(Rob Ager's work plagiarized) Collative Learning 214K subscribers Subscribe 4.1K 167K views 5 years ago Watch my new Shining analysis video. Being one of the best 80s horror movies, the flick is so much more than just cheap jump scares. We see this relationship between Vitali and Danny when shooting the scene of Danny looking for a hiding space. One of the things that horror stories can do is to show us the archetypes of the unconscious; we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly. A flustered Jack heads to the empty Gold Room, where he starts talking to the bartender Lloyd and opts to drink. The Shining is Stephen King's third published novel and the one that established his name in the horror genre. However, there are two different levels to this theory, and one is far more apparent than the other. From across the hall, they casually look up at her. The three remain close, and Hallorann comforts Danny over the loss of his father and teaches him to fish. The text version is slightly more in-depth as well. Jack hadnt slida single drop of liquor for the past 5 months, a vow out of guilt. Both the usage of pre-existing music and the original score composed for The Shining are standouts of the genre. In the lobby Danny and Wendy watch a film called Summer of 42, which is about a young man who has an affair with an older woman. Kubricks mind is the limit to its extensiveness. Whats the fun in a horror movie if the characters could just run through corridors swiftly and escape through the main door without any hindrance. Theres an evil side to it. Rumor has it Kubrick himself typed those words. In particular, we see Jack Nicholson and James Mason having a personal chat, while the rest of Masons family meet Kubrick himself. The Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets (with FREE Call Sheet Template), How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet), The Only Shot List Template You Need with Free Download, Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template), A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet, Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates), What is an Antagonist in a Story Definition & Examples, What is Telos: The Ultimate Guide to Understand Telos for Video Marketing, What is an Anecdote Definition, Examples, and Functions, What is a Memoir Definition, Examples in Literature & Film. There are many reasons why Stanley Kubricks The Shining is considered one of the most influential horror movies of all time. Realizing that he is leaving footprints in the snow, Danny carefully maneuvers backwards over his own . Of course, the ghost of Grady freeing Jack from the freezer remains hard to explain away, although that doesn't stop some from trying. Notice how we are shown a freaked out Jack through the mirror (reality) calling Danny to come to him. Jacks manifestation as a rotten, naked old woman in the room 237 dream sequence parallels the horrific physical disgust Danny would have felt during his nightmarish ordeal. Starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, Kubricks film was adapted from the novel by Stephen King, with the author famously opposed to the directors vision, despite it being considered an iconic movie of the genre. On the way he passes by a red VW crushed by a truck, a sweet tongue in cheek dig at the source material. But there are also plenty of ludicrously far-fetched The Shining conspiracy theories that made the cut as well. Parallely, Halloran borrows a snowcat to get to the Overlook in time. Kubrick replaced the hedge animals in the book with a hedge maze, which like the movie offers endless possibilities but barely any solution. When the hotels forces get a hold of Jack, Danny starts chanting and drawing the word REDRUM, which Wendy later sees reversed in the mirror, revealing the word MURDER. Danny was warned by the Grady twins that something terrible was going to happen, and REDRUM was the warning passed on to Danny and Wendy through Danny. The video, which was credited to a writer named Jeff Saporito and which had since racked up over half a million views, offered a theory that the appearance of the bear suited guy in the mysterious bear scene of The Shining was a metaphor that lead character Jack Torrance had sexually abused his own son. Before we get into The Shining fan theories, its important to acknowledge the source material. Jack like a crazy wolf, knocking down anything that comes his way, delivers the iconic line Heres Johnny! after hacking parts of the bathroom door. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. In Lolita, Mason played Humbert Humbert, a man who has a sexual relationship with his underage stepdaughter. This documentary is an exhaustive cataloguing of allThe Shining fan theories big and small. Keen-eyed viewers have pointed out before that the issue of Playgirl magazine Jack Torrance is reading in one scene has an article titled "Incest: Why Parents Sleep With Their Children" featured on the cover. In this post, well break down the six biggest theories on The Shining, including our own theory that its actually a Christmas movie! The Shiningmoon landing connection is the one theory that extends film and into the life and work of Stanley Kubrick in general. Here, Im going by the theory that the Jack in the second half was typed into existence by the real Jack Torrance. Next: The Shining: The True Story & Real-Life Hotel Behind The Movie. Another important detail is that Jack doesnt wear a wedding ring at all in the film, not even when he and his family are driving to the hotel, but Wendy always wears hers. Unable to pass through that same window, Wendy is trapped when Jack arrives and breaks through the door with the axe the famous Heres Johnny! scene. The first thing to note is that in the film the guy is dressed in a bear costume instead of a dog costume. One major deviation would be Kubricks decision to throw the ghost subtext out in the trash. Super Dark The Shining Theory Reveals The Story Is All In Wendy's Head. Tony disapproves of the Torrances decision to move to The Overlook and in a very intriguing scene, Danny is shown visions of the consequences ranging from a flood of red liquid gushing out from elevators, two identical young girls and a totaled image of himself. He also echoes back the same words the Grady twins say, forever and ever and ever. When Jack walks from the reception to the room, the camera travels in a perpendicular fashion highlighting the angle of the room and the apparent absence of a wall behind Ullmans room. Jack calls Danny and makes him sit on his lap while asking him about the Overlook and if he liked it, saying I want you to like it with a weak smile while rubbing Dannys shoulder, emphasizing the control he is inflicting. Later in the film, the adult Bullingdon is played by Leon Vitali. In addition to the sexual innuendos of the doctors conversation, theres one further scene in the film that adds to the mystery in question, occurring when Hotel managers Stuart Ullman and Bill Watson approach Jack on the closing day of the Overlook. In conversation with Deadline, King stated: I think The Shining is a beautiful film and it looks