What THE SHINING Is Really About
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- čas přidán 29. 05. 2024
- The Shining is often considered one of the greatest horror films ever made and its meaning has been debated endlessly for over 40 years. Like any Stanley Kubrick-directed film, watching it feels different from watching other movies. You can sense a deeper meaning and that especially stands out in the horror genre where most films settle for the usuals chills and thrills.
In this video, we’ll excavate that meaning, including the enigmatic ending, with help from Stanley Kubrick himself and his co-writer on the movie Diane Johnson. Both have given interviews over the years where they’ve given small hints that we’ll use as guideposts in our analysis.
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#TheShining #Halloween #Horror - Zábava
Hope you enjoyed this video! Read below for some extra tidbits + my sources:
KUBRICK’S APPROACH TO GENERATING FEAR AND FREUD
I wanted to mention that my first draft of this video included a ~20 minute discussion just on how Kubrick and Johnson approached horror. In my research, I learned a lot about how Kubrick meticulously approached the question of how to frighten people. He and Diane Johnson studied Freud’s essay on ‘The Uncanny’ where he tries to decipher what exactly evokes the “uncanny” sensation unique to horror and why. They also read classic horror literature to see what’s worked historically (e.g., Edgar Allen Poe).
In my journey to decipher The Shining, I followed in their footsteps and read a lot of the same works (including ‘The Uses of Enchantment’). It was fascinating! And a lot of it made it into the first draft of this video but I realized it wasn’t really the topic at hand. All of that is about how they evoked the emotion of fear (and not just any fear but the “uncanny”/skin crawling sort of fear that takes just the right image, sound, or scenario to evoke). But, it doesn’t really get at the heart of what they wanted to say with that fear and that’s the topic of this video.
If there’s interest, that may become its own video so we’ll see!
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THE ORIGINAL POISON APPLE (DELETED SCENE)
There’s a scene that was actually filmed but cut out of this movie. When Jack is suffering from writer’s block, he finds a book of old newspaper clippings in the boiler room. It details all the horrible things that have happened at the hotel in the past. The stories give him material for his manuscript and it finally gets him writing. That scene was cut out of the movie, BUT the prop lived… you can see it prominently sitting on his desk when he’s typing and Wendy interrupts.
Diane Johnson didn’t actually know this scene was removed until she sat down in the theater to watch the movie for the first time. She was quite disappointed at that because in her mind, the book was the poison apple. Essentially, the Overlook Hotel offered Jack the book as writing inspiration but in exchange, it drove him into complete madness. That was the turning point after which Jack went totally off the deep end.
I actually think Kubrick made the right call in taking out that scene. His philosophy seems to be that evil comes from within and should not be treated as something external. In my opinion, the book feels too much like externalized evil. E.g., Jack wouldn’t know that using the book for inspiration means selling his soul. So, it feels more like he was tricked by the ghosts and what lesson is to be learned from that? Don’t trust ghosts? Not very helpful in the real world. But, the bourbon offered by Lloyd works much better as the poison apple because it represents Jack knowingly betraying himself and his family. He knows that in the past alcohol drove him to hurt them but he chooses it anyway.
To me, taking out the scene with the book uncluttered this idea and keeps the theme focused on the idea of evil from within.
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'THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT' PLAGIARISM
I mentioned this book a couple of times in this video (because Diane Johnson mentioned it a few times in her interview with Catriona McAvoy, see source below). I felt it worth noting that this book has actually stirred some controversy… not for being inaccurate but for plagiarizing and some dishonesty!
The author apparently stole significant portions of the book from others and claimed to work as a therapist for disturbed children… but apparently never did that. Regardless, the book has been well regarded for its ideas despite where they came from. And in this video, I don’t actually take many ideas from it… I used it more as a way to substantiate the claim that Johnson and Kubrick took inspiration from fairytale structure for THE SHINING.
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SOURCES
Stanley Kubrick interviews:
www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.ts.html
www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-21-8702160471-story.html
czcams.com/video/fVlXbS0SNqk/video.html
Diane Johnson quote + Mentions of “The Uses of Enchantment”:
‘The Uncanny, The Gothic and The Loner: Intertextuality in the Adaptation Process of The Shining’ by Catriona McAvoy (doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apv012)
Great detail and great research as always! Thank you!!
@@tat2mytoes270 Thank you for checking it out!
100% interested in the Fear & Freud follow-up video
Sorry, but what most anyone not alive in the 70s doesn't realize is that NA motifs were popular fashion in the 70s.
Please do a video on the Enchantment book! Would love to see it further explored and how it plays out in other films. Subscribed just in case and because this video was a great YT suggestion. 😁
My friends thought The Shining was boring..
I coRRected them.
Hahaha nice phonetic spelling of “CoRRected”, I hear it in Grady’s voice
My girls, sir, they didn't care for the Shining at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn it down.
Stephen King says he likes the miniseries better. I coRRected him.
Your friend was right. It IS boring because the audience doesn't care about any of the lifeless, uninteresting characters in the film.
@@markallen2984 ok.
Just the fact that countless people are still trying to make sense of the movie and all of it's different meanings proves how great this movie is.
Many meanings intertwined but it’s ultimately about abuse, psychosis.
This is the only movie I like better than the book, although I love the book too....
It was meh, enjoyed Doctor Sleep much more
Just like The Thing.
It's about alcohol withdrawal and delir and psychosis. In the book it's better to understand as he is constantly chewing aspirin for his tomcat
"Monsters are real, ghosts are real too, they live inside us, and sometimes they win".
~Stephen King
Monsters are real.
Example A:
Stephen King
@@lionhartd138 Good point.
@@lionhartd138Please explain!
@@eugeniosabater8449the child orgee in IT. Haven’t you read any of his books?
You hit the nail on the head in every respect but one imo: I think Danny's the protagonist. He's powerless for most of the film (and even absent for a bit when Tony takes over), but he saves himself and Wendy at the end, which even she couldn't do. Jack's a tragic figure, but he's the villain in the film unlike the book; less of a character to root for, and more like a bomb under the table the audience is waiting to explode from the very beginning. And since King was admittedly writing about himself, I think that's the change that makes him dislike this film so much.
You are spot on. King hates that Kubrick told him who was really to blame for his mistakes. Not alcohol (as the hotel represents alchohol and the availability of it in free western society AKA America) but him. The evil is in HIM. I now think thats why Kubrick switched the red VW in the beginning for a yellow one and then heading into the climax of the movie Kubrick showed the red VW smashed under an overturned tractor/ trailer on the highway in the snowstorm. I now see that in every story King wrote he blames the evil on something other than where its deserved. Very interesting.
I love both of your takes, very interesting.
Agree 100%, Michael Schwartz
@Michael.
I like your take. Great comment.
There is no Danny in the movie or book.
“Danny” is either a boat or some type of ship even an aircraft carrier perhaps
So…I kind of disagree with what you say regarding “All work and no play…”
Because, from my POV, Wendy was the one doing ALL the work. She was cooking, cleaning, taking care of/playing with Danny, taking care of the hotel (which was supposed to be Jack’s job). In fact, I can’t recall Jack doing anything in regards to the hotel upkeep. He spent his time playing hand ball, sitting at a typewriter, and just brooding, feeling sorry for himself…while his hatred for Wendy grows.
I think he views being a husband and father as a job.
I'd agree that Wendy is the only one doing any REAL work but from Jack's POV, I think he is feeling pressure to get the "writing project" done which was his main motivation for going to the hotel. I saw the handball, sitting at a typewriter, and the brooding as essentially writer's block (well except for the slow zoom when Jack is just looking out the window menacingly... I saw that as his brain starting to snap haha).
It is a job. Add to it a wife, and it's enough to drive any man into a murderous rage. We give you our child, and we get nothing. Nothing from y'all. Nothing from the kid. All we become good for to you is making money, and having someone to blame.
Add to that, the whole fucking world acts like being the Mom is the hard part? Fucking how? The whole Goddamn world is there waiting to catch you when you fall. We make the sacrifices, we get the blame, we get absolutely fucking nothing in return.
Yea, a man can learn to hate his family really, really fast in that kind of environment.
@@slyguythreeonetwonine3172 Brutal, but sadly true. I would however say that both mother and father roles are tough. That being said, as you pointed out, there is countless varying support for mothers while virtually none for fathers. All they usually tend to get is "stfu and man up".
It's the same type of "real men don't cry" BS. The man is commonly pushed into a less than human corner in each generation one way or another. You either ignore all the societal pressure and just be human, heed society's bs and become a dull boy, or crack under pressure and burn the world down.
Maybe her cooking isn't up to standard. Women. Am I right?
