The Shining1980 Kubricks Fantastic Film

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The Shining(1980) Kubricks Fantastic Film
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Methods for Studying The Shining

• Ideological Analyses
• The Family Structure
• Space and Time
• Duality and Mirrors in The Shining
• Horror Classic/ Dystopian Film

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Ideological Analyses

• Class Issues. How is Jack a performance of the
  working class?
• Psychoanalysis and the Psyche. How is the mind
  interpreted? Monsters from the Id?
• Feminist Issues. What is the place of the mother
  in this film?

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The Family Structure as a Comment on American
Society

• Kubrick tones down the supernatural aspects of
  the novel to shift the focus to the effects of
  isolation.
• An exterior exploration of interior states.
• Cartoons and Violence
• The disintegration of the family through domestic
  violence and abuse.

The last conversation See its OK. He saw it on
the television.
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Space and Time Reduction of Space

• Compare the tour of the hotel at the beginning
  versus the closing axe scenes
• Dannys wanderings and the maze
• The Maze as metaphor for the mind

The Office
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Space and Time The Reduction of Time in The
Shining

• Closing Day
• A Month Later
• Tuesday
• Saturday
• Monday
• Wednesday
• 800 a.m.
• 400 p.m.

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Duality and Doubling

• Where do we see doubles in this film?
• In which scenes do mirrors double this effect?
• Violation of the 180 Degree Rule
• Reverse shot POV Wendy with the baseball bat

Meeting Oneself in the Washroom
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Doubles and Mirrors

• Danny and Tony (with mirror)
• Grady Daughters
• Jack and Grady
• A Month later (shooting through the mirror,
  close-up and pull-back at right)
• The Bathroom Scene

• Redrum Mirror scene
• The Doubling Maze
• Room 237
• Two Frozen Jacks

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Redrum
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Children and Duplicity

• The viewer distrusts Jack as a parent from
  Dannys perspective.
• You would never hurt Mommie and me, wouldja?
  in response to Jacks forever and ever and ever

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Duality Continued

• Duality and Normality
• What is hidden under the surface?
• Is The Shining pointing out an inconsistency in
  North American Culture?
• Compare the hotel and room 237 with Hallorans
  motel room (another source of doubles).

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Race and Class

• Is this a racist film?
• Why not?
• What does the film reveal about racial prejudice
  in American culture?
• Is racism linked to sexism?
• How is racism related to social class? Note how
  Ullman mentions presidents and movie stars.
  Wendy, in awe, asks about royalty. Ullman
  replies, Only the best people.

Note the Calumet baking powder can with the
Indian logo behind Halloran mise en scene
connects themes of racial oppression.
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The Shining as Exposé of Sexism in 1980s America

• The women in Room 237 reveal a dichotomous
  approach to female sexuality and ageism in
  Western society.
• Wendy as wife and mother is no longer useful.
• Wendy is the quintessential victim does she have
  any redeeming features?

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Language and Irony

• The White Mans Burden
• An outside party--a nigger (sic) cook
• They need a good talking toperhaps a bit more
• I corrected them
• I love the little son of a bitch
• The old sperm bank upstairs
• Dannys gone away, Mrs. Torrence.
• Little pigs, little pigs

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Horror and Fantasy in The Shining

• Psychological Thriller
• Flashbacks to reasons for Jacks behaviour
  abusive alcoholic and therefore reasons for
  Dannys behaviour
• Tony (childhood schizophrenia?)
• Shining inherited?

Jacks (Jack Nicholson) descent into madness
deepens.
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Normalcy and ESP

• Wendy and Danny are both victims of and also
  empowered by shining.
• At which points in the film does Danny shine?
• What information does he receive?
• When does Jack shine Wendy shine?

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Sight/Vision/ Shining as Knowledge

• Danny begins to recognize his fathers
  possession or transformation into Grady at this
  point in the film.
• Seeing conflicts with wanting to turn away from
  life/knowledge/experience.
• Dannys forward movement is stopped here
  (important use of newly invented Steadicam).
• He and the viewer want to stop exploring and turn
  away.

Come and play with us forever and ever, and
ever.
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Dannys Visions

• This vision of the blood spilling from the
  elevator doors is shown on at least three
  distinct occasions in the film Dannys first
  shining in the Boulder bathroom after Jack
  enters 237 and then verbally abuses Wendy when
  she suggests leaving during the climax of the
  film when Wendy flees from Jack in the hotel.

What does this image signify? The line
between fantasy and reality is thin. What was
America built uponmuch like the Overlook Hotel?
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Images of Past Depravity?

• Students often ask about what Wendy sees in the
  concluding sequences.
• If she is seeing the hotels memories, then
  what do these signify?

Joe Turkel as the bartender. How does Jack fit
in? The same actor plays Eldon Tyrell in Blade
Runner.
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Jacks death immortalizes him with other victims
of the hotel a glorified and depraved past that
never changesboth are frozen in time. The
question is really about moral responsibilitywho
or what is at fault?
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The Overlook as a bad-ass hotel, or an
overview of a dystopian America?

• Kubrick is known for his ability to address
  social issues in his films Dr. Strangelove or
  How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
  with Peter Sellers is also very much about
  Americas dysfunctional self and its inability to
  look in the mirror and truly see itself.
• Kubricks films are not only reflections of a
  depraved American society, but critical exposés
  of what needs to be examined and not glorified.

A Dystopia depicts an imperfect society, one
that appears good and perfect on the surface,
but hides terrible secrets underneath.
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Innovation inShooting Styles
High, low and close-up shots of objects engage
viewers emotional involvement and emphasize
characters victimization.
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Conclusion

• Kubricks screenplay was written during shooting.
• The Shinings technical merits make it a superior
  psychological horror film.
• Its story represents a semi-autobiography of
  Stephen King as alcoholic writer.
• The Shining launches Jack Nicholsons acting
  career.