Current Events > I'm torn on my love of Kubrick's "The Shining"

(+) Yeah! (+)

On the one hand, he deviates significantly from Stephen King's source material and basically portrays Jack as unhinged from the start, which Nicholson plays beautifully. He also fucking abused his actors, especially Shelley Duvall.

On the other hand, it's a gorgeous piece of cinematography and psychological horror that is fucking fantastic in its own right. It's still pretty scary when you sit down and digest it all.

A tortured piece of cinema, up there with Apocalypse Now in terms of trauma in production.

Also, this could totally pass as a Sunhawk topic lmfao

Hell of a party.

Heeeeere's JOHNNY!
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It's a masterpiece
one of the greatest films from one of the greatest filmmakers to ever live

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The movie's version of the story is wholly superior to the books no matter what Octillery will shrilly declare at you. King barely factors into any sort of reasonable criticism of the movie.

I could understand being uncomfortable with how he treated Duvall though.

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It's excellent. Although I've got no desire to read anything by Stephen King and I think faithfulness is totally unimportant in adaptations, as long as the end result is something good.

Godnorgosh posted...

Shelley Duvall thinks aliens are living in her backyard these days. It's pretty sad.

Hmmm??? Is she like Dan Akyroyd with the Alien shit too?
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Also, the music where Danny first visits room 237 is incredibly reminiscent of the fucking fantastic soundtrack from the original Alien, which is easily one of my favorite horror movies of all time

Good choice there

Johnny_Nutcase posted...

Godnorgosh posted...

Shelley Duvall thinks aliens are living in her backyard these days. It's pretty sad.

Hmmm??? Is she like Dan Akyroyd with the Alien shit too?

No, Dan Akryod is a moron. She's legitimately ill.
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All I know is that Kubrick's version is legitimately fantastic, and that the King approved miniseries is a fucking joke. If there's one thing King does not know it's how to adapt his work into a visual medium.

He actually complained that the movie was made "to hurt people." Christ, dude, get a grip. You write horror fiction for a living.
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Screw faithfulness to the source. If the movie works it works
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EverDownward posted...

He actually complained that the movie was made "to hurt people."

Which basically translates to "holy hell this movie is powerful." If i were him would have been glad stanley kubrick improved my work
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It was nominated for a Raspberry for Worst Director and Worst Actress

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I think it's one of those situations where both book and film are great despite major differences between them.
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Bad_Mojo posted...

It was nominated for a Raspberry for Worst Director and Worst Actress

that was then

now it's widely regarded as a masterpiece
many great works of art don't get their due until later

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Paper_Okami posted...

that was then

now it's widely regarded as a masterpiece
many great works of art don't get their due until later

No, I know. It's just insane to think about

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The Razzies isnt a real award. They nominate whatever will get them the most press attention.
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Fun fact, Jack came up with the idea of saying, "Heres Johnny". From the intro to the Johnny Carson show. He said Kubrick liked it but didnt know it was the intro to Carsons show. Jack said that if Kubrick had known he would have cut it out then
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Bad_Mojo posted...

It was nominated for a Raspberry for Worst Director and Worst Actress

Yeah, and remember how everybody fucking tore Carpenter and his remake of "The Thing" to pieces when it came out? El oh fucking el.
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treewojima posted...

I'm torn on my love of Kubrick's "The Shining"

Kinda feel the same way. Amazing cinematography and set design and music but jesus, the way the characters were written and performed.

Jack is a psycho who hates his family from the start. He acts so impatient with them in pretty much every interaction that it feels like there's barely any change from normal Jack to hotel Jack.

Wendy is a quiet, weak-willed yes man who always looks like she hasn't slept in a week and almost got drowned in a river. I have no idea why Kubrick wanted her to be such a mess all the time, but I didn't like it.

And Danny, I don't know about him. No charisma on his own or with his fellow actors.

I'm mostly mad about Jack since he's the physical human aspect of all the interesting stuff (as opposed to the supernatural happenings). Jack was predictable and Wendy and Danny were boring and unsympathetic.

So it was a good movie with a lot of great elements, but it could've been much better if the characters had any kind of growth or change.
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Kubrick's version is not intended to play like a regular movie with normal arcs and stuff. The movie itself is mad from the first shot and nobody is reliable
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That movie has some really great cinematography. Like, mind blowing level.
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It's beautiful but dull as far as narrative goes.

The book is better in that it's got a decent narrative, but it isn't amazing.

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*creepy music continuously building up making the scene super intense.....*

...............TUESDAY

Seriously though, The Shining is one of the few horror movies I really like/love. As a nerd and a fan of books, I can totally understand why people would hate this movie, but I've never read the book or any Stephen King books so I'm unaffected in this regard.
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