Wendy is the crazy one in the story she is imagining all of it. Even imagining that she’s the one who is doing everything. There are videos about this “theory” CZcams it. But I warn you once you’ve seen it the movie is no longer the same.
Yes. In the book, Jack absorbed the Hotel's rage. In the movie, the Hotel fed off of his. As a surviving child of violent alcoholics, I can tell you that Kubrik's feels far, far closer to the real dynamic. Alcoholics/addicts will literally seek out family members who are leaving them alone in order to go into a rage against them. They carry their anger with them at all times and it must be fed on a regular basis. And, like their other addictions, the need for more and more rage increases over time in order to get the same satisfaction. It was only a matter of time before Jack exploded.
It isn't just alcoholism. Those who are rage-filled and mentally ill do the same damn thing.
We "seek out family members who left us, so we can rage on them."? You are speaking of just Kubricks experiences, and his way of coping, correct?
yeah, king's was kind of Lame
Sorry to hear about your difficult background, but seems you overcame it, kudos!
You hit hole in one with that remark. Well said
Jack, in the book, is an alcoholic. Lloyd, the bartender, represents resentment and alcoholism. Alcoholism is a major theme in the book.
A scene that often gets overlooked is the scene where Jack is just sat on the bed, docile, like a zombie. When Danny asks his Dad why he doesn't just go to sleep if he's tired, he just responds "I can't, I've got too much to do". He wants to write, but when given the perfect environment to achieve this, he achieves nothing. He wasn't even looking after the hotel or spending time with his son, Wendy was doing everything for him.
We've all been so overwhelmed with worry, responsibility, resentment, depression, bitterness and work... we do just sometimes find ourselves sat there doing nothing and ultimately achieving nothing. Stephen King knows Horror, but Stanley Kubrik knows people 💔
There are at more than 2 different sides to people. Look at "Full Metal Jacket," or A Clockwork Orange" as examples. The characters in those reach into the very core of what humans are, we must work day in and day out to keep them at bay, less we allow them to consume what was once knew as good and twist it into the evil that is in us all.
At the hotel, Jack was allowed to regress back to a responsibility-free lifestyle, while Danny had to come to terms more with his Shining and had to man up enough to save himself and his mom. Wendy needed Danny to survive because Danny got Jack lost in the maze to freeze.
@@TraciEaston-hs5xeah, the “Kubrick stare.” Apocalypse Now, I’d add to that list. The stare being the point where the character is giving into those impulses. I’ve watched a few great deep dives on just that one tool Kubrick uses to show the devolution of his characters.
I’d include 2001 in here too but it doesn’t feel the same. Unless you count the red light from HAL as the stare and not David, since David is the protagonist. Although I did really love when David realizes Hal’s got him over a barrel, and the light is shining just on David’s eyes when he’s trying to comprehend wtf to do and he knows he’s probably fckd.
Kubrick was truly a master at his craft. Even if I can’t stomach to watch Clockwork, it made a huge impact on me the first watch. Apocalypse Now is also a difficult watch, the shining I can watch anytime bc it’s just so good.
Stephen King blamed the hotel for Jacks evil actions. Stanley took issue with that. The Bible quotes Jesus as saying "All things evil come from within". Kubrick was right to address this. Stephen King wants people to blame someone or something else for their wrongdoing. Stanley made it clear that if you kill someone in cold blood you have nobody to blame but yourself.
i couldnt care less about king's book its irrelevant, the film is about domestic violence and incest, the hotel is a metaphor / allegory for a family home, theres only the family there- it ought to be a perfectly salubrious nice safe place, but jack is a messed up alcoholic with major demons and theyre gonna come out sooner or later, jack beats / abuses his wife and commits incest with his son- often when you watch a thriller or whatever theres some dark evil secret to be uncovered- well incest is the dirtiest darkest filthy secret there is.
Disagree. The hotel’s evil influence wouldn’t have worked if Jack was a good person. Jack had a very dark side. It didn’t take much to get him on its side. Seriously? You think Stephen King don’t believe in personal responsibility?
Kubrick was so much more intelligent than King
@@Ryan-ze9fz of course he is, and kubrick would never do a film about something as banal as ghosts or horror, thats all a subterfuge for what its really about,
Even in the book, Jack had previously broken his sons arm in a fit of drunk rage before going anywhere near the hotel, and this was why he quit drinking. I don’t think King was trying to say Jack was mostly good or mostly bad, but rather that some people have both, and that this is a struggle for people like Jack. He’s not innocent, he’s not perfect but he GENUINELY WANTS to be better.
i read the book first and got the impression that people with darkness inside them were more likely to succumb to the dark forces within the Overlook, and while Jack may have struggled to overcome his darkness previously, he was unable to completely resist the dark forces trying to bring out his darkness in order to make him a part of their collective darkness.
In the book, Jack destroys the hotel, showing that while there is darkness in him, he also had enough good to do what had to be done. He was complex, right up to the end.
Then I watched the movie and thought the dude was a prick from the start. They are very different in many ways. Good performances and visuals tho.
I always saw it as a happy ending, as mother and son escape and Jack finds peace with new friends who won't judge him for enjoying a little debauchery and spirits.
😂😂
I love an optimist 🎉
They’re his old friends though 😅
I think the Overlook Hotel is like Silent Hill in the Silent Hill games. Both places are not actually the evil ones, but rather the places that reveal the evil within people. All the ghosts/monsters are just a psychological manifestation of people's evil that they live with or try to deal with in their lives. Dick Halloran said in the film the Overlook "shines" just like him and Danny, meaning it can imagine people's thoughts and memories like a psychic.
Danny had an advantage in the labyrinth even as a child bc he PLAYED in it before.
Jack was always WORKING when Danny & Wendy would play in the labyrinth.
All WORK, no PLAY, makes Jack a DULL boy.
He couldn’t figure out how to get out, this dying in the end & Danny escaping. Just wondering if anyone else thought this?
I think when you go for a job interview, if you want the job, you are supposed to agree happily to everything. "Yes, great, wonderful, fine, love it!"
"I'd give anything for a drink. I'd give my goddamned soul for just a glass of beer"
thats the trade....
I'd give my goddammed soul for a donut 🍩 😋
@@maxhammer4067 I'm smarter than the devil
@@tombondcrispy6585
YOUR NOT SMARTER THAN ME , classic
Yup. I think I read the same interview. Kubrick dispels a ton of theories. King didn’t like it because Kubrick made Jack responsible for his own action whereas King blamed outside forces. King wasn’t a shiny apple of a family man at the time so in my opinion he took Kubrick’s changes personal.
@Tom Ffrench That would make sense lol, I never understood why he hated the movie so much. But even then I feel like it's still obvious that Jack is possessed, like yeah he sells his soul willingly, but it's the classic "the devil tricked him" kinda thing, I don't consider him so much responsible.
The Shining was probably quite an intimate book for King; talking about his own insecurities and personal shortcomings. Struggling understandably both with society and his own inner demons - Kubrick made it a movie about the very nature of Human Evil as such: Ouch! 😓
@@Badbentham right?! Ouch indeed
There were also actually no ghosts that Jack was talking to since he was talking to them directly with mirrors behind them, they were reflections of his own personality, Lloyd at the mirrored bar, The young/old woman in Room 237, Delbert in the mirrored bathroom, Jack in the storage pantry talking to Delbert with the reflective metal door in front of Jack; when Jack walks to the ballroom and starts thrashing out, he does it each time in front of each mirror he walks past; Kubrick made it clear reflective surfaces are a main theme showing people’s true selves in The Shining
I think Wendy saw a few ghosts near the end, aswell as Danny.
@@RUDDYHELL2014 it was actually Wendy coming to the realization that Jack has been sexually abusing Danny as shown with the guy in the Bear suit and the old man
@@nickmattio3397 no evidence to back up this claim.
So the voices in his head let him out of the dry storage?
@@leonkennedy7662 it’s complicated, Jack has the Shining too but seems only as he becomes more unhinged/deranged; he could have a psychic connection with Danny where he puts him under mind control and Danny unlocks the door but not knowing he is or full telekinesis also, remember he’s in front of that door talking to Delbert but also has a reflective mirror metal surface to it so he’s talking to his other personalities personified with his Shining
I love for movies to be layered with multiple meanings
Couldn't agree more and Stanley Kubrick was one of the best at it!
👍
There aren t multiple meanings.
Trauma, Trauma, Trauma, just like in real life. Virtually everyone has unresolved trauma on this planet. This movie portrays a facet of it.
