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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThings can't take in large doses: The Shining.
So it's on. Haven't seen it in decades. Now towards the end.
From the memory, first time: The worst/scariest scene was where the wife sees the pile of typed manuscript that only says, "The swift brown fox..."
Mystifying: Why Stephen didn't like the KUBRICK?
Laffy Kat
(16,354 posts)I saw a documentary about making that film. Kubrick actually had his secretary type everyone of those pages. And the scene with Shelley Duvall going up the stairs swinging the baseball bat at Jack Nicholson was shot over 200 times. Those were tears of frustration she was really crying. Kubrick really wasn't very nice to Duvall.
UTUSN
(70,496 posts)I got the "typing exercise" point of it. I concede that the one referencing "Jack" and (the opposite of) "dull" would be more artistically pertinent than a furry animal, although there was that big rat costumed dude, haha! But I thought it was the Scatman COROTHERS axe scene that was re-shot, or rather that KUBRICK was a maniac at re-shooting everything. Hitch wasn't very nice to whassername in The Birds either.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,276 posts)http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Stephen-King-Just-Went-Off-About-How-Much-He-Hates-Shining-Again-68032.html
I agree. The book is so much better. You see Jack gradually come unglued, and the spooky parts are much spookier. It's also been made into an opera, which has received excellent reviews. http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2016/05/12/476635903/the-shining-is-now-an-opera http://www.startribune.com/shining-opera-premiere-is-scary-good/378585276/
UTUSN
(70,496 posts)First of all, it's a movie, a format that is almost synonymous with "condensed." Next, I have trouble with this character sliding on "an arc" of "little by little."
As for the book's being "much spookier" - well, the movie (still) gives me cardiac arrest, so there's that...
kairos12
(12,817 posts)when Jack momentarily captures his son but resists the horror of the house and lets him go only to pursue him finally through the maze.
Aristus
(66,092 posts)were clipped into a topiary of animal shapes. They came to life and threatened both Jack and Danny. But Jack didn't freeze to death at the end, topiary or hedge-maze.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)I've wondered this for years myself, and I have a few theories:
1) King simply has different tastes in horror movies. If you've read IT, or his nonfiction book about horror (Danse Macabre), or seen any of the movies that he has been closely involved with, it's clear that he likes the old-school horror movies like the old Univeral or Hammer films. Mostly, they have an external threat that is eventually defeated, and the survivors pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. Kubrick's movie is much more like "The Exorcist" or those Polanski apartment movies, where the scary element is internal, psychological and ambiguous.
2) Maybe a little jealousy over being upstaged. "The Shining" was one of King's earliest books and one of his better ones, but so many people's associations with the story are scenes that were purely from the movie. "All work and no play...", "Here's Johnny" and so on. There was even an episode of "Friends" where Joey was discussing being scared about reading them book, except that several of the scenes he described were only in the move.
3) King clearly put a lot of himself into the character of Jack, and has said as much. The alcoholism, and anger and resentment over family & responsibility vs. a desire for artistic and commercial success as a writer are all things that King struggled with in his early career. The book is compelling because we see this guy teetering on the brink of self-destruction, but since much of the narrative viewpoint is in his head, we can also see his acknowledgment of his faults, and his desire to atone, and become a better person. The film jettisons this interior viewpoint, which makes Jack seem much less sympathetic than he is in the book.
King has often said that one of his major criticisms of the movie is that Nicholson is too obviously unhinged from the beginning. However, if you go back, and read some of the early chapters, and also some of the later ones that deal with his relationship with his rich alcoholic buddy, book Jack is even more troubled than movie Jack. Movie Jack sobers up after breaking Danny's arm - book Jack takes a possibly fatal hit-and-run to lay off the booze, and then is prone to angry and violent outbursts. In the interview chapter, book Jack sees himself as a humble penitent looking for a last chance, but there is a strong undercurrent of contempt for the manager, and self-pity for himself. In other words, I think that Nicholson's character in the early scenes in the movie is actually pretty close to how book Jack would come across, if you weren't privy to his internal thoughts.
UTUSN
(70,496 posts)edbermac
(15,919 posts)Points out a ton of stuff about the movie with a few videos.
http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining.html
Orrex
(63,084 posts)I'm fine with King not liking The Shining, and it doesn't diminish the film for me at all.
It still stands as one of the finest horror movies of all time, even without the magically-animated topiary.