FILM REVIEW: The Shining

Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” is a bold, innovative trend-setter. Made in 1980, it pushed the boundaries of horror film-making, influencing everything that came after.

From the opening credits, Kubrick masterfully builds tension and atmosphere with long, grand aerial shots. These serve to acquaint us with the area surrounding the Overlook hotel, and gives us a sense of just how remote the hotel is.

From the moment we first see Jack Nicholson’s character, his performance shines. It’s unnerving to the extreme, and fits the character of the hotel flawlessly. Seeing him slowly lose his sanity as the film progresses is a wonderful thing to behold; his performance has gone down in history as legendary.

Characterization

Kubrick is very reserved with information about his characters. We know next to nothing about any of them, which makes it hard to relate at times. This is almost certainly intentional, as it creates a cold, bleak atmosphere. This is one of Kubrick’s trademarks, with it being utilized in most of his films. There has been speculation as to the reason of this, with some people theorizing that Kubrick just has a deep contempt for humanity; others argue that he simply cared a lot about making the viewers think instead of ingratiating himself with them and giving them easy answers. Whatever the answer, coldness of character of definitely a defining aspect of Kubrick’s work.

The Hotel

The hotel is a huge part of the film, and it takes on a character of its own. It feels almost alive, although it is left ambiguous whether the events of the film are caused by the hotel, or Jack simply losing his sanity. The long, stretching corridors and confusing, constantly changing layout subtly adds to the unnerving atmosphere.  These intentional and subliminal set anomalies makes the hotel feel ominous and alive, without following the cliches of dark shadows and cobwebs found in other horror films.

Throughout the film, we get hints of a dark past for the hotel. The story at the beginning about the previous caretaker, Charles Grady, gives us some foreshadowing for what will happen to Jack, and further shows the circular nature of death, a major theme of the film.

Viewpoints

There has been much debate about the viewpoints of the film. Does it follow the viewpoints of the characters? If so, are they trustworthy? Or is the viewpoint one of omnipotence, following the characters without being influenced by them? Roger Ebert said about the film: “Stanley Kubrick’s cold and frightening The Shining challenges us to decide: Who is the reliable observer? Whose idea of events can we trust? […] It is this elusive open-endedness that makes Kubrick’s film so strangely disturbing.”

Conclusion

To finish, I’ll say this; The Shining is an exemplary piece of horror film-making, one that will continue to be theorized about for years to come. It should be essential viewing for anyone interested in a career in film making. While it initially divided critics and received mediocre box office success, opinions slowly changed, and it’s now regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made.