The Shining

is there a thread on that? i remember thinking it was so lame. King's version of horror never really gets to me.

Instead might I suggest dropping acid and watching eight episodes of Wings back to back? And make them all the same episode?

Actually wait no that sounds like it could be fun.

yeah i have no expectations for it (i've seen the langoliers, which actually isn't even really that bad, it's got dean stockwell, it's just, yknow, something else) but i always talk about the kubrick movie and his famous hijacking of the story without actually having any real idea what's king and what isn't. i guess i should just read the book if i want to know.

haha

It's the only King book I've ever read. Don't bother.

I don't remember the thing w/ the yellow ball described by Duvall below, perhaps it was shot but not in the opening-weekend version.

Shelley Duvall (1981):

I think he was wrong (to cut the scene), because the scene explains some things that are obscure for the public, like the importance of the yellow ball and the role of the hotel manager in the plot. Wendy is in the hospital with her son. The manager visits her, apologizes for what happened, and invites her to live with him. She doesn't say yes or no. Then he goes into the hallway of the hospital, passes in front of Danny, who is playing on the ground with some toys. When he gets near the exit, he stops and says, 'I almost forgot, I have something for you.' And he pulls from his pocket the yellow ball that the twins had thrown at Danny. It bounces twice (we spent a whole day filming so it would bounce the right way), Danny catches it, looks at it, then lifts his eyes towards the hotel manager, stupefied, realizing that throughout the story he was aware of the mystery of the hotel. There was a Hitchcockian side to this resolution, and you know that Kubrick was crazy about Hitchcock.

Diane Johnson (1999):

Kubrick felt that we should see them in the hospital so we would know that they were all right. He had a soft spot for Wendy and Danny and thought that, and the end of a horror film, the audience should be reassured that everything was back to normal. Personally, I was a bit tougher. For a long time we kept asking ourselves who was going to die, and we decided on Hallorann. But I was ready to shock everyone by killing Danny! That may have been going too far.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~butting/shining/hospital.html

i assume that kubrick's estate probably has all the cut scenes (same with 2001) but out of understandable respect to his wishes will never let anyone see them again.

king's changing attitude toward the film is kind of interesting: according to wiki he found the film 'dreadfully upsetting' when he first saw it and only later started saying that he found it dissatisfying and 'not really horror' etc.

invites her to live w him!

There was a Hitchcockian side to this resolution

yeah hitchcockian like in psycho

I did see the 120-min cut once and thought it was total hash.

i think that's sweet that kubrick wants us to know wendy and danny are all right, belies the cliche about kubrick as some kind of detached unfeeling alien. i've never worried about them once they get into the sno-cat tho.

is the 120-min cut the one that's been in the u.k./europe this whole time? cuz they just had this big-deal re-release over there w New Footage! and i got all excited and then read about the new footage and i've seen it all. was it not even on their DVD?

afaik, yes, the short cut was always shown in theaters, dunno about home formats

that website seems to say yes. huh.

lol some people are crazier than i am:

I saw the film eight times on opening weekend at Mann's Chinese Theatre in LA. The scene was there all eight times. Next weekend I saw it and it was gone.

let's not jump to conclusions on scant evidence

The 120 min cut was shown in UK cinemas, and is the version released on VHS, DVD etc over here. But for some reason, the longer American version (no hospital scenes) used to be shown on TV - so the 'new' footage isn't even that new to Brit audiences, either. IIRC Kubrick came to prefer the shorter version, and I can see why (the excision of the naff skeletons-in-the-lobby shots at the end is especially welcome), tho the removal of the scene between Danny, Wendy and the Doctor near the start does cut out some exposition about Danny's accident and Jack's drinking that's not made as explicit elsewhere.

i've always thought some of the shots of bizarre shit that wendy sees near the end cross the line into total silliness, tho i wouldn't want to give up 'great party, isn't it??'

yeah i'm not gonna defend the skeletons. (nor am i one of those who was ever much unsettled by the furry blowjob scene, but i appreciate its presence.)

i'm not even really sure she needs to see the elevator of blood. it works as a sort of THE HOTEL IS CLIMAXING AT LAST thing i guess but it's probably the iteration of the shot that has the least resonance.

