The Shining (1980)

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Stephen King (novel), Stanley Kubrick (screenplay),

Stars:

Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd

Top 250 #47 | 2 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack Nicholson	...	Jack Torrance
Shelley Duvall	...	Wendy Torrance
Danny Lloyd	...	Danny Torrance
Scatman Crothers	...	Dick Hallorann
Barry Nelson	...	Stuart Ullman
Philip Stone	...	Delbert Grady
Joe Turkel	...	Lloyd the Bartender
Anne Jackson	...	Doctor
Tony Burton	...	Larry Durkin
Lia Beldam	...	Young Woman in Bath
Billie Gibson	...	Old Woman in Bath
Barry Dennen	...	Bill Watson
David Baxt	...	Forest Ranger #1
Manning Redwood	...	Forest Ranger #2
Lisa Burns	...	Grady Daughter

Storyline

A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotel's ghosts. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining".

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Plot Keywords:

hotel | caretaker | winter | ghost | insanity | 

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Taglines:

The Horror is driving him crazy

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 May 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'

Filming Locations:

Colorado, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

SEK 6,140,088 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Hawk Films, Peregrine

Technical Specs

Runtime:

146 min 142 min (cut) 119 min (cut) (European) 146 min (original)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The maze was constructed on an airfield near Elstree studios, by weaving branches to chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. The maze was shot using an extremely short lens (a 9.8mm, which gives a horizontal viewing angle of 90 degrees) which was kept dead level at all times, to make the hedges seem much bigger and more imposing than they were in reality.

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Goofs

(At 1:49:00) Jack is chasing Wendy on the stairs. When the camera is on Jack he has his hands up asking for the bat then the camera goes on Wendy and we see Jack's hands down. The camera is back on Jack and his hands are up again.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jack Torrance: Hi, I've got an appointment with Mr. Ullman. My name is Jack Torrance.

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Crazy Credits

The party music plays over the closing credits. After it ends, we hear the Overlook ghosts applaud. They then talk amongst themselves until their voices fade away.

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Connections

Referenced in El laberinto del fauno (2006)
Hedge Maze (Chased by Drunk guy)

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Soundtracks

"Kanon for 52 string orchestra and tape"
(uncredited)
Music by Krzysztof Penderecki

User Reviews

A masterpiece of psychological horror

Stephen King may have said the master director knew nothing about horror, but that simply is not true. That is a too biased opinion for anyone to go on given that he wrote the book, which Kubrick based his wonderful film ever so loosely on. And at any rate, faithful or not, KUBRICK's Shining-the BEST crafted genre film of the 80's- performs it's duty as a fright flick, and then some.

There are appropriately no words strong enough to convey the haunting beauty of the visuals showcased throughout the movie, from the drive to the Overlook to the final chase in the hedgemaze the movie is a feast for the eyes as it is for the mind. And it IS a feast for the mind as The Shining is as psychological as horror gets, toying relentlessly, and expertly with your emotions and expectations(some could even say SADISTICALLY), throwing something in that's completely out of left field and never, ever letting you catch your breath between the now classic shocks as the movie speeds toward it's memorable conclusion in the last half hour.

Kudos are in order for Kubrick, a director of the old school style, who builds an eerie atmosphere by exercising total control over the filmic environment, manipulating everything down to the tiniest detail to suit the needs of the picture, yet filming with a coldly detatched, objective eye, as though Kubrick were making a documentary about these events. This would account for the dialouge, which-thankfully-is not the typical phoney balloney Hollywood banter (Kubrick detractors/King purists usually bitch about this the most, having been weaned on the phony nature of 'Hollywood talk', which is usually nothing at all like real talk. Many of us speak 'on the nose', and do not try to convey subtext through use of carefully chosen words that articulate our state of being without being direct.) In this light, Shelley Duvall must be commended for her performance which is very naturalistic. It does not seem like acting at all. She is not concerned with glamour, nor does she clutter her performance with typical acting chops, but rather she is solely focussed on hitting the emotional highpoints of her character as 'Wendy' gradually comes to realize that her husband is a madman. And let's face it folks, how many of us would like a million bucks when placed in a situation like that? Who does NOT look like a blubbering idiot when they are hysterical? That's what I thought, so what did you expect? She was great. To say nothing of the rest of the cast.