The Shining

Rewatching The Shining after multiple years, I was reminded of just how good a film it is. Kubrick does it again. I love the way the story gradually unfolds as we follow Jack’s descent into possession and madness. I love the unsettling, eerie score by Wendy Carlos (who also did the incredible soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange). I love the wide shots and the smooth, deep-focus camera work which immerses you into the supernatural atmosphere of the Overlook Hotel. I love the plot, based on King’s novel, which blurs the boundary between the psychological and supernatural.

There’s a tendency when it comes to Kubrick films, perhaps more so with The Shining than any other, for some people to read too much into them. This is evidenced by the 2012 documentary Room 237. But films like The Shining aren’t meant to be explicated. There is something in Kubrick’s style, a suggestive, ambiguous way of telling stories, which can make people over-analyse them. But listening to Kubrick himself, we learn that he wasn’t a fan of “verbal pigeonholing”. Listening to this 2-hour interview with Kubrick, we learn that he feels the meaning of a film shouldn’t have to be explained. He feels a good film should stand on its own.

What I like about the story of The Shining, in both the book and the film, is the way it forges a link between the psychological and supernatural. More specifically, it forges a link between the inner, subjective turmoil of Jack Torrance (the protagonist) and the outer, objective force of the Overlook Hotel. In the novel, Jack’s character is carefully built up with a lot of detail. We greatly sympathise with him. We learn he has a lot of inner demons and that he is vulnerable. This is why the hotel was able to possess him. In the film, though we briefly learn of Jack’s alcoholism and temper, his character isn’t nearly as developed as in the novel. Therefore, we don’t sympathise with him as much. I think this is one of the main reasons why King hated the film. However, King didn’t seem to realise that Kubrick wasn’t trying to replicate the novel. He was playing with it in a sense. It might be a King novel, but it’s a Kubrick film. They are both good in different ways.

The film is a little more subtle than the novel, in that it makes the supernatural aspect less obvious and apparent. We aren’t always completely sure whether the ghosts are occurring in the minds of the characters or not. However, one of the events in the film which clearly points to the supernatural force of the hotel is when Jack is released from the store cupboard which Wendy locks him in. The most plausible explanation is that the ghost of Mr Grady let him out. It is also clear that Danny has psychic and telepathic gifts. 

The haunted house motif is a relatively common one in horror literature. We have stories like The Fall of the House of Usher, The Turn of the Screw, The Haunting of Hill House. The Shining could be said to follow in this tradition. These other stories, particularly Hill House and the House of Usher, expertly describe how certain spaces can reflect and magnify their inhabitants' psychological states. The Shining also does this to some extent, but there is more of an explicit supernatural element to The Shining. I like the idea that certain spaces retain a presence, energy or residue from past events. It’s as though stored up in these spaces is all this historical experience. If something particularly horrific happens somewhere, perhaps the emotion and impact of that event will always remain in that place to some extent. I feel this rings true in real life too. Some spaces do have a presence. They almost have a life of their own. The Overlook Hotel, from this perspective, could be seen as a kind of being or entity. 

In The Shining, Jack Torrance is recapitulating the actions of a former inhabitant of the hotel. This is a powerful element of the story for me. In a strange way, this is related to Joyce’s Ulysses, in that Leopold Bloom recapitulates the peregrinations of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. This plot device implies that we as supposed individuals are not separate from that which has gone before us. There is a kind of continuous line running through every aspect of our experience, past and present. This theme also comes up in Alan Garners book The Owl Service. In The Shining film, there is a powerful scene when Jack confronts the previous caretaker, Mr Grady, in the bathroom. Grady states, in a grave tone of voice, “I’m sorry to differ with you sir, but you are the caretaker. You’ve always been the caretaker”. The hotel has a hold on Jack and has forced him to repeat the violent, brutal actions of the old caretaker. This is further confirmed at the end of the film, as the camera slowly zooms in to a 1921 photo of a party at the Overlook. At the centre of the crowd, we see Jack. With the song “Midnight the Stars and You” playing, this is a perfect way to end the film.