I just watched this legendary film tonight, and I feel he had no intention to write at all. When he lets Wendy have it for walking into the room and interrupting his “train of thought” I was blown away, I never noticed until now, in 2021, that as he begins to type, Jack begins to type three letters, space, four letters, space, three letters, space, the last is two, then space (all work and no) as the scene ends. His typing of the keys are the famous words Wendy finds in the third act of the movie. I believe Jack went there to repeat being the caretaker and he will always be the caretaker forever and ever and ever. Great post and it’s one of those films where you discover something new every watch.
Me too!
This was by far the BEST breakdown of The Shining and any other movie I have ever seen!!! I'm shocked it doesn't have more views! Exceptionally well done!!!
Thank you!!! 🙏 🙏 🙏
In the movie the plot focused on Jack but I got the impression the book was more about Danny. Danny is psychic and is deeply connected to his parents. He is a victim of an alcoholic father and domestic violence. Jack hated himself for hurting everyone around him. The hotel amplified his addiction which drove him insane. This led to Redrum.
I think there's an important metaphor in the hotel, which symbolizes society as a whole (not just human evil), the model maze inside the hotel which symbolizes society's model of "the ideal life", and the real maze which symbolizes the true journey of life and meaning.
Jack never leaves the hotel until the end of the movie - he only watches the model of the maze. In other words, he never looks outside of society's box. Danny and Wendy go outside, play in the maze, etc., they explore meaning and life outside of the box of society - something which Jack isn't able to do. Instead, he is preoccupied with work. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
There's a serious overtone here that society's instrumentalization of people (having them "take care of the hotel" in exchange for false promises of happiness (the model maze)) turns them slowly mad.
Jack eventually freezes to death in the real maze - he can't find the way out despite having watched the model maze inside the hotel. This symbolizes how society's "ideal life" image is a lie and fails to bring Jack fulfillment, instead filling him with bitterness, anger, etc. - it literally steals the warmth of his humanity away from him, freezing him solid.
This is brilliant!
The model maze is different from the real one. Jack was tricked into believing a false map of reality.
This was brilliantly thought out and written. That said the ideal life in of itself may not be the lie but Jacks inability to live in it .
Also, just because you think you’re familiar with something complex (looking from the outside down at the model) in actuality you get lost when immersed in an unfamiliar view. He had never experienced the maze in reality and he became trapped
Except for one major problem. Jack wasn't looking to escape the maze but to find Danny.
Jack’s hunger to escape being sober is so much that when he asks for bourbon he gets served Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey, but real bourbon is from Kentucky, meaning he doesn’t care what it is after it’s being poured, he’s back to being the “real” Jack that’s been missing for “5 miserable months and all the irreparable harm it’s caused.”
My theory is Jack in 1920s was the one who built hotel on Indian burial grounds or cemetery. Cursed to walk its halls forever and ever......leaving to find victims only to return to live his cursed existence. At end frozen. But died? Doubt it. Curse will happen over and over
Great interpretation!
_"The point of The Shining is you're supposed to identify with Jack"_
I didn't identify with Jack.
Me either. I identified more with Danny.. I guess because I also grew up in an abusive household with an alcoholic father.. Jack always reminded me of my dad.
@@ineffablemars My Dad wasn’t abusive, but he was an alcoholic and the “Jack” in the movie, up until he starts getting really crazy reminds me very much of my Father.
The car ride scene, was a typical “pleasant” car ride I remember growing up.
My Father wasn’t that different than my friends Dad’s growing up either.
I remember sleeping over at a friends house and about 2am his Dad came to check on us, with a Samurai sword unsheathed and appeared to be having some kind of Vietnam flashback.
How many people had these really positive families dynamics, that so many people think Kubrick is intentionally portraying really bad dynamics?
He’s the main character. We see most of the movie from his POV but he’s deranged. You’re SUPPOSED to identify with him the same way you’ll identify with Walter White or Tony Soprano (If you have seen the shows) they are anti-hero’s at some stages evil but it’s broken up by the loving and human moments. We see none of this in the shining, he’s totally evil. You’re supposed to identify with him as we see his thoughts and feelings but for most of us it’s impossible to connect with any of his thoughts.
You do, but don't realize it.
I always assumed the Shining was about inheriting your father’s demons. Figuratively and literally. Jack was a dysfunctional, arguably previously abusive alcoholic. Both physically and sexually. The hotel just helped to physically manifest his psychological troubles into the eyes and experiences of his family and lead him into a homicidal state. His inner monsters came into fruition through himself and on to his wife and child, damaging them both; His son has the same Shining that he does.
Sexually?? When was Jack ever sexually abusive?
@@hitandrunproductions9454 Some people claim its indirectly implied
@@hitandrunproductions9454 there is a scene where wendy is running from jack and see’s a man in a bear costume pleasing a man laying in a bed. Odd inconsistent scene if you dont have the eyes for it. If you notice in the beginning when danny is talking to the psychologist he is laying on a bear 🐻 in the bed. It’s subtle hints like that layered in the movie
@@hitandrunproductions9454 there’s also a play girl magazine jack reads in the lobby of the overlook hotel with incest as a main topic on the cover page
@@room2three It's not a bear costume. It's a dog.
I think that the approach of making Jack evil from the get-go and having the Hotel essentially unlock his capacity for evil is much better than King's "tragic family man". The reason why is that I think it fits better into the idea of repetition/recurrence that the subject material focuses on. As I'm sure all of you are aware, the idea of recurrence is paired (at least for Nietzsche) with Amor fati- the desire to live your life the same way, again and again, and not resist your fate but rather pursue it. Nietzsche looked at amor fati positively- as being an impetus to live a life of adventure, of danger, of great projects, so that when you die, you say, "I want to do it all again". Of course, he wouldn't look at Jack Torrence as being a representation of the life he was trying to promote with the concept of Amor fati. Nevertheless, Jack is stuck in a cycle- he is always the caretaker and is reincarnated. And he takes up his fate of going to the hotel willingly and happily. And when challenged- he constantly refers back to his obligation to the hotel and his opportunity to ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING by being there- he sees the hotel and the fate it gives him as affirming himself, rather than trying to resist it. Overall, the idea that Jack is itching for the overlook hotel and its fate is far more believable given the fact that others have reacted to the concept of repetition calling to the love of fate.
I like this take a lot
I think it's one of the reasons why King hates the movie. Cause King himself identifies as the protagonist. He is a good man, atleast wants to be percieved that way. But the movie showed that he was done way before he came to the hotel, and that makes King look unapologetic.
This interpretation is very close to what I got from the movie. It is the reason that it scared the hell out of me on my first viewing a couple days ago. But it didn't make me scared of Jack, it made me scared of myself! As someone who's greatest fear is losing my mind and control of it, and someone who has struggled with mental illness for years, this film forces you to dredge up thoughts, experiences, and feelings that you DONT WANT TO!!!
Also, I couldn't help but think that the film was intentionally filmed in a way to make it seem like you, the viewer, we're stalking the family (notice the little differences when stalking Jack vs stalking the other family members). This made me think that the POV might be from the hotel's "shining" spirit and hence the viewer themselves takes part in the film as the evil spirit. Pretty stinkin meta if that is the case but I won't elaborate on that.
something I recently noticed, the bathroom in the "apartment" they show in the beginning of the film is very clean. At the end of the movie with the murderous Jack on the rampage, the bathroom is very much in need of a deep clean. There is dirt and mildew, and what looks like mold, covering surfaces, like it hasn't been cleaned in years - not a few months. There are even chips and damage on the door (before the axe treatment). Cleanliness has not been maintained by the Torrances.
Great video, well explained! I also saw a theory on YT about the shining. He explained that the whole story revolves around sexual abuse towards Danny. This is noticeable from many scenes. Both the scene where he enters the hotel lobby with his clothes ripped to pieces. and the scene where everything is revealed. You see the bear lying on the bed with the butler bent over him. This bear was also seen in Danny's bedroom at the very beginning. Also the ball that roles towards Danny while he's playing with his cars. The same ball Jack was throwing.. Oh man.. this movie is so genious.
Yes! And I'll add it's cemented with the scene w Jack and Danny on the bed. Jack's pants are hanging on the chair in full view with the mirror and when Jack picks him up, he slides his body against Jack's. Jack sits him on his knee. This is the only real interaction between the two in the film. The next scene with Danny we see he has been attacked and clothing ripped.
For me, Jack took this job subconsciously to do exactly what he did. He realized he actually not a good writer and again took his failures out on those vulnerable around him.
Domestic violence is what I see the most out of this film. The ghost are a visual aid that shows the horrors for which the family endures while experiencing the violence.
Same in the movie "Lalaland" a great thai horror movie that's actually not about ghosts but about domestic violence.
A good family man who dislocated his son's arm in a fit of drunken rage before the hotel. Yeah ok.
