After a moment, we hear a voice. Whoever the author.Discover new and exciting books to dive into with our Book Explorer Tool. Shot 117. Though the audience won't know about Carson City, Kubrick has embedded bits of information so that The Shining anticipates and then complements the film on the television as it runs. The roar rises and subsides. The cart swerves to avoid the dog, the case falls, bursts open, the money spills out and is swept across the tarmac by the plane's propellers. A medium close-up now of Ullman's desk shows, among other things, his prominently displayed name plate, a black fountain pen, a pewter tankard holding more pens, a white pen next to a desk calendar, a pint-size American flag, and we notice his red and white striped shirt and red tie and blue blazer patriotically echo the flag. foreshadowing, the organization and presentation of events and scenes in a work of fiction or drama so that the reader or observer is prepared to some degree for what occurs later in the work. On the counter we see a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter, Smuckers jelly, a canister of grape Koolaid, Fruit Loops, and other items. 5 - Mastroianni as he appeared in "8 and 1/2". We are treated to several ghostly paranormal tales told by individuals who keep entreating the architect to stay. -Jack tells Wendy that he fell in love with the hotel the first time he saw it and felt as if he'd been there before. 56 MS Overlook hall. In spite of being an enjoyable horror film that evokes myths and fables, The Shining does not present a rigorously canonical dramatic framework. DANNY: Do you really want to go and live in that hotel for the winter? One salt and pepper gray-haired man in a plaid jacket and two-toned spectator shoes is prominent, reading near the entrance, smoking what may be a cigar, a drink to his side next a camera. DANNY: No. Return to Table of Contents for "The Shining" analysis 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). Thus, two parties are starting to be defined: on the one hand, Jack and obscure characters of the Special World, pertaining to the true adventure; on the other hand, Danny, Wendy and Hallorann. 1. (13:44) There's hardly a person in 1980 who wouldn't have immediately bonded with the pedestrian situation of the lunch table and its simple sandwiches through the familiar cartoon vocabulary of a cartoon that was a shared experience. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. We will be returning to these ideas as they weave in and about the film. JACK (confidently): Not for me! Jack is not even worried about the tragedy that occurred in 1970 but of course this functions as an omen/foreshadowing for the audience. 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. Mr. Ullman says that Jack made good time and asks his secretary to bring them coffee and requests she call Bill Watson to join them. It makes the audience share Danny's psychic traumas of the hotel. Beside Wendy, leaning against the wall is a painting of a cartoonish red and blue dog, a lion, and a purple elephant. Take a look at how beautifully Stuart is framed here, the visual relationships between the three men and the room. 2.8m members in the MovieDetails community. (12:13) 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. 48:36 - When Wendy calls the forest rangers about the downed lines. Jack gets the job. In scenes where Bill and Jack are viewed from the rear, a complementary chord is struck, though Bill is dressed in a more tailored suit with a dark brown jacket and lighter brown pants. Wendy, dressed in her red and blue, is bookended left and right by two dogs in blue and red, the dog in the picture, and Goofy, as if to reinforce a relationship between her and Goofy, who became eventually, in American mid 20th century culture, a kind of reassuring Everyman figure attempting to navigate a confusing world. 71 MCU Danny. We start worrying that he may be suffering from cabin fever and, in the 144 version, that he may become physically aggressive once again. STUART: Uh, did they give you any idea in Denver what the job entails? The Shining did a lot better financially. She is homogeneously dressed in a shirt of a similar color to the terra cotta columns and a plaid vest that resembles the plaid jacket worn by the man with spectator shoes. as we switch over to Dick looking at Danny in the kitchen, right before Dick asks, "Do you know how I knew your name was Doc?" Shot 29. Shot 112. There is little distinction between reality and the fantasy that cartoons and toys inhabit, and so it is with a child's mind until about the age of five when they begin losing their baby teeth and their thinking becomes less fantastic and more reality based. (15:53) 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. Shot 113. (7:13) 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. 