I'm not sure how old I was but I saw this at such a young age the first time that all of it was pretty damn disturbing. The bj especially because I was too young to even know what they were doing other than something weird and unspeakable.

Like i remember seeing this again much older and thinking "hey is that what I think it is??"

yeah all of it was def at least a little disturbing when i was a kid. except the skeletons. i actually like them more now, if anything! but not much.

when i was a kid the scariest thing was easily the two little girls, partic the part where it flash-cuts to their axed bodies in the hallway. they're still p creepy honestly, but i'm easy. nowadays tho the worst for me is probably "all work and no play". she comes downstairs frightened but mostly together, and you just watch her turning into a wreck while she tears through the pages looking for a time when he was not insane. and then lol: HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?

the elevator of blood is the reason the trailer is better than the film.

The Room 237 theorist Bill Blakemore (ABC News) said that the discovery of the manuscript is what he gets as a frequent answer to what the scariest scene is. I think it's the best, at least, except for maybe the red bathroom.

The only actors who appeared in 3 Kubrick films are in The Shining. (easily researched)

So I'll try it from memory. Grady--that guy. (Remember him in Barry Lyndon, not sure of what else.) Is the bartender in Paths of Glory (+ something else)? Stuck after that.

yes, Grady (Philip Stone) is also Alex's dad in ACO; Joe Turkel (Lloyd the bartender) also in PoG & The Killing.

Statuesque, silent nude woman appears in at least four Kubrick movies iirc.

I believe Vivian Kubrick appears onscreen as a hotel guest, right? She was also in 2001 as Floyd's daughter.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WC4-p9fZCoo/TVwHBiPjj4I/AAAAAAAAAUo/veEfYfHUWCM/s1600/diane_arbus_identical_twins_1967.jpg

I'm sure you all know the reference but here is the inspiration for the Grady girls. Diane Arbus

I think the 3x actors question is generally linited to "credited roles." ie fuck trainspotters :)

Scariest moment for me is woman in bathtub.

Just a guess, based on process of elimination and the fact that he gets a line and you can clearly see him: the "Nice day for a party" guy with the axe in his head.

A little sketchy on details--no axe, inexact quote:

http://horrorfanzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/the-shining-25.jpg

a guess for what? There are two actors and you got them.

Actually, he hides his face behind a fan and giggles, "Good day, sunshine."

Right--I was thinking three actors, but it was three films.

http://greatparty.ytmnd.com/

Scariest moment for me is woman in bathtub.

otm.

See, I'd read the book and was utterly expecting that one. One of my high-school buddies remembers someone kicked his seat when the Grady girls appeared.

Also, it's funny that in Room 237 someone suggests that Barry Nelson's hairpiece makes him look like JFK, cuz one of my friends on opening night referred to BN as "Reagan."

http://www.angryalien.com/0504/shiningbunnies.html

I really enjoyed this at the cinema. My reservations aren't new (many expressed here already, but):

- soundtrack is REALLY intrusive. Characters will be walking around looking at things NBD, and there's this screeching orchestra playing all over it. I'd have taken out the majority of the music TBH.

- Scatman Crothers - why have him go all that way just to get stabbed the second he walks in the door?

- Nicholson is cartoonishly devilsome and while he plays it well, a little subtlety would have been nice.

Also, why does he say "here's johnny", when he's been known as jack all the way through the film?

lol

Scatman Crothers - why have him go all that way just to get stabbed the second he walks in the door?

A big question at the time, esp as it doesnt happen in the novel. If you accept the interpretation of the themes of racial/religious genocides, then having it happen to a black man fits, I suppose. Also, it subverts norms and expectations.

lol britishes. "Here's Johnny" was the intro for America's best-loved late-night TV host.

Yeah, the expectations of novel readers combined with it being the one legitimate (cheap) jump scare moment.

great post dog latin

i love me froggies

- Scatman Crothers - why have him go all that way just to get stabbed the second he walks in the door?

it's cruel, but the build up of him as this shining ray of hope and goodness --> instantly killed as soon as he walks into the hotel is kind of devastating and reinforces the hopelessness of the situation. works for me in a horror context tbh.

^^ I was going to make this post but deleted it

haha. i always make it a point to say things that other people have decided aren't worth saying.

Plus Kubrick knew what a laugh it would lead to on The Simpsons eventually.