'The Shining'

No other film that I've reviewed here has had so many talking points as much as The Shining.

First, it's one of the few films in the 1,001 list that were trashed when they first came out and only after time where they reconsidered and labeled really good. Even Stephen King, the author of the book, didn't like the original complaining about Stanley Kubrick's "thinking" instead of "feeling." Which is kind of bullshit. If you want some shitty director doing a page-by-page reproduction of the book, then fine. Hire one.

But if you want someone that will give the story a different direction and perspective, then you get Kubrick to do it.

And, frankly, I think King goofs up a lot of great stories himself. Who says that the book is always better just because it came first? Man-eating topiaries? Seriously?

Anyway, fine detail that I missed in the film that was in the book was that Jack Torrance was kind of possessed by the demon(s) of the Overlook Hotel and in a brief moment of clarity brought along by Danny, Jack allows Wendy, his son and Dick to escape.

That detail is altered by another change of character from the book to the film. That is Jack's temperment. In the book, he's a good guy with an occassional bad temper, who desperately loves his son. What we don't know in the film is that Jack was fired from the teaching job because he beat the snot out of a kid. Thus he needs the hotel job.

It's that love for his son and eventually beat the hotel as he allows the boiler to overheat, another plot mechanism missing from the film.

Frankly, there's a lot missing, but nothing that takes away from the film. On their own, each holds up really well.

Then there's the different discussion points about the film. The difference between the two Gradys. Jack's history with the hotel and him being included in the picture.

Then there's Kubrick's issues. His apparent obsession with the Holocaust and the symbolism of the Native Americans. There's tons of other social issues that you can argue about regarding The Shining.

Or you can take it as simply the best horror film ever.