terrific and as Ive said before, its like a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside itI kept my mouth shut at the time, but I didnt care for it much. The same physical abuse evidence is used alongside other interpretable details. INCEST: Why parents sleep with their children. Wendy too looks in the mirror, and overlap the two scenes and you find Jack holding Danny while the mirror shows the filthiness of his atrocities. Flanagan purposefully decided to leave the ghost out, despite Doctor Sleep containing many ghosts from The Shining. The hotel makes one last attempt to possess Hallorann but he successfully manages to avoid it. Your email address will not be published. All the aforementioned signs, and many more, point to the likelihood that Jack sexually abused Danny, making sense of the childs fragile mental state where he frequently has terrifying visions about the vast hotel. Stanley Kubrick's epic, bizarre, somewhat controversial adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining was released 40 years ago this week. Jack takes his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), with him, but little do they know, the Overlook has some dark secrets of its own. contain their own pieces of unique information. The Overlooks construction in the early 1900s and the photograph of Jack in the 1920s both pose interesting clues. Jack has clearly gone haywire and absent-mindedly proceeds to the Gold Room. Its understood for people to develop a separate identity as a result of trauma, with the identity built upon the very details of such incidents, i.e, Tony living in Dannys mouth and Dannys reluctance to talk about it. Wendy defends herself with a knife and slashes Jacks arm, causing him to retreat. . But one of the films most unforgettable elements has to be the haunting visuals of the film. The poster in question depicts a skier, despite Jack being told there is no skiing in the area. I've never read the book. Interestingly, in the 1997 Shining miniseries, which King himself wrote, there's a brief epilogue in which a graduating Danny is visited by the ghost of Jack, beaming with pride, suggesting that Jack's spirit was fully freed when the Overlook blew up. In an earlier scene, for a split second we see Jack reading a PlayGirl magazine which has an article on incest. The film is very different from the novel so much so that Stephen King has said he hates The Shining many times. Sitting in an armchair, Jack is reading a January 1978 issue of Playgirl Magazine, a potential reference to his homosexual tendencies as well as much more if you look a little closer. The Overlook is built on the sacred lands of Native Americans . Theres also a poster of bears right above Dannys bed with the smaller bear on its knees. You dont know Jack and neither do I. These dates line up to the precise year that lightning strikes hit a monument a town wrought with countless Native American deaths. But there was always one particular scene in the movie that left me with an unsettling feeling: the bear man scene. The book and movie are extremely divergent. Based on the book of the same name by Stephen King, The Shining follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Back in Boulder, we meet Jacks wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and his son Danny. Because of that, The Shining book and movie are very different entities, and details that are explained or at least easier to interpret in the novel are either not included or left very ambiguous in the film. Buy a book on film making from any part of the world, either Russia or Japan or Sweden, and youll find this name mentioned not once but in every chapter, ranging from minutely monumental details like breaking the 180 degree rule to establishing genres like science fiction and satirical comedy. In the scene, Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) is roaming through the halls of The Overlook Hotel with a knife when she approaches a door at the end of a long hallway. Danny goes back to his room to get his firetruck and sees a grim looking Jack, his face shown through the mirror again. the scene really doesnt make sense in the movie and i've never read the book so idk if its explained there. Its now even more clear why Kubrick chose such a sombre piece of music for the fatherly love scene. Ager suggests that Danny's experience in Room 237 was his way of externalizing his abuse and that it was his father who assaulted him instead. Is she a lesbian? There are emotional passages and images and spaces in his films that have an inexplicable power, with a magnetic force that draws you in slowly, mysteriously: the boys rides on his Big Wheel through the endless corridors of the hotel in The Shining; the monumental silence of outer space in 2001: A Space Odyssey; the inhuman pace of the first half of Full Metal Jacket, building up to its logical, murderous conclusion; the grandeur of the war room in Dr. ", Danny: "I dont wanna talk about Tony any more.". Its a new day, and Jack shows an increasing sense of depersonalization in a chilling conversation if you notice the details. There are many visuals to prove this theory, small details that would be termed as continuity errors but are present to signify the difference between the real world and Jacks world. Stanley Kubrick's iconic Stephen King adaptation is intentionally dense and even nonsensical at times. This is typed inconsistently throughout , with typos and no punctuations highlighting Jacks own ever-growing trance or unstable mental health over the course. Without wasting more time, lets revisit The Shining by quoting Kubrick. The interaction between Tony and Danny takes place with the camera focused on a mirror in the bathroom and the shot composition is similar to the bear man shot later on in the movie. Watch my new Shining analysis video \"Danny's ordeal and the bear costumed man\" here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW2GrG7Zk0UMy written Shining analysis articles and videos are at: http://www.collativelearning.com/FILMS%20reviews%20BY%20ROB%20AGER.htmlRob Ager's analysis of The Shining was plagiarized in a video posted on the Screen Prism channel and credited to Jeff Saporito. Some readers will probably disapprove or take offence at what Im about to say regardless of how I explain it, so Ill just say it outright. Both of them keep their personal writings hidden from their wives. What's more, while staying at the Stanley Hotel, King reports having caught glimpses of a young boy roaming the halls even though he and his wife were the only registered guests at the time. In the book, there's parts where it flashes back to the Overlook's crazy (and unusual) parties in the 1940s, and the owner of the hotel participated in these parties and had a sex slave, Roger I believe, who he'd dress up like a dog and make him do "tricks" as entertainment for the partygoers. Is The Shining a film that can be definitively explained? He might have had his anger under control for a while before taking the job, but he went back to it there. The area the way he passes by a truck, a sweet tongue in cheek at. 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