Bravo514 you don't seem to understand how much of a hold addiction, and in particular alcohol addiction can have on a person...
@@bruggeman672idk dude I'm an alcoholic and I've somehow avoided harming children.
@@IAmTheDoctor00 and where did I say addiction automatically translates to abusing children? You're not very smart are you?
@@IAmTheDoctor00 have you though? There's all kinds of harm...
@@bruggeman672 wooooow I was making a joke, you being SO offended but a random comment on CZcams makes it clear you probably have charged against you harming children you weirdo.
The scene where Jack rages at Wendy for interrupting him as he typed was a dream/delusion in the film. The frame after Wendy leaves confirms this and Kubrick deliberately removed the chair in the background to tip off the viewer that something was different.
A delusion on who’s part? Jack or Wendy?
@@glennoconnor1130 It was Jack’s delusion. The first clue is the missing chair. The second clue is that when Wendy walks away Jack is seen at the typewriter looking totally different.
There is a theory that most of the scenes are actually Jack's book he's writing, interspersed with scenes of "reality". Hence, Danny's two different colored bikes, missing chairs, different typewriters, etc.
@@chrismorgan7494 That is far out man. Can’t say I buy it. Kubrick loved to employ altered consciousness such as dreams and delusions flashbacks etc. “Eyes Wide Shut” is like that as well.
@@braddurian It's definitely interesting. There's a compelling video about it here. I forget the title.
Really enjoyed this assessment!
Also just a side note: not much scares me. I’ve been watching horror from literally younger than I can remember (which was probably not good for kids LOL). But that scene with the “bathtub hag” scared me to death for years!
Thank you! And yes, bathtub lady has haunted me for years haha. Anytime I walk into a bathroom and the curtain is closed on the bath... I think, should I make sure there's no living corpse in there?
For realz!!!
She did a great job.
For me, she represented what Jack really was.. At first she looked all sexy and desirable. In reality, she's a decomposing monster.
That's really Jack on the inside because of his sick relationship w his son...
He saw himself abusing Danny and when he looked in the mirror, he saw how ugly it really was.
@@jooliagoolia9959 I don't think so. I think Jack lusted for the young woman and was completely in thrall to the hotel's manipulation. Then the hotel revealed its illusion, much like the hotel itself. It looks beautiful on the exterior, but has a rotten core. I don't think Jack had a fully rotten core. He had the potential for evil, which was one side of himself. The other, the desire to be better. Unfortunately, the hotel manipulates his worst impulses and with his unwitting assent, he gives the evil inside free reign. In the bathroom scene it's like the hotel is taunting him: stop pretending to be something you're not and let the real you come out to play.
@@gracieb.3054 That's what's so fantastic. We all have our own takes on it.
I’ll speak to the movie since it’s been decades since I read the book. It helps IMO if you recognize the hotel as being alive. The hotel is the villain, and Wendy seeing the apparitions at the climax demonstrates that it has fully come to life. Jack spent too much time alone within the hotel and was more susceptible to its influence than the others. The question is what force brought Jack and the hotel together
Another theory is that Jacks alcohol problem never stopped after the Dany incident. It was the isolation at the overlook hotel with LACK of alcohol that drove him crazy and made him hallucinate. Otherwise Wendy and Dany would have seen him drinking. We know for a fact that no alcohol was left in the hotel by mr ullman himself. So I don’t agree with the theory that alcohol drove him mad, but the lack for it and hallucinations of wanting to drink again. With other words he gave in to the ghosts of the overlook since Jack has the shining himself and alcohol takes it away (as we see in dr sleep). the hotel never wanted jack, it wanted Dany but used jack as a tool to get him but failed. Jack is a ghost in live form driven to the overlook just like Grady and all the others that committed crimes there. But I do agree with the theory that Kubrick shows the evil inside a man already and what could make him snap
"No beer and no TV make Homer something something ..."
One of my favorite episodes!
when Grady lets Jack out of the storage room is Exactly when you CAN argue the ghosts are real
there's zero evidence that the ghost inhabiting the Overlook are manifestations of Jack's weaknesses
....if they're Jacks weaknesses then how is his wife able to see them??
What would the meaning be of a guy in a bear costume giving head to a poofter in tails mean in terms of jacks own weaknesses?
The drink Jack accepts is like the Forbidden Fruit in the Garden of Eden,
by partaking of the drink, he's accepted the terms and conditions of the evil that lives at the Overlook
he's given them dominion over himself....and they council him towards the ultimate evil
The bar scene in "Passengers" looks suspiciously like the one in The Shining.
My take on the Kubrick’s The Shining: There were no ghosts in Kubrick’s Shining. Danny let Jack out of the dry-closet. Remember that Dani has a “friend” he calls Toney. And that Dani is always using his index finger pointing up when talking to him. This he got from Kellogg’s Toney the Tiger who in its commercial Toney the Tigger points up with one finger and says “THEY’RE GREAT!” Toney the Tiger is big and strong and admired by all his friends. This was a symbol of strength for little Danny. It was his alter personality. Note that when Danny is Toney he calls his mom Mrs. Torrance. Toney is Danni’s strong persona. And this Toney persona is the one who decides to kill Jack. Notice that in the begging of the movie Dani is watching the Road Runner. This is where Toney gets the idea to having Jack chase him into the maze. Like the road runner would do to the coyote. When Wendy knocks Jack out and drags him into the dry-closet you can see a Kellogg Frosted Flakes box with Toney the Tiger on it on the counter when she is dragging Jack in. Look for it; you can’t miss it. This is a sign Kubrick puts in telling us Dani is there listening. Just think. Where was Dani when Wendy was Crying and hits Jack with the bat and all that upheaval was going on. Dani was there listening. After hearing Jack pleading with his mom, Dani or Toney knew his mom would give in soon and let Jack out and if she didn’t, they would have to when winter was over and they had to leave. Then Jack would continue to molest poor Dani and abuse his mom. That’s right, Jack was molesting Danny. Dani was attacked by Jack in room 237 and made to perform falashio on him. That is why Danny had bruises on his neck. He told Wendy and old lady attacked him because Dani was scared. The old lady being a symbol for Jacks penis. Notice that when Wendy tells Jack an old lady attacked Danny, Jack’s look on his face shows he does not believe it at all. This is because he knows what really happened. Then in room 237 Jack remembers what he was imagining when Dani was performing the falashio on him and then came to the reality of what he really was doing and what the old lady really represented, him doing evil. And when Jack was having the nightmare was Jack lying. Jack did this to cover for his crime and to imply the threat of murder. What a piece of shit. Well, Toney wasn’t having any more of this. Dani’s alter ego put into action his plan. When he heard Jack talking to his Id or Shadow (Jung’s), he knew he had to act and let Jack out so that he could run him into the maze. Kubrick was a genius. All the supposed ghosts were the characters and their Shadows or Ids or alters. Jack was a man-child, the puer aeternus, that was completely irresponsible and could never amount to shit like a lot of people are. He never had what it took to be a writer. All he did was play the rich man in the hotel and pound his tennis ball around while Wendy took care of the place. When Wendy sees his work it all comes forward-the man-child jack really is. Jack did try but he always let “The Imp of the Perverse” get the better of him-like most do with their dreams and aspirations. And he was a child molester. Danny, I mean Toney took care of it. I have seen this movie so many times I have lost track; and I will continue to see it until I die. Kubrick’s The Shining is giant and just like the three little pigs it will be watched over and over again until man ceases to exists
This comment is almost as genius as Stanley Kubrick himself
The hotel they stayed at was called the Overlook Hotel but this story is based on an actual hotel that is believed to be haunted and where Stephen King stayed called the Stanley Hotel.
Like every movie ever made, The Shining, at it's core, is about Hot Pockets. It's essentially a deep allegory for the frustration one feels when the outside and/or from one to all four of the corners are burning hot while the filling is ice cold. Again, every movie, when you break them down into their component parts, is about Hot Pockets.
Even, or rather ESPECIALLY, movies made before Hot Pockets came onto the market are about Hot Pockets. Of course the message of an allegorical movie about Hot Pockets in the 1950s such as Ben-Hur is going to be quite different from a satirical take on the glaring inequality of Ham and Cheese with other kinds of Hot Pockets. Even with that said, movies are ultimately about Hot Pockets. That's why the US is the Hot Pocket-est nation on Earth. Viva la Pocket!
I love this comment BUT, I think you made a small error in your second sentence! You’re trying to say it’s warm on the outside but cold on the inside right? At the moment, it says it’s cold on the out and the inside!
Either way though, excellent take 👏 lol
It's frustrating because, one can almost never BUY a Hot Pocket, one can only buy a Cold Pocket; one must supply their own heat.