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. Fig. Leon Vitali, Kubricks personal assistant during filming, has since denied these theories. It occurs very quietly about 7:07 when Stuart is talking about running the boiler and "heating different parts of the hotel". STUART: Police, well, they thought it was what the old timers used to call cabin fever, kind of claustrophobic reaction which can occur Because they do. The point of view in the film alternates between Jack, Danny, and an objective camera. What's the secondary teaser candy bait? It occurs several times during the kitchen scene on "Closing Day", but there is a good deal of other ambient sound and is not as distinct at times: Shot 113. The disconcerting music, its intermittent roars, continues. From the shining cloud the Father's voice is heard: This is my beloved Son, hear him. In the book, the spooky events are set in Room 217, not Room 237. As if to remark on this, we have also the duck moving from the left, in the bathroom, to the right, on the windowsill. In fact, nothing makes sense.. We note a low glare of light on the face of the desk between Jack and Bill Watson, prominent enough that it almost takes on a sense of phantom presence. A reason the red field to the right isn't noticed generally, and we don't look for to what it belongs, is that Wendy's leg in the foreground seems to pull the eye into her and the laundry basket on the stand of the ironing board in the background that then seems to link the eye over to Danny. 85 MCU Doctor. (8:30) At the same time, the archetype of the Shadow can be found: it stands for the fury of the evil side, the danger which tacitly lies beneath the surface. Senses of Cinema was founded on stolen lands. We briefly see down the hallway, beyond Wendy and the doctor, a door open on another room, a print of boy and girl bears on the wall above a blue and white hair dryer and a chair below that. Now, looking at the Timberline lodge in Oregon, at its entrance it shows a compass but with directional notation, whereas the compass points at the entrance of the Overlook don't show this. 37 - Not in the movie. When the old theater is about to be closed again, the couple that inherited it settle in to watch the "red-skins' bite the dust one last time. The novel ends with an immense explosion that takes the Overlook and Jack Torrance with it. Kubrick employed this kind of circularity almost from the beginning. This simple description applies not just to Dannys experience, but also to the actual film structure. The Refusal of the Call is traceable in Danny as well. 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. The Rainbow in Danny's Room and His Black-out Compared to A Clockwork Orange and the Invitation to the End of the Rainbow in Eyes Wide Shut (16:09) Then as Stuart continues talking about the tragedy and describes it as resulting from a "claustrophobic reaction, which can occur when people are shut in together over long periods of time" the sound is at 9:34. The music quickly fades, replaced with the sounds of traffic. On the opposite wall is the "Woman and Terrier" painting by Colville, from 1963. Jack Arrives at the Overlook, Shots 9 through 11 Plus, Peter Sellers, who was in Kubrick's Lolita and Dr. Strangelove, plays a film projectionist in it. Kings use of foreshadowing is one of the more effective literary devices at work in The Shining. The center photo above the sepia ones appears to show two individuals on either side of a big fish, and there are a fair share of photos of people showing off their catches of remarkably large fresh water fish. But, I have also read the shot was done in miniature because it was too expensive to film otherwise. Therefore, we also have the Refusal of the Call from Jack, because he recounts the nightmare in a hurtful and worried way. People in the Torrance's station of class would be trying to transition from a more 60s flavor of impoverished student style of decoration to one that connoted some stability, as represented in the heavy credenza and coffee table and end tables, and the matching brown sofas. However, since we first heard the "sha" when Jack crossed over the spot where Dick will be murdered, that seems to provide reason enough to believe there could be some meaning in them. 27 MCU of Stuart. There is no Room 237 in the hotel, so that number was chosen. Danny feels lonely since he has nobody to play with, and he is reluctant about going to the hotel, but he cant oppose the project. Another myth is brought in at this point as well. STUART: Now, let's see, where were we? 40 - Danny questioned by the doctor. 