There are multiple unusual references in The Shining which add to a lot of speculation about the meaning or “point” of the film. But these references are ambiguous and inconclusive. Also, we have already learnt that Kubrick doesn’t feel his films should be conceptually explained. Some of these references are to do with native American Indians. For example, the hotel manager states that the hotel is built on an Indian burial ground, there are large Navaho wall hangings in the hotel and there are food cans in the storeroom with pictures of Indian warriors on them. This has led many to say that the film is about the persecution of Indian people, but this isn’t convincing enough for me as there’s not much else that points to this. Another reference relates to mythology, and this is the large maze which features in the film. We see Jack at one point standing over a miniature model of this maze, with a demonic look on his face. He seems to symbolise the minotaur in Greek mythology. But again, there’s not much else in the film which points to this mythological link. It's tempting to say that these references were intentionally placed in the film to add to the overall ambiguity of its meaning.  

Another point to make here, which I think is fairly valid, is that films and filmmakers might unconsciously (or consciously) “bring up”, in a cathartic way, past societal events. I feel Godzilla 1954 is one of the clearest and starkest examples of this point, which could be seen as a reaction to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, in The Shining, maybe the blood bursting from the elevator is indicative of the violence and war that occurred in the 20th century, which is what some people believe. But again, there’s nothing conclusive about this. 

Near the end of the film, the possessed Jack follows his son Danny into the maze to kill him. It is freezing cold and the floor is coated in thick snow. After a period of running, Danny uses his wits and intelligence to outsmart Jack, even though he is very young. Danny steps backwards multiple paces in his own footprints (which Jack was following) and after a number of paces Danny turns a corner and begins brushing the snow to remove his current footprints. Danny then hides in a corner of the maze. There is something about this aspect of the story that I love. It shows us that we can overcome problems and evil forces by assessing the situation at hand and using our wits. This is a special kind of intelligence that is very effective at overcoming problems in the world. It reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story A Descent into the Maelstrom. In this short story, the protagonist is on a boat with his brother when they’re both sucked into a maelstrom on the ocean. As they are initially being sucked in, the protagonist is struck by terror and worry. But after some time has elapsed, when he has almost resigned himself to his fate, he starts observing the inside of the maelstrom and how certain objects, namely cylindrical ones, are being absorbed more slowly than others. Eventually he lashes himself to a cylindrical object in the boat, hurls himself into the water, and gets himself shot out of the maelstrom and back onto the ocean surface. By resigning himself to the situation, he stops panicking, and is then able to assess what is happening and use his wits to resolve the problem. Brute force isn’t helpful in such a situation.

There are other little touches in the film which are worth mentioning just becausethey’re great. There is the scene with Danny riding his trike through the halls of the hotel, rolling over the iconic, geometrically designed carpet. I like the way the camera follows Danny here. We are in Danny’s world at this point. There is another scene with Danny riding his trike when he encounters the ghosts of the 2 twin girls. There's something undeniably creepy about old fashion ghost girls. These 2 were inspired by the famous Diane Arbus photo. If you haven’t seen Arbus’s photography yet, you should check it out. The fact that the twin girls were inspired by this photo demonstrates Kubrick's cultural knowledge and his ability to weave such influences into his films. “Come and play with us, Danny. Forever and ever and ever”.

Diane Arbus Twins

Another scene I love, which adds a bit of humour to the film, is when Dick Halloran, the chef played by Scatman Crothers who shares Danny’s psychic abilities, is sitting in his bedroom. As the camera slowly zooms out, a large picture of a naked black woman with a huge afro is shown on the wall in his room. From another perspective in the room, we see a different photo of a naked black woman. It's funny touches like these which can really elevate a film to a higher status.

Even though The Shining is a masterful, thought-provoking film, and even though I like showing my appreciation for it by writing this, we shouldn’t try to pin down the meaning of it. The Shining is great because it is ambiguous. Most works of art are great for this reason. 2001: A Space Odyssey is another clear example of this.