The Shining (1980)

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

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Stephen King (based upon the novel by), Stanley Kubrick (screenplay by)

Stars:

Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd

Top Rated Movies #63 | 4 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

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

Storyline

Haunted by a persistent writer's block, the aspiring author and recovering alcoholic, Jack Torrance, drags his wife, Wendy, and his gifted son, Danny, up snow-capped Colorado's secluded Overlook Hotel after taking up a job as an off-season caretaker. As the cavernous hotel shuts down for the season, the manager gives Jack a grand tour, and the facility's chef, the ageing Mr Hallorann, has a fascinating chat with Danny about a rare psychic gift called "The Shining", making sure to warn him about the hotel's abandoned rooms, and, in particular, the off-limits Room 237. However, instead of overcoming the dismal creative rut, little by little, Jack starts losing his mind, trapped in an unforgiving environment of seemingly endless snowstorms, and a gargantuan silent prison riddled with strange occurrences and eerie visions. Now, the incessant voices inside Jack's head demand sacrifice. Is Jack capable of murder?

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Plot Keywords:

haunted hotel | labyrinth | identical twins | hotel | snow | 

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Taglines:

He came as the caretaker, but this hotel had its own guardians - who'd been there a long time

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Genres:

Drama | Horror

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stanley Kubrick also made casting decisions for dubbing actors in other countries. In Spain, actor and actress Joaquín Hinojosa and Verónica Forqué did the voices of Jack and Wendy Torrence, respectively. Both had little experience in dubbing. In Spain, this dubbing is considered one of the worst dubbings ever made, due to that casting choice.

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Goofs

When Wendy gets up to run into Danny's room when he's screaming "Redrum", she has a cigarette in her hand. Though, when she gets through the door and into Danny's room to grab him, the cigarette is gone, without enough time for her to discard it.

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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 Hotel ghosts applaud. They then talk amongst themselves until their voices fade away.

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Alternate Versions

"The Shining" initially opened on 10 screens in New York City and Los Angeles on Memorial Day weekend in 1980. Three days after the release of the film, Stanley Kubrick and Warner Bros. ordered all projectionists to cut about 2 minutes from the end of the film, and send the footage back to the studio. Starting after the closeup of frozen Jack, the camera goes to a pullback shot with part of a state trooper's car and the legs of troopers walking around in the foreground. We then cut to the hotel manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) walking down a hospital hallway to the nurse's station to inquire her (Robin Pappas} about Danny and Wendy. He's told they're both doing well and proceeds to Wendy's room. After some gentle conversation, he tells Wendy that searchers have been unable to locate any evidence of the apparitions she saw. Additionally, Jack's body cannot be located. We then cut to the camera silently roaming the halls of the Overlook Hotel for about a minute until it comes up to the wall with the photographs, where it [back to the ending as it is now known] fades in on the photo of Jack in the 1921 picture.

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Connections

Referenced in Sorority Row (2009)

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Soundtracks

Midnight, the Stars and You
(uncredited)
Written by Jimmy Campbell, Reginald Connelly, and Harry M. Woods
Performed by Ray Noble Orchestra with Al Bowlly

User Reviews

Amazing achievement in filmmaking and the art of terror.

Chilling, majestic piece of cinematic fright, this film combines all the great elements of an intellectual thriller, with the grand vision of a director who has the instinctual capacity to pace a moody horror flick within the realm of his filmmaking genius that includes an eye for the original shot, an ice-cold soundtrack and an overall sense of dehumanization. This movie cuts through all the typical horror movies like a red-poker through a human eye, as it allows the viewer to not only feel the violence and psychosis of its protagonist, but appreciate the seed from which the derangement stems. One of the scariest things for people to face is the unknown and this film presents its plotting with just that thought in mind. The setting is perfect, in a desolate winter hideaway. The quietness of the moment is a character in itself, as the fermenting aggressor in Jack Torrance's mind wallows in this idle time, and breeds the devil's new playground. I always felt like the presence of evil was dormant in all of our minds, with only the circumstances of the moment, and the reasons given therein, needed to wake its violent ass and pounce over its unsuspecting victims. This film is a perfect example of this very thought.

And it is within this film's subtle touches of the canvas, the clackity-clacks of the young boy's big wheel riding along the empty hallways of the hotel, the labyrinthian garden representing the mind's fine line between sane and insane, Kubrick's purposely transfixed editing inconsistencies, continuity errors and set mis-arrangements, that we discover a world guided by the righteous and tangible, but coaxed away by the powerful and unknown. I have never read the book upon which the film is based, but without that as a comparison point, I am proud to say that this is one of the most terrifying films that I have ever seen. I thought that the runtime of the film could've been cut by a little bit, but then again, I am not one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of film, so maybe I should keep my two-cent criticisms over a superb film, to myself. All in all, this movie captures your attention with its grand form and vision, ropes you in with some terror and eccentric direction, and ties you down and stabs you in the heart with its cold-eyed view of the man's mind gone overboard, creepy atmosphere and the loss of humanity.

Rating: 9/10

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 June 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Shining

Filming Locations:

Stansted Airport, Essex, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$622,337, 26 May 1980

Gross USA:

$45,332,952

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$46,952,592

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Hawk Films, Peregrine

Technical Specs

Runtime:

144 min (cut) 119 min (cut) (European) 146 min (original) 142 min (US dvd release: B002VWNIDG)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Blu-ray release) Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1