74 MCU Doctor. This is stronger in the 144 version, since we know about Jacks alcoholism. We're not shown the master bedroom and the room at the end of the hall is too small to be it so I'm making a guess of its proximity. Does "The Great Mother" hold what Kubrick might mean to register as a club, foretelling Wendy with the bat? Stephen Kings use of character development throughout this novel is what makes the book so thrilling and moving. We kept trying for several years until I was in high school and I stopped at about 14 with almost no success," he told the New York Daily News in 2013. (17:27) 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. In the first tricycle scene the red floors of the hallway may be a subliminal foresight of the river of blood, which Wendy sees in the films climax. With the equinoxes, it is the simple incessant progression of time that brings balance and then imbalance. As they were older, no families or children observed, and were served by youth, the lodge seemed to be a place of rest and relaxation for retirees. Why leave it out? Say like if someone burns toast. Fig. The Impossible Window. This twist at the end suggests a reincarnation that can be compared to the elixir, being the implied reward for Jacks special adventure in the Overlook Hotel. That doesn't mean the maze is itself irrational and nonsensical. 82 MS Wendy from Doctor's side. The ponderous wood of the credenza that holds the TV was standard fare. Even if the "sha" occurring at 3:27 is purely coincidental, the choreography for the remaining collection of incidentals all falling on the same note is tricky, intentional, and beautifully accomplished. 64 MCU Danny. A zigzag pattern also can represent lightning, and some believe that the labrys, upon which is based the labyrinth, may symbolize lightning. BILL (closing door): How do you do? Which, of course, is a great concern of this film. Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Lloyd did, however, have a brief cameo as a spectator in Doctor Sleep, Mike Flanagan's 2019 sequel to The Shining. That pretty well clinches it for me that Kubrick, by means of Salinger's Coming Through the Rye book, was referring to The Smallest Show on Earth, and by means of it the silent film and book, Comin' Through the Rye. Cut back to the bloody hall. I will come to how this works with Dick's murder in a moment, and explore the connection with the girls later. It's a common psychological device in film, sometimes referred to as foreshadowing, and has been used by suspense masters like Hitchcock. A man, reading, speaks with a blond woman in white. A lot of this foreshadowing is shown to the reader in the form of Danny's ability, 'the shining'. Its as if the music was anticipating what was around the corner. (The doctor switches to examining Danny's left eye.) (11:14) With the move to the Overlook, Danny is removed from his more comforting bedroom, with its playful figures, to the world of the lodge. Whatever, we have in the bathroom's mirror the film's first instance of second sight, of oracle, access to knowledge not normally held, and Kubrick appropriately annotates it with music concerning an awakening from a dream. Furthermore, when Jack calls Wendy to tell her that he got the job we have a sort of Call to Adventure for the family or, in Fields terms, an inciting incident for Danny but this is not the adventure proper in a dramatic sense. 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. But it was during Danny's speaking with Tony that he blacked out. (6:40) The 1980s horror movie The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick utilized these aspects very well. Then there's more gushing blood splattering the walls outside the elevators. (4:45) Stephen King's use of character development throughout this novel is what makes the book so thrilling and moving. How awesome is this place! Both Jack and Danny have a Mentor; however, only the boy meets his own Mentor in the first act, as in the canon. 21 - The prison's governor in "A Clockwork Orange". The only foreshadowing I see in the story, "The Gift of the Magi", is when Della has been crying because she only has $1.87 cents to buy a gift for Jim. 1 - The Ahwahnee lobby, a Creative Commons image by J. W. Kern. (13:16) -Constant references to the impending snowstorm foreshadow the family being stranded at the hotel. (Only!) The tone and mood are both threatening and malevolent. Dannys Mentor is Hallorann, an ex hero who is now old and wants to offer his wisdom and his experience to the new generation. In this article we offer a basic dramaturgical analysis of The Shining (in both its versions 144 and 119) using a method which follows authors such as Syd Field, Christopher Vogler, and Dara Marks: we deal with both the narrative world, i.e., the characters, their relations, and the environment in which they act, and the narrative structure. As with The Shining, that film, too, is all about deja vu. Kubrick has done this before, a good example being with an ad of Quilty in Lolita. The presence of boxes in the background immediately communicates impermanence, transience. (10:30 begin crossfade to Boulder bathroom.). The vibe is the same and the projectors look like miniature versions of the boilers that only serve a portion of the Overlook, forced heat being used in much of it. 23 MCU of Bill. 