The Shining

Fig.1

 The Shining was created by Stanley Kubrick in 1980. This movie won an award in 1981 a Saturn award for the best supporting actor and in 2012 won another award for the best DVD or Blue-Ray Collection. Looking at all these awards and the different years the movie got an award shows us that it has been an influential movie. Reading on you would understand why.

Jack Torrance (acted by Jack Nicholson) becomes a caretaker in a Hotel in Colorado, whilst working on his writer’s block. His family joins him in the hotel and Danny (acted by Danny Lloyd) discovers the secrets in the hotel which changes everything for the family living in the hotel.

Fig.2

The acting was beautifully performed as they all acted naturalistically making the audience connect with them. This movie is a horror movie which would not be in the mainstream, however, attracts a niche audience such as an active audience. The reason for this is shown in some of the scenes where there are no diegetic sounds. We see the actors expressing their emotions with no supported music making the audience figure out the characters emotions in a situation. Using this technique makes the scene look realistic and feel as if we are on the scene with them. For example, in Fig.2 when the husband shouts at her to put the bat down a point of view shot was used showing us his facial expressions. Another shot was used to show Wendy’s (acted by Shelley Duvall) facial expression as well.

Following what I said Ebert said “Kubrick delivers this uncertainty in a film where the actors themselves vibrate with unease. There is one take involving Scatman Crothers that Kubrick famously repeated 160 times. Was that "perfectionism?" This explained how the acting felt intimidating and naturalistic, Ebert asked Shelley Duvall the question about repeating the scenes for perfection. She replies with, "Almost unbearable," she said. "Going through day after day of excruciating work, Jack Nicholson's character had to be crazy and angry all the time. And my character had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week.” (Ebert, 1990) Looking at Kubrick’s technique of filming the perfect scene worked successfully as the audience felt drawn to the characters emotions.  

Fig.3

The scenes gradually become crazier bringing the tension to the audience. The lighting used was intelligently done as they used lighting in the house or outside, however, did not exaggerate the lights making the scenes naturalistic. However, at the same time, Kubrick thought through the mise-en-scenes carefully. “Instead of the cramped darkness and panicky quick editing of the standard-issue scary movie, Kubrick gives us the eerie, colossal, brilliantly lit spaces of the Overlook Hotel (created in Elstree Studios, Hertfordshire), shot with amplitude and calm. It looks like an abandoned city, or the state rooms of the Titanic, miraculously undamaged at the bottom of the ocean.” (Bradshaw, 2005)

Fig.4

The production designs were beautiful and so were the shots taken as we follow the characters run through the hallway in terror, we see patterns and lots of symmetry connotating of “you cannot escape.”  “Its slow pace left many viewers cold” (Fox, 2012), agreeing with Killian Fox the ending left a stigma code to the audience and wondered if everything was real? or if he is alive?

In conclusion, the actors felt the characters and expressed their feelings over and over again until they got a perfect scene making every scene relatable or real to the audience. At the end, everything was thought of thoroughly and at the end produced a successful movie.

Bibliography:

Bradshaw, Peter (2005) – The Shining – Review at:

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/aug/05/3 [Accessed: 17/12/2017]

Ebert, R (2006) – The Shining at: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980 [Accessed: 17/12/17]

Fox, K (2012) – The Shining Review at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/04/the-shining-stanley-kubrick-review [Accessed: 17/12/17]

Illustration:

Fig.1 – The Shining - Stanley Kubrick – Film Poster (1980)

Fig.2 – The Shining - Stanley Kubrick – Still Image (1980)

Fig.3 - The Shining - Stanley Kubrick – Gif Image (1980)

Fig.4 - The Shining - Stanley Kubrick – Still Image (1980)