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The Shining

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The Shining Review
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The Shining Figure 1 – Poster Art The shining is about a family that move in to a hotel to look after the building and maintain the structure. The hotel has had some bad things happen in it, which is bought up with Jake Torrance (the father of the family) during his interview; at this point in time he says he does not mind and neither would his wife. Once he gets the job, he moves his family in to the hotel, during the car ride you can already tell that there is something wrong or off with this family. Once moved in to the hotel the family spread around the hotel and barely ever talk to each other. Jake’s child Danny has this sort of six sense about him, another guy who works in the hotel has the same sort of sense but he calls it “shining”. This “shining” allows the people who have it to see what might happen or what has, as well as letting them sort of talk to each other without actually talking. As the film goes on the family acts stranger and stranger. This is especially true with Jake as he starts to act strange by drifting off into daydreams and seeing things. By the end of the film Jake is completely insane and tries to kill both his wife and son. Roger Ebert says “There is no sense that the three function together as a loving family.” (Ebert, 2006) I believe Roger says this as before they go insane, the family spends most of their time apart. The father, Jake
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The Shining

Figure 1 Poster ArtThe shining is about a family that move in to a hotel to look after the building and maintain the structure. The hotel has had some bad things happen in it, which is bought up with Jake Torrance (the father of the family) during his interview; at this point in time he says he does not mind and neither would his wife. Once he gets the job, he moves his family in to the hotel, during the car ride you can already tell that there is something wrong or off with this family. Once moved in to the hotel the family spread around the hotel and barely ever talk to each other. Jakes child Danny has this sort of six sense about him, another guy who works in the hotel has the same sort of sense but he calls it shining. This shining allows the people who have it to see what might happen or what has, as well as letting them sort of talk to each other without actually talking. As the film goes on the family acts stranger and stranger. This is especially true with Jake as he starts to act strange by drifting off into daydreams and seeing things. By the end of the film Jake is completely insane and tries to kill both his wife and son. Roger Ebert says There is no sense that the three function together as a loving family. (Ebert, 2006) I believe Roger says this as before they go insane, the family spends most of their time apart. The father, Jake spends all his time either typing at his typewriter on his so called story or maintaining the hotel, well that is what he is meant to be doing. The son Danny spends his time driving around the hotel on his little trike, seeing so called ghosts and talking to what could either be his imaginary friend or a ghost. The mom Wendy spends all her time watching TV and walking around the hotel. So with the family being in a huge hotel completely alone and being miles away from any other people you would assume that they would spend time together. This could only be because before they got to the hotel they already had family problems, but this is nether really bought up in the 1980 version.

Figure 2 - Snow footsteps. During the film both the Wendy and Jake mention about fairy tales. When I say they mention about fairy tales I do not mean they tell a story about them just that they say a certain thing about them. Wendy mentioned when she first goes in to the hotel that This place is such an enormous maze, I feel like Ill have to leave a trail of bread crumbs every time I come in and later on when Jake breaks down the door to the bathroom he says Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair on your chinny, chin, chin. Then Ill huff and Ill puff and Ill blow your house in. Wendys comment refers back to Hensel and Gretel, this could give both the feeling that the hotel is a mythical place and alone with the fact that you could get lost and come across a strange evil looking witch; which in turn basically happens when Jake checks out if there is only one in room 237. This is the scene Jake finds a naked woman in the bath in room 237, as Jake gets close to her and kisses her she then turns in to what could be described as a witch; to the point where if you compare a picture of the naked woman once she changed her appearance to the original imagine of the Hansel and Gretel witch you can see similar features. Jakes comment goes back to the three little pigs. He says this just before he takes an axe to the bathroom door. You could say that his character uses that quote as the wolf in that fairy tale really wanted to get in to the pigs hurts, which Is similar to Jake wanting to get in to the bathroom. Both Jake and the wolf really wants to kill the people that they are after. Alison Flood wrote a recent review on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales; these fairy tales are the original dark and gloomy visions of the Disney fairy tales. So when watching the shining these original dark fairy tales come to mind, It ends direly: a boy cuts the throat of his little brother, only to be stabbed in the heart by his enraged mother. (Flood, 2014) this is just one of the dark Brothers Grimms tales. While the film goes on the more you watch the more you realize that Jake starts to act sort of like a wolf from these tales, I am referring to the maze at the end where Jake has gone completely insane and chases down Danny by using Dannys footprints in the snow to find him. Its only when Danny realizes that this is how Jake is finding him and walks backward in his only steps to lose Jake. It is almost like Jakes animal instincts has taken over and got rid of all his instincts to think probable, to the point where he could have just have thought to wait by the entrance of the maze as sooner or later Danny would have had to have come out.

Figure 3 losing it.Throughout the whole of Jake Nicholson performance you can tell that he was completely committed to his role as an insane, mental break down father that may or may not have hit his child. His acting is so well played which makes it all the more memorable. Nicholson's performance as the abusive father who is tipped over the edge is a thrillingly scabrous, (Bradshaw, 2012) what makes this film great along with the performance of Nicholson is the sound track that goes along with it. This sound track is not like the normal sound tracks you get in films, this sound track is basically just orchestral. These sounds help create tension with in the film scenes, even at times it seems that there is music yet it is just what is happening with in the scene. This comes in to play with the scene where Danny is driving around the hotel on his trike, this sound like a drum roll when his driving on the wooden floor and stops once he goes on the carpet. This keeps happening as the carpets are spaced out with wooden floors in-between, making you feel as if something is going to happen but it does not. This idea of the build-up of the music to make you think something is going to happen when it does not Is used a lot within this film, but most of the time it is not the sort of scary you are expecting but more cheap scars.

Figure 4 Heres Johnny!!Out of the whole film the scene were Jake Nicholson axes through the door and says Heeeres Johnny! is the most iconic scene. In general I believe that the acting produced by Nicholson in the scenes like this one is the reason why he got his part for the joker in the 1989 batman film. In both The shining and Batman. Nicholson plays the insanity role too well, as most as if he could truly be insane. Due to this this scene has been said to be the top scariest scene in a recent online poll. The "Here's Johnny" scene from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is officially the scariest movie moment of all time, according to a new study. (Child, 2013) this poll was taken by 10,000 users from a website that used heart rate monitors to see what scenes and from what film raised their hate rates the most; this then show what was general the most scariest film The Shining.

Illustration list Figure 1 Poster Arthttp://www.impawards.com/1980/posters/shining_ver1_xlg.jpgFigure 2 Snow footsteps.http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m41x5yItLs1qivkxn.pngFigure 3 losing it.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wt4L-amXDeY/Ufa8EOuU1wI/AAAAAAAAhYg/ptp6r2UPNsA/s1600/The+Shining+%25281980%2529.pngFigure 4 Heres Johnny!!http://pioner-cinema.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shining2_008Pyxurz.jpg

BibliographyEbert, Roger. (2006) The Shining, rogerebert At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980Flood, Alison. (2014) Grimm brothers fairytales have blood and horror restored in new translation, theguardian At: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/12/grimm-brothers-fairytales-horror-new-translationBradshaw, Pater. (2012) The Shining Review, theguardian At: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/01/the-shining-reviewChild, Ben. (2013) 'Here's Johnny!': The Shining scene is scariest in movie history, claims study, theguardian At: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/oct/31/the-shining-heres-johnny-scariest-movie-scene-jack-nicholson


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