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). Lights up. Dead of Night, as it turns out, was one of the points of origin for the Steady State of the Universe theory conceived by cosmologists Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi, which has since been overruled by the Big Bang Theory. But we also got rid of that rug as quickly as we could. WENDY: No, he didn't like it too much at first, and then he had an injury so we kept him out for a while, and, yeah, I guess that's about the time I first noticed that he was talking to Tony. Jacks nightmare of killing his family may be compared to a Call to Adventure, since it is the first explicit sign of murderous thoughts which are going to be construed as the new desire during the adventure. Certainly, if one takes a look around the web at the Ahwahnee, one easily understands why Kubrick would have chosen the striking hotel in Yosemite as an influence for the lodge's interior. Silent Jeff reveals that there is not only one tunnel, but that a second tunnel has also been blasted and wants to check the second tunnel to see if it too is leaking. The Overlook Hotel is the place that houses the Torrance family for most of the narrative. According to David Hughes, one of Kubricks biographers, Stephen King wrote an entire draft of a screenplay for The Shining. The painting may refer to Wendy, who is often aligned with American Indian elements in the film. (4:50). JACK: I'm Jack Torrance. Foreshadowing -Mr. Ullman tells Jack about the former caretaker of the hotel who murdered his family before committing suicide. Good boy. What's the teaser candy bait? In the Boulder apartment she is stretched out, lengthened with the red union suits and her eyes are made conspicuously wide, a common feature of cartoon figures. I am particularly interested in the train because Kubrick has used trains in his other films. 38 - Not in the movie. The former aim dissolves during the second act, while the latter, proper to the Ordinary World, deviates gradually to its correlative in the Special World i.e., Jacks duty of evil caretaker, which entails killing his family and maybe achieving immortality, as we will learn eventually. The Shining is filled with dark and terrifying images. 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. Fig. Then, sneaking off to the right, we have one of Sleeping Beauty's dwarfs, Dopey, who was a friend of the dwarf, Doc, so Dopey would be a suitable companion for Danny who is also called Doc. This is similar to Kubrick's breaking of the 4th wall repeatedly in A Clockwork Orange, referring to the presence of the audience in various ways and thus making it a part of the story, the film. Say like if someone burns toast. Danny is the first to make contact with the evil forces of the hotel. Some behind-the-scenes footage shows Nicholsons Method acting before filming the iconic scene. Ullman seemingly accepting Jack's insistence too readily. The Shining study guide contains a biography of Stanley Kubrick, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. (9:29) A couple receives an old movie theater as an inheritance. I have also written a post specifically on this. Kabbalistically, Jacob corresponds with the mystic, inner life, while Essau's is that of physical action. 47 MCU of Jack. The people of Carson City are worried the railroad will attract bandits--or, rather, "Big" A. Jack Davis and Jim Squires have reason to not want to see the railroad go through. (14:55) It was one of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 1980. Kubrick does not do this only in The Shining. It's positioned to be noticed, to not disappear on the counter. Rob Ager, an observant fan of The Shining, noticed that there are many aspects to the set of the Overlook Hotel that make no sense. After they have coffee, we see at 5:55 a cigarette in the ashtray and Ullman's white pen pointed toward him (Figure 20); at 6:45 we see the tray is empty when all three men are shown (Figure 22); at 6:58 Ullman's pen is pointed toward him and there is a cigarette in the ashtray; at 7:20 there is no cigarette and the pen is pointed away (Figure 23); at 7:58 the pen is pointed away and there is this time a cigarette (Figure 24); at 8:05 the pen is pointed toward Ullman and there is a cigarette; at 8:26 the pen is pointed away and there is no cigarette; at 9:42 the pen is pointed toward Ullman and there is a cigarette; at 10:07 the pen is pointed away and there is a cigarette. 33 MCU of Stuart. Look, I'm at the hotel and I still have an awful lot to go through. We have it in Eyes Wide Shut with the synchronous events of the trains, with Bill wandering the same streets again and again, and his attempting in the second part of the film to revisit places from the first part and locate people who have disappeared between the first and second parts. During cowboy and Indian chase scenes involving a train, the train that runs by the theater coincidentally passes at the same time, shaking it up, coincidentally stops when the train stops on the screen, then restarts when the train on screen restarts. 