Rating of
4/4
*looks at finger* 'Tony, I'm scared.'
memento_mori - wrote on 06/23/13
So what's my take on The Shining?: Brilliant.
First of all, this movie is like a roller coaster ride. It starts slowly. It ascends and the air gets thick, a heartbeat and the coaster zooms down with everything rushing past in a crazy haze.
The Shining is a little like that. It starts slowly and builds suspense, then gives it to you.
Second of all, Stanley Kubrick. When people ask me what I think about Stanley Kubrick, I respond in two parts. I like to think of him as two parts of a filmmaker. The first part is the screenwriter, who I don't quite know how I feel about them. The second is the director, whom I absolutely love.
If there is a director of who's films you will definitely have to watch them twice, it would be Stanley Kubrick. It's like a little bit of his mind is split into his movies, like a Horcrux from Harry Potter. It's almost like he doesn't want you to notice the little things that are hidden in the Shining, like he's challenging you.
The direction in The Shining worked, because that's simply Kubrick's style. His shots are dark, eerie and uncomfortable, which seem to build tone and atmosphere. But I hear he wasn't really a pleasure to work with. He gave the actors no freedom and stuck to what was laid out.
What I really find appalling, is that Stanley Kubrick took Stephen King's script adaptation and butchered it, until it was to his liking.
The acting is horrendous and fantastic at the same time. You know that everything is overacted, but after a while it becomes bearable and creepy.
More on the controversial script:
I can understand why King was mad when he saw The Shining. He insisted that Jack only turned insane when they got to the hotel, making the Overlook Hotel a creepy and important plot device.
The way Kubrick structured it, made it seem like Jack was already crazy and the Overlook was just a random snowy building for him to harvest his evil in.
I'm not going to lie, as much as I see Kubrick as two parts, I see The Shining as two parts. The beginning and the middle (1), the climax and the end (2). And the second is definitely the better one.
I understand it takes time to build suspense (note the film's two-and-a-half-hour runtime), but the first half kind of seemed like it was just a place for Kubrick to dump his expertise. His creepy style and it almost seemed like it was a movie made for Kubrick specifically, it's just that confusing.
But because the frights in the finale paid off very well, I can forgive the occasional moment of boredom.
Stanley Kubrick would be the to-go guy, if you needed a definition of 'creepy'. This movie sent goosebumps through my body, way after it was over.
No jump scares, no quick-cuts. Just actual wide-angle shots that show you what's going on. Props to the Kubrick, still my favorite director of all time.