@@OneTakeVids lol yeah fixed it
You need to take over Rotten Tomatoes. This is the most profound statement and analysis of film and I don't think it can be topped.
Just needs ranch dressing.
Sounds like the analysis one would get from Jim Gaffigan.
I think Jack indeed does resent and despise Wendy, the way he belittles her to her face, and his even more vicious words about her to others.
I don't think he resents Danny, at least not in the same way, but is frustrated by a family he never really wanted.
Jack was abused as a child. Therefore, the likelihood of abusing his own child is significantly higher. If Jack is cognitive of this, it would imply that Jack doesn't despise Danny, but is aware that he's not "Father Material".
Ultimately Jack attacks Wendy.
No Wendy, no Danny, no soul-crushing responsibility to provide for them both.
This is made pretty clear in Jack's bar scene monologue in "Dr. Sleep".
He hated the shackles and responsibilities of fatherhood and of being a husband. Which, for better or worse, is a very common theme in the "American Nuclear Family" of decades past, which now has led to a sharp decline in marriage altogether.
Jack resents himself. He refuses the offer to continue sending time with Wendy and Danny, because it's about time he started the work that he came to do. But he can't write anything so laments the time lost with his family. He knew he had no good ideas, but his sense of responsibility, possibly inspired by Wendy's glib "it's jus a matter of..." forced his hand. He might resent Wendy for that comment, I guess, but his response, at the time, was quite jovial.
I’m so glad you’re such an expert on nothing. What bunk! The movie is boring ( perhaps on purpose) and you all are reading too much into it and are probably projecting your own insecurities. Besides, tge Wendy theory makes so much more sense. And then, the movie is great and interesting and finally makes sense. Oh, and when in the movie does it even intimate that jack was abused as a child!?
@@michellemckillop5712 You must be fun to live with... Attacking people personally for an opinion makes them look solid and you look silly and foolish.
I didn't attack you as a person in this comment. I'm pointing out the immaturity of it.
@@michellemckillop5712 That's funny. You're one of the few who find this terrifying tale of domestic abuse, among other things, boring. If others find there are metaphors, complex imagery and set design, deep psychological understanding of domestic violence, and that it all adds up to more than you're seeing, then maybe you're the one who has the perception problem. If people have experienced domestic violence, for instance, and they say that this is what it is like, and you never have experienced it, then who are you to claim it doesn't exist? Btw, what is "The Wendy Theory"? I don't know about that, but I've read extensively and listened to many CZcams video's with different takes on this movie, and I've learned that it has many layers that need to be peeled back like an onion. If you don't do that, then it might seem one dimensional and boring, or inscrutable. And while the movie doesn't intimate that jack was abused as a child, the book does. However, its excision makes a point. Jack's choices are his own.
I always got the feeling this was the prequel to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
The most concise take on this film I’ve ever seen.
I like to take the scientific approach to Jack slipping into insanity. One, he was dealing with alcohol withdrawal. And two, he was spending time in a high-elevation environment. That means the air is thin in that hotel. That means Jack was unknowingly suffering from oxygen depravation or H.P.N.S. (High Pressure Nervous Syndrome). It's the same kind of condition that overtakes Lt. Coffey (the character played by Michael Biehn) in 1989's The Abyss and slowly makes him go insane.
No one has ever gotten the message is an understatement. Thank you. I miss these the most by you. The philosophy. I can't even watch the film after listening to this book and No Country for Old Men every week for almost seven years, I never stop learning something new. I miss who King use to be, and who Kubrick was.
Barry Nelson and Scatman Crothers scenes were my favorite from the movie I could listen to them talk about anything for hours
Interesting and very fine analysis. Here's something I've noticed, though. I've read the book. I've seen the film. And I've seen quite a number of CZcams videos analyzing the film. They all have their own takes, and all of those takes are, for the most part, valid. Or, at least, they all have some validity to them. So I have two takeaways from all of this.
1 - The Shining has more depth as a film than most other films.
2 - It may be that The Shining serves as a Rorschach Test for each and every viewer/analyst. What do you see when you watch and think about this film? Then that's what the film is about. It's about us. And maybe that's the true horror.
That is fantastic!!! 👍👍👍 Love it
💯!!!!
“All work and no Play makes Jack a dull boy” is an old school typing exercise. It’s meant to test your agility on an old typewriter. The repetitious writing of this wrote phrase is King’s externalization of the main character’s decent into madness.
Jack never drank any alcohol. There was no alcohol left in the hotel; Thats was all in his imagination -- you can tell because as soon as he takes his first swig of the spirits he acts drunk. Noone gets drunk that fast. It's instantaneous.
Great work though... so much work put into this. Much appreciated!
in the book, Jack purposefully hid the boiler situation from the entity possessing him, allowing the hotel to blow up as a redemption arc. I think the lack of that is what made SK mad.. that and lack of the diary, the blackmail threats.. it's a good movie, but it lacks the depth in the book. [edit] And while the Native American bit is mentioned in the movie, it's absolutely not in the book.. Kubrick was just using the Poltergeist trope..and it's kinda infuriating.
That's fair but I've always looked at the Native American symbolism as more of a red herring and that the influence of the hotel was more sinister in origin. In fact Native Americans have little to nothing to do with the plot.
I feel like removal of the depth of the book made it more scary and made the movie better. Which is weird to say. But what the movie did for me is focus on the characters of the family and the impact that Jack's actions had on them. Wendy and Danny are obviously victims of domestic abuse and a lot of the dread and horror of the Shining is being trapped with someone who has shown they are capable of violence and has been violent before in the right circumstances. The internal monologue of what's happening inside of Jack's head isn't particularly scary in the book and honestly doesn't matter when his actions are as horrible as they are. I think the reason King was angry was because Kubrick and Johnson read the story, identified Jack as the true monster, not the Hotel, and King took that personally given how much he related to the character of Jack.
@@Ganon999 I think you are correct, and a lot of Shining analysis (including this one) makes a point of mentioning Native American symbols as to say that the colonization and conquest of NA lands contributed to the horrors at the Overlook. I would think that it would merit a lot more than an allusion if that were the case. Furthermore, the inclusion of NA decor is nothing more than incorporating regional culture. Along the southern border one finds Mexican influences in decor. There's a lot of French influence in New Orleans, Cuban influence in Miami, etc. What a strange idea, that hanging a blanket or a painting had much of anything to do with the story here.
@@dash_r_media Well said. That's what I've always thought after seeing many videos like this one.
@@Ganon999 I also add that Rob Ager (amongst many others) characterize European conquest and colonization of Native Americans as a genocide. I like Ager's work a lot and he normally doesn't go in for this kind of loaded language; my understanding of the term genocide is that it is a deliberate and specific attempt to eradicate a group of people, usually upon ethnic lines. If the "Native American genocide" successfully retains that term, then ALL wars of conquest are genocides.
I believe that the film is subjectively open to interpretations based on the deliberate continuity errors and misleading set design of the hotel’s interior and exterior by Kubrick to trick the audience. If you observe the scenes throughout carefully it has various elements of a dysfunctional family related to trauma,alcoholism,abuse,lust,denial and violence projected by the visuals created within the characters minds. In addition another fascinating factor about the direction is the foreshadowing of scenes through symbolisms and props as if they are setting the tone for the upcoming events like jack playing with the ball in the lobby and colorado lounge as axe swinging and murder of Dick Hallorann. My interpretation is the chain of violence throughout history shown in the film.
You are right. It's a cautionary tale about the horror and death-ness of child abuse and the cycle of family violence that always seems to go with that. That it seems to be mostly from Danny's viewpoint seems compassionate. I wonder where THAT comes from. The hotel is not the problem, it's the silence that goes with child abuse. And the feeling of timelessness. And repetition...no wonder it seems like a confusing film if Kubrick was himself abused and still in a state of partial trauma. How could he understand for real?? Maybe the hotel's the problem. Wouldn't most therapists come to that conclusion? Change the milieu? lol
The most iconic scenes were based on a hotel in Yosemite National Park, The Ahwahnee Lodge. Went there when I was 9 years old and recognized it immediately.