12 - A hairstyle typical of Wendy. Shot 36. Afterwards, Jack quarrels with Wendy about his needs, and then he has a sort of Approach to the Inmost Cave. The background photographs of what seem to be past business meetings at the hotel, on the wall behind Jack, are replaced with brightly colored stickers on what we assume to be Danny's bedroom door as the camera slowly tracks in to an open door opposite through which we can see Danny before a bathroom sink, he standing on a footstool. (7:41) JACK: Well, that sounds fine to me. I think The Shining uses a similar kind of psychological misdirection to forestall the realization that the supernatural events are actually happening.. 67 MCU Doctor. Ullman introduces Jack. Fig. There is also a hallway in the Colorado Lounge that essentially appears out of nowhere. The fictional Overlook Hotel, a summer resort in the Colorado Rockies. Do people operate in a free will universe or a mechanical one? Regardless, no normal hotel leaves copies of Playgirl lying around, so the magazine serves as an immediate red flag in the film. One could think of Jack's axe as corresponding with the drill in the Carson City movie. STUART: Have any trouble finding us? Timberline reception desk with picture of lodge. Fig. I discuss the terrier in this post. There seems space for another room between Danny's room and the living room. Pickens chose to not work with Kubrick again, as he did not like the strenuous Dr. Strangelove shoots. As far as options for home decorating for the lower middle classes, it was a shitty period. Humans tend to not think of themselves as part of nature. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Jack Nicholson, though a fine actor, was all wrong for the part," King said. There is something on a table near them, but this was already there before the waiter approached, so the only table on which he could have placed his tray was between the blond and the man. All three are incredibly sympathetic characters. STUART: Well, obviously some people can be put off So, Kubrick has cast as his heroine an actress who departs from the strict ideal and has accentuated this, for in the documentary of The Shining Shelly exhibits indeed a striking, ethereal beauty. As the ashtray with the cigarette is on Jack's side of the desk, here again there is the inference that he was smoking before Bill Watson entered the room, during which time we were back in Boulder watching Wendy's untouched cigarette burn away in her ashtray. Upon waking, he named the rock, which had served as his pillow, Bethel, the House of God, house being BTh, beth, and god being AL, el. Even when we know what is coming, Kubrick's presentation of the children is almost unfailingly eerie, shown just long enough, but too briefly for us to really register the ways in which the girls are dissimilar. Jack does not have a strong inciting incident, although something similar happens when he scolds Wendy in the Colorado Lounge, asking her not to disturb him while he is working, and when in the following short sequence he is seen staring outside the window while Wendy and Danny are playing in the snow. Though the red milk carton and red cereal box have nothing to do with the red field mirroring the red sleeve earlier, even though they are in a completely different position, they end up visually standing in for that red field so we feel no real compulsion to look for it. This includes those that might be handed out by his own father. There are windows on three sides. Is that some art work showing a terrier above the television? 26 MCU of Jack. Fig. In the first case, Jack i.e., this instantiation of the caretaker has obtained the elixir, and will return; in the second case, he has missed the chance to get it and is forever trapped in the limbo of an irretrievable past. Give your writing extra polish. At this old theater, the Bijou, they play mostly these terrible old cowboy and Indian films (which were made for this film). Kids can scare you to death. She takes a right turn then a left before seeing his blood soaked corpse. And, if he does, he would see himself wearing this sweater and shirt, and it's to be questioned then who later chooses this sweater and shirt for him on the day that Dick is killed. Wendy accidentally lets the doctor know how screwed up their family is. Prominently on Danny's door is Snoopy gleefully skating, surrounded by a rainbow, while above him floats a helium balloon ascending into the clouds with Woodstock. The catchphrase worked and stayed in the film. 31:11 - Danny describes shining.
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