Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Shining (1980)

The Shining (1980)


Genre: Stanley Kubrick
Director: Director
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Language: English
Duration: 144 min.
Rating: 8.5  

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



The LAMB Movie of the Month for February 2012 is Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining. Based loosely on Stephen King's novel of the same name, and starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a writer who descends into madness while snowbound with his family in an off-season resort.  It originally received a cool critical reception mostly for being so vastly different from the source novel, but over time it has since become one of the most iconic and highest rated horror films. Its memorable scenes and lines echoed countless times in popular culture.

Instead of reviewing this film like I normally do, I've decided to just pick out and share a few of my favorite images and moments from this classic:

Majestic aerial shot of the Overlook Hotel. Surely nothing bad could happen here?
Danny's premonition of the river of blood. Such a masterful memorable image.
The first tracking shot following Danny on his big wheel trike. Looks like such fun.
Jack at play in the Colorado Lounge. Who wouldn't love to do that?
Hypnotic bird's eye shot of the hedge maze. Beautiful unsettling symmetry.
The eerie, foggy, snow covered hotel dominates this shot of winter fun.
"Hello Danny, come play with us, forever and ever and ever".
Danny appears with various looks of terror throughout, but this shot is the most effective
Room 237. An open inviting door, seen from Danny's point of view.
"Things could be better Lloyd".
Jack's unforgettable bathroom tryst.
Tony's creepy voice: "Danny can't wake up Mrs. Torrence".
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.", I had fun typing that.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna bash your brains out."
Locked in the store room, Jack completely loses it. The view from below makes it extra creepy.
"REЯUM".
"Here's Johnny". Who still remembers where this actually line came from?
The unexplained bear man in a very compromising position.
Clever boy, outsmarts psycho dad with the oldest trick in the book.
Bonjour Tristesse

What do you think of The Shining? Which are your favorite scenes or images? 

21 comments:

Eric said...

Diggin' the screenshots. The Shining has so many classic moments -- it's nice to see many of them displayed here. Nice work!

Fogsmoviereviews said...

This post made me happy. :D

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks JD.  I'm still not entirely convinced about Nicholson's performance which is mostly over the top, but it is a brilliantly atmospheric film with images that stay with you forever.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Sorry to disappoint. I just couldn't come up with anything really to say about it.

For images it depends, I mostly use the DVD/Blu-ray, but sometimes if its for an unreleased film still in theaters, I look for a high quality trailer on youtube or vimeo and take screengrabs from that, or go to the film distributor's website where they usually provide official promotional stills. For covers I usually hit up google image search.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Your son sounds like a cool kid, how old is he?

Bonjour Tristesse said...

At least you're in for a nice first time discovery.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Although the film is quite different from the book, the changes are mostly for the better. King has a way of getting off track and rambling too much in his novels.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I never did see Kings official TV version. I might try and seek it out just out of curiousity.

Jack Deth said...

Hi, Bonjour and company:

Great choice for discussion!

'The Shining' is one of those films I need to see at least once a year. To revel in the many way Kubrick plays with and manipulates atmosphere while watching  Nicholson slowly come unglued.

Realms of cinema at which these two excel.

G said...

This is one of those classic films that I've always meant to see but never got off my ass and seen it...

FilmMasterT said...

As soon as I seen you wrote somethign on this film I was excited. Although, I would love to see your review. Still, very nice images and you definitely got images to the films finest moments.  Also, where do you get your images? Do you search on google images or have a site source?

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

This was the best adaptation of The Shining. Years ago I saw another in which they cast a kid with some kind of deformity to be Danny. It was distracting.

Michael Parent said...

You don't know how much I love this movie BT! I am always putting on hold a review of this film... First because I don't know where to start and also because I don't want to forget anything about what makes it a great film! I like the fact that you let the wonderful framings do the talking here!

Mel said...

Oh, how excited I get when I have actually SEEN the movie you are posting about!!  And I even read the book!!  I just watched again for the first time in a long time this past Halloween - and my son watched it for the first time.  I thought it would freak him out, but he really enjoyed the suspense.  A true classic.

d_4 said...

I think I recently got myself the movie and I haven't watched it yet and I AM LAME. I will be until I watch it, which will be soon because it's hard to live with myself without having seen this one.


Also, I remember the here's Johnny line, my dad watched Carson all the time. My youth!

James R. said...

A terrific film, though one I haven't seen in a lot of years (a situation I really must rectify). Never read the book so I never could draw comparisons, but I do think it's notable that King's own screen version has never received the same acclaim as Kubrick's continues to do.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I think it's a bit of a lazy post on my part, but I appreciate your visit and comment. Thanks Eric.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

 I'm glad you approve!

Jason said...

I watched it through for the first time a few years ago and I loved it. I loved Nicholson's performance and the delivery of his lines. The Shining is a very influential film for Japanese film-makers. Just watch Takashi Shimizu's Reincarnation.

 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Interesting, I haven't seen that one yet, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

StanleyKubrick said...

Okay. But I love it in 4:3 Screen. Whole Picture.

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