Review: The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

Like most of the very best movies, Stanley Kubrick's film of The Shining has only become more and more renowned and influential with time. Released in 1980 to a limited box office success, mixed reviews and even (one would say, understandable) hostility from feminist groups, it certainly didn't catch on overnight. What's more, Stephen King was famously angered by how his story had been translated to the silver screen and Kubrick's crazed perfectionism boiled over to the point where it became what he was known most for, personality-wise (he notoriously did over 300 takes of the "What should be done with Danny" scene). But jumpforward 30 years, and The Shining has finally risen to a level of greatesteem with critics and audiences alike, and rightfully so.
Struggling author and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their young son Danny (Danny Lloyd, who, thanks to some clever direction had no idea he was working on a horror movie) have just arrived at the magnificent, sprawling Overlook Hotel in Colorado, where Jack has landed the job of caretaker during the winter off-season. Jack hopes to get some serious writing done during their stay, but unbeknownst to him, Wendy and Danny, the Overlook has a very violent past in which one of the former caretakers murdered himself and his entire family out of isolation. Their spirits remain, haunting and cursing the hotel. On top of that, young Danny possesses a very powerful gift called "shining," which enables him to clairvoyantly detect and communicate with evil spirits, a gift he ironically shares with the hotel's kindly head chef Dick Hallorann (the wonderful Scatman Crothers). Over the winter, emotional problems and isolation send Jack spirally down into the depths of insanity, leading to only two things: bloodshed and death.
Now I'll be honest: Kubrick is one director who either amazes me (Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket and of course this) or bores me stupid (Barry Lyndon and the first half of 2001: A Space Odyssey), but with this knockout masterpiece he makes not one decision that's less than a genius one. His direction here is nothing short of breathtaking, as his rhythmic pace in the second and third acts and tedious attention to detail in all three acts of the film enables him to notch the tension up to almost unbearable levels, all building up to one of the most unforgettable climaxes ever seen in cinema. Much credit for this goes to cinematographer John Alcott, whose stunning aerial shots and creepy Steadicam interior photography enhances the film's eerie atmosphere enormously. The music by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind also does what it is meant to do brilliantly.

Maybe most thankfully, given this is a horror movie after all, the acting is exceptional. The one and only Jack Nicholson, despite not wanting to be in the same room as his director during filming, enjoys what for me is his best role after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's R.P. Murphy, and boy does he give it his all. Nicholson makes it look all too easy as he effortlessly portrays Jack in every stage of his downfall – from slightly crazy and career-driven but loving husband and father to unstable hotel-bound man to finally a complete and utter animal. Nobody else could have played this part, and it's surely one of the scariest performances in the history of film. Although her character will probably annoy many people (and indeed that's really the point, you could argue), Shelley Duvall does a radiant job as an initially seemingly catatonic housewife who must race against time to save herself and her son from the one man who should love them more than anything else in the world. Finally, Scatman Crothers brings a whole lot of old-world charm to the wise and affable cook who shares Danny's gift/curse.
I was first introduced to Kubrick's film of The Shining when I was a 13-year-old lad, eager for something new, and I was mesmerized – scared shitless, but mesmerized. Its technical mastery aside, The Shining becomes a true definitive masterpiece in how it deconstructs the human condition, looking at what makes us sane and what can spark irreversible insanity in us all. With each genre he tackled, Kubrick aimed to make the last word in film-making in whatever genre that might've been. This was his attempt to do that for the horror genre, and if I may say so, he sure as hell succeeded. The Shining is one of the most insanely (no pun intended) brilliant pieces of cinema ever crafted.