It is that house as well. Something In Jack's energy(His patriarchal nature perhaps) matched the energy of the place. But it's the house which bring's it up to the surface. The more time he spend's there, the more he act's like a lunatic. Those "ghosts" probably can't murder the innocent out of Karmic Law but they can prod a "twitchy" guy into choosing to do it. A place's "negative" energy need's to feed off people's energy in order to survive. It's vampiric + can have an invasive effect when it finds someone with a similar vibration. It trigger's his addiction to make a Soul CONtract or Karmic agreement. There's no alcohol there but they're called "spirits" for a reason! It can lower a person's mental to(le)rrance + let in doppleganger Johnny Carson's 😊 or percolate old "entity" attachments? There is a momentum to it too. As there is with isolation. Jack says 'I'd never hurt you Danny, I love ya." That's the most accepted + common response. But the longer they're stranded, the more he drops society's standards. He "drinks," is more hostile + bangs a ghost behind his wife's back...etc! He almost seem's to be inhabiting 2 conscious states too. His normal, awake state + a more "ethereal" one. He either shut's down in denial, lies or isn't much aware of his other 'state' until it's influence takes over completely + inhabits him. Where does that "evil" go when we die? Do we have to reincarnate until we accept that "evil" + choose to not let it consume us? Rather than deny or repress it until it control's us subconsciously + then trigger's us into murdering our so-called beloved? That's how I see it anyway. There is something out there but it only feed's, uses + controls our own "evil" to do it's bidding.
I wish King understood that Kubrick elevated his simple story to a legendary status- he should be grateful
the Shining is about a guy that "would sell his soul for a drink".
the evil obliges in the form of Lloyd the bartender, who purchases the aforementioned soul with the bourbon.
after the drink... the evil has taken over and goes after Wendy and Danny.
Jack hurts danny before they get to the overlook in the book as well. He’s already a bad person. He beat up a student when he was a professor and that’s why he lost his job and turned to alcohol in the first place. He hurt danny as a form of punishment and he does it more than once? I’m confused how he’s meant to be a good family man
Dick Halloran is also a character, the same character, in the book IT. King was building a universe even back then.
I've always loved these connection between Stephen King's books
Thank you, One Take, for this balanced analysis. I'd like to add somethings from my own analysis:
1. Kubrick always gave his mature films a double dimension: one individual small-scale dimension, centered on the main character development (here the Torrance family's drama); and the other a large scale dimension representing humanity, or in the Shining specifically, America itself. There is virtually no shot in the film where red+blue don't appear (though I must say Kubrick uses this curious color palette since his first color film, 2001);
2. About the ghost being real or not "in the film", Kubrick made it clear he used a concept from the TV film "Blue Hotel" where one character played by David Warner is apparently a paranoid but, after being killed in a duel after slandering his card opponent of cheating, we find that he was really being cheated in the game. Similarly in The Shining the ghosts are eventually taken as real as they "unlock" the pantry door for Jack (though, to add to the ambiguity, we only hear it being unlocked). The ghosts are real not in a conventional way but as an allegorical fairy tale, since I believe, as you too apparently, that the ghosts here are projections from the id subconscious of the characters. Bathrroms being Kubrick quintessential place for the human repressed thoughts to manifest themselves, but here with the Overlook Hotel being a isolated hotel with lots of rooms, the ghosts have more space to wander. The Shining is Freudian film, not Jungian (like Full Metal Jacket);
3. The Uncanny essay by Freud used by Kubrick and Johnson is a curious one, since it gives a blueprint of how the uncanny can be expressed in dreams or in fiction. The way it manifests itself is by generating an unpleasing feelings when we see not strange but familiar situations. That is, it is a strangement in the familiar, the habitual day-to-day reality of a American family unit. Also this allegorical dream reality is revealed by the use of repetitions of names, numbers, images, etc. In The Shining repetitions abound: colors, number 2, phrases, situations, doubles, that I'll let for you to find since I am extending mysel already in this comment.
Thank Saulo! Love these points. A couple of things I'd just add:
When you say 'The Shining' is a Freudian film, not Jungian, I'd just respond that in my opinion, Kubrick and Johnson used Frued's analysis of "The Uncanny" primarily to determine how to frighten an audience. My interpretation of Freud's essay is slightly different from your's though. I read it as Freud saying the uncanny manifests from seeing something familiar yes... but specifically something familiar regarding childhood beliefs. He was big on "the repressed" and that was no different here. We have certain beliefs as children (essentially a "wild imagination") like seeing our toys or dolls as living things. As a young child, the idea of your doll coming to life and speaking with you is not frightening. However, as an adult, with a more informed worldview... an inanimate object suddenly coming to life is "uncanny" because it is the return of a repressed childhood view. So, I think it's no mistake that in this movie... Danny, a child, is the first to encounter every instance of the supernatural (he uses his Shining ability early on, he's the first to see the ghosts, etc).
So, I'd agree 'The Shining' is a Freudian film in the sense that many of its storytelling choices are influenced by his theories on horror (specifically the "uncanny"). But, I do think Kubrick consistently held the belief that evil comes from within and should not be externalized (which aligns with Jung) and that idea is on display in this film (though it's explored byway of Freud's ideas). So, I don't necessarily see it as being about Freud or Jung (as in one or the other)... I think Freud's ideas influenced the "how" (how do we scare people?) but the "what" (what are we telling them?) at least aligns with the Jungian idea of duality of man.
I agree with most of you said though. I definitely see the film as allegorical... i.e., the ghosts are "real" in the reality of the story... but they're used as a means to allude to ideas relevant in the real world (and Kubrick + Johnson hope we'll use the film as a springboard to consider those ideas).
@@OneTakeVids Well, Freud's uncanny is not something ostensive in the "text" of Kubrick's The Shining (diegetical), like Jung is in Full Metal Jacket. We only come to know about Freud's text by reading Diane Johnson and Kubrick interviews of the period, the same for the use of Bruno Bettelheim's "Uses of Enchantment". Only by these external quotes can we create some kind of bridge from Freud's essay to the film (and like in all interpretation of meaning of this abstract sort we can only hope to be in right direction; though we can avert sidetracking from the source too much).
Jung's duality-of-man is the problem an individual has to face in order of becoming whole ("individuation"), and not repressing the evil of his nature that he tries to deny reaching his conscience. Private Joker in Full Metal Jacket, for example, uses jokes and sarcasm to evoid dealing with his evil he denies to himself but at the end it forces itself upon him. Something different happens with Jack Torrance in the Shining, he hides his evil NOT from himself but from the others: in front of his employers and socially he is very polite, soft spoken and charming, but that persona fades away as soon as he is alone with his family.
The uncanny (unheimlich, "unhomely") as a repressed childhood complex is only an example. It is not just to frighten audience, it is more subtle. That's why Freud says the uncanny is not well suited in literal fairy tales or mythologies of gods (even stories like Dante's Inferno or the ghosts in Shakespeare's plays), because they "abandon the basis of reality right from the start and openly commits itself to the acceptance of animistic beliefs." ; "we adapt our judgement to the conditions of the writer's fictional reality and treat souls, spirits and ghosts as if they were fully entitled to exist." (Freud). Rather, the uncanny suits better "the writer [who] has to all appearances taken up his stance on the ground of common reality. By doing so he adopts all the conditions that apply to the emmergence of the sense of the uncanny in normal experience." (Freud) He goes further and says the uncanny prompts the audience to feel deceived, which is exactly what the Blue Hotel and The Shining stories do. Again Freud: "he [the writer] tricks us by promising us everyday reality and then going beyond it."
About the ghosts in the film Diane Johnson says: "The psychological states of the characters can create real ghosts who have physical powers." The ghost we expect in the Shining happens to be projections of Jack's own mind (he is not afraid of the hotel apparitions, he feels it "homey, cozy," and only when he sees his own reflection with his ghosts in the mirror, he is actually scared). Wendy repress this knowledge in order to maintain her marriage (she finds the hotel "kind of spooky", but eventually she cracks), Danny sees it in premonition and figurative ways (elevator, the twins, room 237; and always in terror, trembling).
It’s definitely Jung influenced as “The Red Book” by Jung is on the desk during the interview scene.
czcams.com/video/0CZujrrwZPE/video.html
@@giarc9047 it’s “the Hotel & Motel Red Book”.
Its mind blowing to see all the details that went into this apparent genius in the movie field.
I don't watch these types of videos to see where I disagree. I watch these videos because I enjoy seeing what others take from a movie and fiction in general. This was very well done and well thought out.
Thanks Wes! Appreciate it!
I think the movie is about the relative nature of reality for the individual. It is hard to say definitively if Jack is experiencing a common reality or his reality, and I think it is suggested by the title there is a paranormal reality which only some can access. It's accessed through three perspectives: Jack's, which may be a visceral view into the hotel's past events, Scatman Crother's character who perceives the past yet accepts it, and Danny's who may perceive it like his father yet not know how to react. The Shining is about ESP. I always wondered if Jack was truly a figure in the past of the hotel, fully reincarnated, or was possessed by a spirit familiar with the hotel. The film is ambiguous, which creates conversation.
Kubrick said the film suggests reincarnation...not that it contains reincarnation. We also know that we can't take reincarnation literally, since Jack Torrance was born before Charles Grady died.
