interweave: while the boy is in the Special World of room 237, his father has a nightmare; after Danny leaves room 237, Jack enters the Special World. Danny, although only five years old, is well-aware of the troubles his parents are dealing with. I posit that we need to reflect upon what it means if Kubrick is tying in these projectors with the idea of the boilers, and it seems he is. Hes ashamed of who his father was, that is until he is firmly in the grasp of the hotel and has turned against his own family. But it was a different episode, about poker players getting into a fight, that inspired parts of The Shining. It's difficult for me to tell. Wendy's appearance doesn't strike as eccentric or "mousy" today (or to me it doesn't) but back in 1980 her style here would have been perceived as somewhat peculiar, the latitude allowed for divergence from a certain conception of attractiveness not being exactly broad. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. DANNY: Talking to Tony. My superimposition of the bloody elevator and Danny's bedroom, showing spatial/design similarities. Has it anything to do with it being the Kensington? (13:16) (13:36) Thus, 8 and 1/2. Home Stephen King The Shining Review. Fig. 7 - Kubrick briefly revisits the group by the door though he need not have. In the above quote in which Jack pleads with his son to run away, Danny says that it is almost over. Hes aware that the end is near and that soon the horrors will cease. The Shining moon landing connection is the one theory that extends film and into the life and work of Stanley Kubrick in general. Danny's First Shining of the Girls and the Bloody Elevator, Shots 50 through 60 But Danny, who has always loved his father indiscriminately, refuses to. The gematria for the name in this short form is 26. Wendy directs the doctor into the living room, past the painting of a horse running down a track toward an oncoming train. Peter Pan's habitat was Neverland, and the two girls in blue will first appear to Danny here, who will later beckon him to come play with them forever, and ever, and ever, just as Jack will say he wishes they could stay at the Overlook forever, and ever, and ever. The way that the camera tracks the pair emerging from Danny's room and continuing to the living room is curious as it skews the relationship of that hall with the remainder of the apartment. STUART: Uhm, physically, it's not a very demanding job. To the left of Snoopy is Mickey Mouse. Which suggests she may be wondering if he's epileptic. Basil Dearden included a reference to Knock on Wood in The Smallest Show on Earth. Another article advertised on the cover is Interview: The Selling of (Starsky & Hutchs) David Soul. Perhaps Kubrick was throwing in some extra foreshadowing. Then the same happens in reality in front of the movie screen and the audience buys all these sweets. The "sha" is usually briefly preceded with other ambient noises that give a texture of background activity and low background conversation so it seems a part of the natural ambiance. There is constant conflict between Jack and Wendy even before he is possessed as he has anger issues and a tendency to be violent when he has drunk too much. The disastrous flood that occurs at the . Danny is lying on his bed on a fuzzy bear pillow, a doctor bent over him, examining him, as Wendy stands to the rear, clearly anxious. To the rainbow's right we have Mickey's sweetheart, Minnie Mouse. (Crossfade ends at 10:34.) A child having to navigate a world built for adults, Danny stands on a stool before the bathroom sink that is built for adult use. She isn't looking at Jack, as he's not in her line of sight. After a moment, we hear a voice. The Awakening of Jacob This device is valuable, as it allows readers to make connections between themes, characters, symbols, and more-both within a literary work and between works of literature. The bank owner who's told this is surprised by the fact, and it's explained to him that the reason there are two is that they are being drilled from opposite sides of the mountain to meet in the middle. 2 - The Ahwahnee lobby, a Creative Commons image by Dave Ciskowsi. In the cartoon, the train sound starts and we have two whistles, this repeated again with the two whistles, then immediately thereafter Wiley E. (having believed he's escaped the train which was below him) hears a louder roaring of the train and turns to see its big white light bearing down on him inside the dark of the tunnel behind him and then there's a resounding explosive encounter. (5:04) JACK: I'm Jack Torrance. In my novel, 'The Shining' by Stephen King, there is constant foreshadowing. The wicker chair was standard fare. The Shining is a glaring example of a film that has led to countless interpretations, favoured by its complex and enigmatic nature, sometimes leading to interpretive deliriums - as confirmed by the documentary film Room 237 (Rodney Ascher, 2012). So when we are looking at the Overlook from the aerial view, this is what informs the pyramidal structure of the lobby, yet Kubrick has stripped it out of the film as far as the set interior, preferring instead to have no fireplace at all in the lobby of the Overlook, patterning its appearance after the lodge at Yosemite. [A lieutenant] told me theyve really gone over the place with a fine tooth comb and they didnt find the slightest evidence of anything at all out of the ordinary. He also encourages Wendy and Danny to stay with him for a while. Stanley Kubrick did not get along with The Shining star Shelley Duvall. The right photo is even more mysterious, perhaps showing the hedge maze with snow in the foreground, and a peculiar, vague silhouette overlaying that seems to only take on humanoid proportions through the eye looking for such, and yet also lends itself to such. In a particularly chilling moment, Jack expresses sympathy for his father. Fig. The boy is a young Hero who looks for a sense of satisfaction. King's vision was a vulgar and seemingly uneducated older man, and Watson's suit and tie are little suited to the job unless his duty is to act primarily as an overseer of others who do the dirty work, which isn't as it was in the book.