The Shining
Movie: The Shining (1980)
Watched with: Angelo
I'd never seen this all the way through before, but I knew most of what was going to happen from that one Simpsons episode. Oh well.
In a lot of ways, The Shining reminded me of 2001. They're both about a group of three (the family in this one, the two astronauts and HAL in 2001) in a large confined space, one of whom then becomes homicidal.
When Dave is about to deactivate HAL, HAL says, "Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
When Jack is chasing Wendy up the stairs, she says, "I just want to go back to my room to think things over," and he replies, "You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?"
That almost has to be a deliberate reference. It's funny how it's inverted, with the protagonist now wanting to go "think things over" and the antagonist now suggesting otherwise. But if that means anything, I'm not sure what (that Wendy is too submissive to be a hero?).
I really liked the style of the movie. Kubrick's really great at building atmosphere, and there were times when I think the eeriness was more effective than in 2001, simply because the settings are less innately alien (no pun intended).
Where Kubrick is less successful is, as always, the characters.
It seems like the story would be a lot more effective if we could understand and sympathize with Jack, making his descent into madness more disturbing, whereas here he just seemed like a jerk who got jerkier.
I really liked the ballroom scene--I'm fascinated by the idea of people being trapped repeating things that happened in the past--and I kind of felt like it was the core of the movie, but it didn't get developed as much as it should have. I understand what's supposed to have happened (I think), but I wish they'd explored that more instead of just trying to be unsettling.
I think it's a really atmospheric and interesting movie, but I don't think it's a great film (unlike, say, Alien Apocalypse). Though maybe it'll grow on me, I don't know.
SIDE NOTE: According to IMDB, "Stanley Kubrick composed and shot this film in the negative ratio (1.37:1) format so that in TV we see it in 1.33:1, but in the cinemas wee see it in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio). When a film is shot in 1.37:1, the top and the bottom of the frame are intended to be masked off in the cinemas to create a widescreen version, but are not masked off in the TV - VHS - DVD version."
I guess he figured that would make a better video experience, which it kind of does, but it's really strange to watch because everything's composed like a feature film, but not shaped like one.
There's also a part at the opening when you can very clearly see the shadow of helicopter filming it, which probably would have been cut off in the theatrical version.
SIDE NOTE 2: What the hell was up with the ghosts of the old man and the guy in a bear suit? A bear suit? Peter Hyams better direct a mediocre sequel to explain that.
Watched with: Angelo
I'd never seen this all the way through before, but I knew most of what was going to happen from that one Simpsons episode. Oh well.
In a lot of ways, The Shining reminded me of 2001. They're both about a group of three (the family in this one, the two astronauts and HAL in 2001) in a large confined space, one of whom then becomes homicidal.
When Dave is about to deactivate HAL, HAL says, "Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
When Jack is chasing Wendy up the stairs, she says, "I just want to go back to my room to think things over," and he replies, "You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?"
That almost has to be a deliberate reference. It's funny how it's inverted, with the protagonist now wanting to go "think things over" and the antagonist now suggesting otherwise. But if that means anything, I'm not sure what (that Wendy is too submissive to be a hero?).
I really liked the style of the movie. Kubrick's really great at building atmosphere, and there were times when I think the eeriness was more effective than in 2001, simply because the settings are less innately alien (no pun intended).
Where Kubrick is less successful is, as always, the characters.
It seems like the story would be a lot more effective if we could understand and sympathize with Jack, making his descent into madness more disturbing, whereas here he just seemed like a jerk who got jerkier.
I really liked the ballroom scene--I'm fascinated by the idea of people being trapped repeating things that happened in the past--and I kind of felt like it was the core of the movie, but it didn't get developed as much as it should have. I understand what's supposed to have happened (I think), but I wish they'd explored that more instead of just trying to be unsettling.
I think it's a really atmospheric and interesting movie, but I don't think it's a great film (unlike, say, Alien Apocalypse). Though maybe it'll grow on me, I don't know.
SIDE NOTE: According to IMDB, "Stanley Kubrick composed and shot this film in the negative ratio (1.37:1) format so that in TV we see it in 1.33:1, but in the cinemas wee see it in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio). When a film is shot in 1.37:1, the top and the bottom of the frame are intended to be masked off in the cinemas to create a widescreen version, but are not masked off in the TV - VHS - DVD version."
I guess he figured that would make a better video experience, which it kind of does, but it's really strange to watch because everything's composed like a feature film, but not shaped like one.
There's also a part at the opening when you can very clearly see the shadow of helicopter filming it, which probably would have been cut off in the theatrical version.
SIDE NOTE 2: What the hell was up with the ghosts of the old man and the guy in a bear suit? A bear suit? Peter Hyams better direct a mediocre sequel to explain that.
posted by Kane Lynch at
2:03 AM
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