The main characters are Jack, Wendy, Danny/Tony...and more peripherally Dick Hallorann. Others have suggested another character...The Overlook Hotel itself.
I propose another character...The Caretaker. The Caretaker is the manifestation of The Overlook. Charles Grady, Jack Torrance, etc. are embodiments of that manifestation. This helps to explain how Jack has always been The Caretaker. Delbert Grady, who has alway been there, could be a manifestation of The Overlook itself.
Another interesting thing is that Jack is frozen. Come spring will Jack thaw out? Perhaps Jack is dead, but The Caretaker will be released. The Overlook is always looking for the next person to become The Caretaker.
Bravo! After all of the commentaries I have read and listened to, this is the most sensible, comma sensitive, comma and clear analysis I have ever heard!! Thank you so so much for such an accurate analysis of a movie and story that I simply love. Please follow up this analysis by discussing Doctor Sleep.
I think if you looked at the reviews when the movie first came out, you would see that people didn't think Jack was that bad at first, they liked Jack. They knew the story, they blamed the hotel. Jack never shows any fondness for Danny, that is true. But he does show some for his wife up until the the ball against the wall scene. People may have complained Jack went nuts too fast. Kubrick always got a lot of flack for his movies. People didn't get what he was doing.
This is the problem, now. Wen the film first came out people were able to view it objectively. Now people are looking for signs of Jack's evil in the opening scenes.
I cannot think of another actor who would have done such a masterful job as Jack.
It really is hard to imagine
Jack is a far more sympathetic character than one might at first realize.
This is what I got from the movie too when I saw it for the first time last night.
TL;DR
The hotel feeds off your evil and your evil feeds off the hotel. Those with the shinning are easier targets cause that negative energy can communicate with them more directly.
Almost as though the evil and negative energy that has been in the hotel and even part of the hotel's origins itself almost becomes sentient and gets stronger when met with more evil or potentional for evil and in turn, that evil within us is strengthened.
Just as the chef said, some (those with the shinning) can see these things more than others. I believe that the shinning exists on a spectrum, some have it stronger than others, Danny obviously having it very strong within him. I believe that Jack also had it though and the sentient evil energy took advantage of this to tempt and further corrupt Jack. Danny meanwhile, probably being a child was not nearly as easy to corrupt. Wendy doesn't see the paranormal stuff in the hotel until far later which makes me think that average people can't see it unless that demonic or evil pressence is extremely high.
The chef speaking of which only works in the hotel when it's open for business and can still see or sense what is wrong with the place while the space is occupied by tons of people and their varying energies constantly going in and out of the hotel. That demonic energy has a harder time flourishing the more people and activity is there. With a family of 3 though, honing in on a target is far easier. Not to mention the effects that isolation had on their psyche.
Speaking of which, Kubrick is something else. Like he turns and treats people like objects for the sake of art. Putting the actors in The Shinning through mental and emotional abuse so that energy and those reactions would come out on the big screen. That's just chilling to me.
I love when a new video about The Shining arrives for viewers to watch, thanks. What a series of moving images to talk about and absorb the potential meaning of what the meditation of evil that resides within us can drive us towards
Jack has an impulse that makes him drink, but I think more people will relate to the impulse of resentment. Blaming someone or something else or some large social structure for everything that goes wrong in your life. I think we have a huge problem of people feeding off of and perpetuating that anger. It’s addicting. It gives you an artificial framework to deal with your resentment while simultaneously relieving you of all responsibility. I think the solution is to take personal responsibility
This is a great observation and commentary about modern society, and the main reason this film version differed from the source material of Kings book.
Kubricks film makes it an excellent cautionary tale of the real horror humans are capable of if they stay stuck in resentment and blame.
Hang on, have you watched the film in the correct order? The tension doesn't begin until the moment Jack sacrifices having fun with his family, and takes the responsible approach of trying to write his book.
@@happinesstan Yeah; if the Hotel serves as a representation for Society as such, then it is pretty much Society telling Jack: " You are indeed a good servant of ours. - Relax, and have a good drink!" - " For the future, we count on your compliance!"
I always thought maybe they were both nuts- Wendy and Jack. Wendy coming across as a mom dealing with Münchausens by proxy and possibly her own hallucinations, and a dad with alcoholism and rage that may have even sexually assaulted Danny.
Danny being the protagonist trying to manage and survive a family dynamic that no kid should be in.
I think they are both terrible victims of their circumstances.
Disagree with this interpretation. Jack said his wife and kids could handle being in the hotel is a stock answer to give at a job interview. What is he goign to say? That because someone got killed years ago that his family won’t be able to stay five mo the alone in a hotel?
Jack in the movie is a good dad to Danny. But there are some underlying issues tied to his alcoholism and you can tell he has a lot of resentment towards his wife. He’s dismissive of her. He’s condescending. He thinks she’s a bitch who won’t ever forget that he hurt Danny. But as he tells Lloyd the bartender it was an accident. And it appears that it was.
So I don’t buy that he would have killed his family had he not gone to the hotel.
When he’s driving the car to the hotel he is not very dismissive of his wife or his son when they are talking about the donner party. He laughs that Danny knows about cannibalism but that isn’t a sign that he is a monster.
The first time he lashes out at Wendy is when she interrupts him while he’s writing and he tears her a new asshole. It’s so mean and dismissive that it take her aback. But if he was like that all the time prior to going to the hotel would she have ever approached her husband to ask her how he was doing and offering to make him a sandwich? She would know that approaching him in that way would be something she wouldn’t do Becuase he would have lashed out at her like that before.
So being in the hotel amplified whatever resentment he had towards his wife and made it murderous. Had he not been in the hotel he would probably just be cranky. But not more than that.
Additionally, when he tells her he had Deja vu and it was like he had been in the hotel before they are having an intimate conversation where jack exhibits no anger at his wife and she doesn’t expect that he would lash out at her the way he did when she interrupts his writing later. If he had such a bad relationship with his wife prior to going to the hotel they wouldn’t have had that initial conversation because Wendy wouldn’t be comfortable enough to let her guard down with jack to even talk to him in a friendly manner.
Not saying that jack would be the father of the year had he not gone to the hotel. And not saying that he probably wasn’t an asshole to his wife even before he went to the hotel. But I don’t think it was inevitable that he’d kill his family but for the fact that he went to hotel.
You're assuming that Wendy is psychologically normal. She is pathologically codependent
@@anniemaymcneely2013 but she is taken by surprise when Jack rips her a new one. If he idd that to her all the time she'd know to not expect a different outcome.
So she says "awww dont be so grump" and that's probably the worst he gave her previously. She's used to him being a bit grumpy but not full on ass hole. Then again, even atter he does that she goes on as if the marriage is still working so I definitley agree that she is codependent and weak. But his reaction to her intrustion was definitely an amplification of their relationship previously. He probably never lashed out at her that badly before.
With Kubrick movies its more about what the film DOES than what his films are about.
Your analysis is so thorough. Outstanding.
I read the book before the movie came out and it was really frightening , I enjoy all of Kubrick’s films a big part being how they were filmed the look , sound, editing , lighting etc almost like walking through an art exhibit thanks for sharing your excellent analysis
AWESOME! You made this video ON MY BIRTHDAY & The Shinning is one of my all time favorite movies! I love Jack Nicholson!!
My gift to you! Happy birthday!! 🎂
@@OneTakeVids great, thank you!!
Honestly i feel like jack torrance in the movie still loved his family it was just a weaker love that allowed him to be taken by the hotel sooner, also while yes he did die a monster, i feel like this is due to his family and his weak love, his family was incompetent in the way to get him back to normal, his wife cried while trying to talk to him which is one of the things he hated about her, while danny simply ran away from him and eventually got him killed.
Wendy resorted to hurting and isolating him away, leaving him with the ghosts to push him away from his fatherlike attitude even more, jack also had a few moments of a true parent, like being horrified at the thought of killing his family, and genuinely feeling hurt when danny asked him if he would hurt him and wendy, if wendy and danny were more competent i feel like jack could have sacrificed himself but his family was too wimpy to genuinely get him to snap out of it.
Did you read the book?
@@lea9507 no.
@@livivindle9912 Do it, I sthink from what you wrote, you would like it. It's more like what yyou described in your text imo
@@lea9507 ok then, i will.
I think yours & others analysis of Jack Torrence at the beginning of the film, in some ways, is “seeing what you want to see” & also applying a more “modern take” on how family dynamics are portrayed in film & in real life compared to what they were in the past.
The “Jack” in the movie interactions with his family, up until the typewriter seen, very much reminds me of my Father, while I was growing up in the 70’s to the 80’s.
