The Shining

Kubrick said some fairly uncomplimentary things abt King's book - and about 'horror' in general - in the interviews he gave around The Shining, which I'm sure didn't amuse the author much.

IIRC, Burgess was fairly pissed off with Kubrick, too (maybe esp because of 'Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange'-type credits)

Carrie wasn't on King's top 10 list of his favorite King films from a few years back, either. 1408 was.

Moron.

Worst of Stephen King's 10 favorite adaptations of his own fiction

he's OTM about the de palma 'carrie' -- i assume everyone agrees that's at least the second-best king film, right?

Probably... to The Dead Zone.

Maybe what we're seeing here is, beyond the obvious authorial jealousy and protectiveness, resentment at film as a medium being able to 'send chills down the spine' in a way that written fiction can't anymore?

this is preposterous

but ya so is stephen king re: the shining

Yeah, we saw Dead Zone again in 35mm a few months back. Walken actually acts in it. I remember finally reading the book a coupla years ago and realizing how perfect it was to get him and Cronenberg to adapt it.

I don't mind King hating The Shining film at all - it's an amazing film but any author is probably going to view these things through a really distorted lens. I would rather hear him saying "It's great - totally different from what I did, but a film is its own thing and he hit it out of the park" but I can't really expect him to.

re: Duvall's character - I was totally impressed with all her heroism and getting-it-together in the last act - I think I was just sort of soured on her earlier drippiness, which was just an exaggerated case of the usual horror movie audience response - "no no no GET OUT OF THERE you DOPE what are you DOING, RUN!!!!" It makes total sense, story- and character-wise, that she doesn't run and it really allows it to catch the intense dread and horror of the abusive-husband story as opposed to the creepy haunted mansion story. But it still can be hard to take.

the shining's one of king's big books, only the stand definitely looms larger (maybe it), and it has totally been supplanted in the popular imagination from now until the end of time by kubrick's film. having one of yr major works be reduced to little more than a footnote by a larger talent has to suck, some real 'you made it a hot lyrics, i made it a hot song' type thing. throw in usual writer unhappy w/ hollywood adaptation stuff plus artists being horrible judges of their work plus king's often questionable taste in general plus many ppl just not liking the shining period or not finding it scary/effective and it's not weird at all.

i think every living author who got kubrickized wound up getting somewhat pissed off with what he did to their work -- the only ones who seemed fairly contented were clarke and, oddly, nabokov (who actually said there were scenes in kubrick's film he wished he had thought of).

having one of your major works be reduced to little more than a footnote by a larger talent's lesser works...

Clarke and SK collaborated p closely... "The Sentinel" only has the germ of the plot, then ACC wrote the novel after the script (at least a draft) had been written, right?

yeah clarke's more a collaborator, i think the '2001' novel was written more or less simultaneously with the script. '2001' is prob closer to being a non-adaptation than any other kubrick film (except 'fear and desire' and 'killer's kiss').

I remember King talking at length about his problems in an old Playboy interview. Here's a link to the full interview on a PDF file, and some scans of the relevant section:

http://algonquinsidetable.com/1983-playboy-interview-with-stephen-king/

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/kubrick1_zps145992ae.png
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/kubrick2_zps14496066.png
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/kubrick3_zpsd1e909fb.png

I'm just the messenger here. The only King novel I ever read was Carrie (after seeing the movie), and I didn't like it nearly as much as the film. I'm sure I'd feel the same way if I were to ever read The Shining, which I won't.

As I've said before -- on this thread -- King doesn't understand his own work at time. Jack Torrance in the novel is a man barely holding it together on p.1. His descent into madness is a very short one.

Torrance is a dude with demons in the book, but in The Shining its amazing they even got to the hotel. I enjoy Kubrick's but I can see why King would feel the meat of the story from his pov had been altered if not eradicated. It's like if Johnny Cash did "Hurt" but lived for another decade and told everyone it was about Jesus.

haha ok that's a horrible comparison but still. While the shining mini-series was weak and tv mini-seriesish, I can see why King would prefer the relative modulation of Steven Weber's performance.

still Jack being nutz (as in, pulling faces) from the start has always bored/irritated me.

King's probably just pissed because they didn't include the evil hedge animals

i've never quite understood the 'jack is crazy from the start' criticism, the character is obv an abusive asshole but nicholson plays him as more a guy struggling to hold on to his temper than a guy who's out-and-out nuts.

i mean, until he actually does go nuts.

Which is exactly how he is in the book! The first words in the book are "Officious little prick," describing Jack's thoughts as he sits through his hotel interview with Ullman, who he would like nothing more than to punch in the face.

Moron.

Pretty sure I linked this upthread, but if you can read this article and still regard The Shining as one of Kubrick's lesser works, then film criticism truly is without point: http://parallax-view.org/2009/10/28/kubricks-shining/

including Kael's 1980 pan, I spose

No.

It's been clear that film criticism truly is without point since the VV poll named Todd Haynes' worst film the best of the '90s.

Someone should've alerted the media.

who can forget that day

Somehow the miniseries doesn't rank at the very bottom of this: http://www.vulture.com/2013/07/all-of-stephen-kings-tv-work-ranked.html

Enh, I haven't seen a lot of those, but mid-pack is about where I'd put TV Shining. I believe I've opined elsewhere, I thought it did an okay job.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/24869854b7e5bc873d6ac7dff4471f2f/tumblr_mqfrpnSI2W1rce5tlo1_500.jpg

Never noticed it before, but love the very UK "Games Room" on the door.

is that UK? i remember hotels having those as a kid. particularly ones with the addams family pinball game.

In my humble country, it was called a "Game Room".

Funny how it's like that and yet, we play sports and UK enjoys sport.

xp, yeah, in Colorado it would certainly have been called a "Game Room."

Saw room 237 last night, wow

do you have maths rooms in the US

Dude, we don't even have math.

bro do you even have lifts?

citizenkaneapplause.gif

http://maudit.tumblr.com/post/22308427007/the-making-of-the-shining-by-vivian-kubrick-x

wau @ jack gettin into character!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3flxetmgE1qiz3j8o5_r1_250.gif

me irl

i love that making-of

Me, too. It was included in a silver anniversary VHS tape I had years ago so I haven't seen it in a long time.

http://jezebel.com/stephen-king-hates-the-shining-because-it-s-misogynisti-1361182451@laurabeck

Another valiant attempt to reclaim his book's reputation away from the movie's fans.

dude, I like your books. LET IT GO ffs.

Breaking: Stephen King Digs Up Kubrick's Corpse & Skull-Fucks It One More Time

that article makes a cogent point though

The wrong one.

You might not be a fan of Stephen King, but if any of his books actually deserves praise for straddling that line between literary and popular fiction, The Shining is definitely it.

Would rank at least four or five of his other books well above The Shining: The Book, but it has been awhile since I've read it.

Conversely, I wouldn't rank a single SK adaptation above Kubrick's film, with the sole possible exception of Carrie.

which one? The one about the movie being terrifying is lol wrong.

xp