Men were “Men” & were much less openly affectionate with their families and in general.
I grew up in the 80's, and saw the movie in the 80's. Instantly reminded me of my abusive father, a cauldron of repressed rage that was only barely constrained by society. If we had been removed from society, haunting or no, I have no doubt madness would have ensued. Maybe not your experience, but one that resonated with me immediately, with no need for a more modern perspective
Amazing how good analysis almost always comes from considering the source itself. There are a million "theories" about this movie, but so few of them actually consider the opinions of both writers Kubrick and Diane Johnson, who have given, you know, interviews about this movie they wrote. Congrats for considering what they tried to say with, and about, the movie, rather than waste our time with "theories" (Wendy did it! Jack made it up! It's ACKSHUALLY about the Holocaust, child abuse, native Americans, the gold standard, this that and the other!).
Thank you sir! That was part of my inspiration for making this video. All those theories were always fun to me but I never thought any actually held any water. I don't think Kubrick is the type of filmmaker to "hide" meaning in his films. What's the point of meaning and subtext if no one can find it? He wants to provoke thought and take you on a journey, not put you to work with a magnifying glass to spend 40 years unlocking the truth that it was all Wendy's hallucination!!
@@OneTakeVids Absolutely!
I've asked this question on other The Shining videos on CZcams. If Charles (Delbert) Grady killed his family in 1970, what happened between 1971-1979? Sice Grady tell Jack that he has always been the caretaker and that he has always been there.
I suppose the other caretakers didn't go crazy and survived. The hotel can't determine who becomes the next caretaker - it only works with what it is given.
Perhaps Dick Halloran stayed there during off season then ?
Well said, thanks for this!
Sweet! Can't wait to see your take on this one, Gil!
Thanks Cole!!
Jack being agressive and angry before getting to the hotel has always bothered me, but your point of view is very interesting!
Having watched your excellent video essay, a thought comes to me: Jack, who has never attained “success” or wealth or even healthy family ties gets the opportunity to live in this huge, prestigious hotel, an oportunity he has not earned, and one he’d never get in his regular life as teacher/aspiring writer. However, the opportunity comes with not only isolation and further deterioration but damning from the supernatural forces there. Tragic.
Ya but the “All work and no play…” aspect was straight from the book. That wasn’t Kubrick focusing on something people could relate to. If anything it was King doing so.
Also, Jack had hurt Danny in the backstory of the book too. He just felt really guilty about it, whereas movie Jack showed no remorse at all.
Very well done! Concerning how many annoying CZcams-"experts" are out there trying to "explain" this movie, your video is the very first one that actually hits the spot. I'd edit one more layer of interpretation: according to several interviews, SK actually believed in paranormal phenomena. Although I find this fact about the genius of Kubrick a bit strange, it helped me to accept that the ghosts in this movie are meant to be "actually there" and not just the family's isolation-induced hallucinations.
Concidering the immoral history of the hotel itself (as described in your fine video here), I'd connect the actual appearance of the ghosts with the reason WHY exactly the hotel is cursed. Meaning, Jack - as the privileged white man - has "always been there", just because he carries the bloody fate of his ancestors in a way. To me as an atheist/realist, this is a reconciliation and validation of the ghosts to be taken seriously.
Besides that, I agree that the mentioned Jungian psychological ambivalence of Good and Evil is the most important factor in The Shining (as contextualized in other masterpieces such as Clockwork Orange or Full Metal Jacket, too)
According to the novel The Shining; Jack Torrance was bad from the get go. The haunted Overlook Hotel just acted as a catalyst for Jack Torrance’s murderous rage.
When Ullman tells Jack about the Grady Tragedy from 1970, Jack is pretending he knew nothing about it, when the fact is he had seen a story about it in the newspapers -- which would have been just after the event happened. We know this because Jack tells Delbert Grady -- who became Charles Grady through Reincarnation -- that he recognizes him from his picture in the newspapers. Delbert Grady looks just like Charles Grady because after Delbert died he reincarnated within his own family as Charles, and at some point he learned that the only way to escape the cycle of reincarnation was to offer up a blood sacrifice to the Powers-That-Be who 'run' the hotel, so that he can earn a permanent place there as one of "the best people."
Similarly, Jack Torrance existed in a Past Life as someone else -- probably someone in the Torrance family -- who eventually died and was reborn as Jack. Having no past=life memories for most of his life, Jack suddenly sees that story in the newspaper about the Overlook Hotel, and its Winter Caretaker -- whose picture is in the article -- having murdered his wife and daughters before committing suicide.
It was then, after that story went public, around the start of 1971 -- well before Jack married Wendy -- that a flood of past-life memories came back to him . . . of the Overlook Hotel, his favorite place a lifetime ago, a place he wished he could've stayed at forever, a place he'd forgotten about. The Grady story clues him in to the notion that IF he could go there and offer up to those ghostly Powers-That-Be a similar sacrifice, then he, too, could earn a permanent place there.
That's why he marries Wendy: he plans to get her pregnant, wait just long enough for their kid to get old enough -- but not TOO old -- and then get the same job Charles Grady got, as Winter Caretaker, so that he can do what Grady did: MURDER his wife and kid, as a blood offering to the monstrous Masters of the desecrated site, commit suicide, and earn his place with them, having paid the 'cover charge' for permanent membership as one of "the best people."
He doesn't "go crazy" sometime during the month or so between Closing Day and the moment Wendy discovers his typescript; he wasn't 'crazy' at all, he started typing that 'crazy' typescript from the get-go, knowing that when she eventually DID see it, it would freak her out so bad that she would become terrorized. He planned on killing her all along, but it wouldn't do to murder her in her sleep the first night after Closing Day, after everybody else had gone until May 1st. No, Jack -- like a cartoon villain from a Looney Tunes short -- wants to play with his victims, like a cat with a doomed mouse, stoking her fear to the breaking point and THEN giving her the axe.
Jack looks just like the man in that photo from July 4, 1921 because he had once BEEN that man -- just as Charles Grady had once been Delbert Grady -- having reincarnated as a later member of the same Torrance family, oblivious to his former self-identity . . . until the newspaper article triggers his past-life memories and starts him on a journey he hopes will earn him a permanent place back at the Overlook Hotel.
Incidentally, when Jack goes into Room 237 and encounters the attractive naked young woman, after he embraces and kisses her -- only to see in the mirror that it's a cackling hag in his arms -- we cut to shots of Danny having what seems to be some kind of seizure. Danny's "shining" to Hallorann, of course, AND remembering what HE had seen when he went into 237 beforehand: the dead hag sitting up in the tub -- those shots being inter-cut with the image of that same dead hag cackling and shambling towards Jack. Danny, seeing what his father is going through in that scary suite, witnesses his father successfully escaping from the same dead hag who had tried to strangle him . . . by walking BACKWARDS to the door. It is the fact that Danny saw his father walking backwards then -- and, not long afterwards, seeing (in another "shining" moment) his mother walk backwards away from Jack ascending the stairs in the Colorado Lounge -- that inspires him to walk backwards through his footprints in the snow, to fool his father in the Hedge Maze and escape from the monster trying to hurt or kill him.
I like this !
Thank You Sir. A superb easy to digest breakdown of a film I could never actually watch myself, even though Ihave wanted to.Thumbs up!
Thanks @SkipSpotter!
Excellent. There is so much twaddle written about this fil; this is clear, thoughtful, and - in my humble opinion - accurate.
Thank you! 🙏
Great interpretation of my FAVORITE film. We all have a little of Kubrick’s Jack Torrence in us - and THAT is what makes the Shining (movie) so scary🙏
I don't have a source to cite this: it has been scientifically proven that when you're deeply engrossed in some sort of work, such as but not limited to writing, if you get interrupted for pretty much any reason it takes a good 40 minutes just to get your mind back to where it was before you were interrupted.
I would luv to see Kubrick's reaction to this movie if he was still alive. Great job.
I love these well thought out very insightful takes about film as they relate to the human condition. I watched this and the Castlevania one back to back. I hope you do more with other films and shows. You’ve gained a huge fan in me. Looking forward to more great takes.
Thanks Gary! Your comment just made my day 🙏 definitely more videos like this on the way!
We all know that kubrick’s version of Jack didn’t hate Danny, lots of people speculated he liked him a little too much
Best explanation I’ve heard. Bravo good sir.
All of these characters were so much more dimensional in the novel. Both versions are great but for quite different reasons.
I don't agree with your assessment of the novel vs film. If you read some of the thesis erudite thinkers have posted online, or watched more videos that explained the multi-verse that was Kubrick's thinking behind the metaphors/imagery/intergenerational patterns of domestic violence, and more, you may not think the book the superior exposition.