Shining Theories

Although the movie “Room 237” brought up many interesting ideas about things that went on and some even give many good points, I believe that most of the speakers’ conspiracy theories are more from seeing what they want to see and what they are looking for rather than what they are actually seeing. They force connections between the movie and the theme that they are trying to prove. These people find correlations between very small, seemingly insignificant things in the movie to things that from history or to the theory that they are trying to prove. For example, one of the speakers said that a chair disappearing from one shot to the next is connected to something bigger. Personally, although it may not just be a discontinuity, I think it is nothing big. The theorists try to force meaningless things into things with a bigger meaning. The other thought that I had was: So what? Even if some of these theories were correct what would be the big significance in it. I could understand that if the movie was an allusion to the Holocaust that Kubrick was trying to instill the same fear in the audience as those experiencing the Holocaust felt. But for the Native American genocide theory, my question is “Why?” Other than the fact that the movie could be an allusion to that historic event, what would be the point? I don’t see a big meaning behind this theory. And so I think although Kubrick definitely has bigger meanings behind “The Shining,”  many of the theorists have it wrong.

The Shining The Shine

The Shining leaves a lot of questions to be answered after the film is over such as were the ghosts actually there or was the whole ting an imagination that the family was having.  The biggest one is the pantry scene where Jack is let out of the pantry by Delbert Grady or if he also has the shine.  I first thought that they both had the shine when they both saw that lady in the bathtub in room 237.  But I still wonder if she was actually there or if they both imagined her to be there.  Also if Del Grady didn't open that door for Jack how could the door have possibly opened unless Jack opened it with the shine.  Also that lady who was in the bathtub was she actually there because Danny left the room with the scratches on his face and then Jack made out with the lady and i didn't know if that person was actually there or not.  If Jack had the Shine was it a different version than what Danny had because Jack was able to interact with people who weren't there such as Lloyd, Delbert Grady, and that women and it seemed that Danny was only able to interact with Tony his imaginary friend and see the future.  So did Jack have a different version of the Shine or was he really that crazy he started to imagine people being there. 

I see a theme thought the movie of Stanley Kubrick expressing the idea of people doing bad things and having them be forgotten. When Wendy believes that Jack hurt Danny and accuses him of strangling their boy Jack gets furious and starts drinking again. That is really the one ‘crime’ seen that is brought up again with negativity. Wendy bringing it up made the situation worse and sped up Jack going crazy. There are many other hints of things being forgotten within the film. When Jack talks to Delbert Grady about killing his wife he acts at first as if he didn’t remember. If the shinning is really about Native Americans then the people forgot about the men that came in and took over a sacred land from people. In the book (spoiler) Mr. Hallorann lives and helps save Danny and Wendy, obviously Kubrick intentionally killed him off one idea behind that decision would be that a character that the audience believes is going to save the day is killed off then not brought up or mentioned at all, therefore being forgotten. I also realized that when Jack and Wendy toured the outside of the hotel they were wearing brown not red white and blue, the other scene where they are wearing brown tones is when Jack tries to kill everyone.

            When watching room 237 I came to the belief that Kubrick purposefully had so much chaos going on in this movie. I believe that he wanted people to question it and try to solve the maze in whatever way the audience decided to. Additionally the more confusion in the movie the more people magnify what’s going on and look for something off getting almost trapped in the movie looking for answers watching it 5 times in a row. Much like Jack getting trapped within the hotel so did the audience. Another thing I found interesting was when the move was played both forwards backwards at the same time and how certain important scenes overlapped example: when Danny goes into jacks room asking if he is going to hurt him and then having Jack and the old caretaker telling him to get rid of his family

The Shining -Reflection

The Shining is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen, the originality and the use of light and music made it so. The disturbing music is timed perfectly in every scene. What I really liked about the movie is how they don’t use any typical horror-movie actions, like at the end where they actually got start on the engine, and when the little boy is running from Jack and he doesn’t trip. I also liked the use of light, especially when Jack was chasing the kid around the tunnel, and the room with all the skeletons. The use of blue light just makes it a little more thrilling.

Who is Tony?

Throughout the movie “The Shining” I had the question of: Is Tony a good character? Is he trying to help or trying to hurt? I think there can be an argument for either side. In the beginning Danny tells Dick Halloran that Tony tells Danny not to tell anyone about Tony or anything that Tony says to him. This, in my view, puts Tony in a bad connotation. Anyone who tries to hide himself or herself cannot be good. But there also times when Tony shows that he is a good being. An example is when Tony rights “redrum” on the door and then starts screaming it in order to wake Wendy up and warn her of Jack coming to kill them. Without this warning, Danny and Wendy would have definitely been murdered at the hands of Jack. Another question that I had as the movie went on was: What is Tony? And after much thought I have come up with a few answers. He could be a supernatural being that has inhabited Danny’s body. In this movie something like that would not be very strange. But also Tony could be an alter ego of Danny that Danny made up. I believe this to be the case. Danny has had a traumatic childhood between being abused by his father and having the scary visions caused by having “the shine.” I think that Danny made Tony up in order to cope. He could not explain the visions by himself and so he made Tony in order to do so. And then after a while this alter ego became a part of Danny by itself. It became a whole different being, sort of like Norman Bates in “Psycho.” Tony was always a part of Danny and at times would take over completely, just like Norman’s mother.

The film, The Shining, shows many scenes within the film itself which there were many turn of events. All of the scenes shown in the film seem like a horror movie due to all of the scenes seeming as a mystery and make the audience think about what is actually happening in the movie. At the beginning of the film, it first pictured the whole forest being seen above in the skies; then later on looking on Jack with his wife and son driving to the place where they would be staying. It also showed the importance of some people within the film; people like Danny, Jack’s son, who has an “imaginary” friend named Tony. People said Danny was one of those who had “the shine.”

           

The movie was scary enough to include the part of having Jack and his family go up to a “haunted” hotel and have to watch over it, but also to hear that there was another person who did this job with his family, which made that guy go insane and made him kill his wife and two daughters. That story seemed like an urban legend, but also felt like destiny for people who come up to look after the hotel. It seemed as Tony was included to make sure that nothing was to happen to Danny; that would probably explain why Danny/Tony would write “Red Rum” on the walls to warn his mother about how there is a murder in the building. Although it may seem as Jack may have been taken over to kill his family, but it did seem like Danny had “the shine” for a reason which explained why Danny and his mother were able to escape the hotel for their own safety. “The shine” was Danny’s gift to help fight off what was happening at the hotel and it made it possible to stop the sort of destiny people would have for going to the hotel and deciding to look over the place for a certain time period.      

He's Got the Shine

One of the most interesting character's to me throughout this film was Danny. While it is clear from the beginning of the that he no ordinary boy, the nature of his mysterious powers of foresight, his imaginary friend "Tony", and the hotel spirits' interest in killing him, are never fully explained. The closest the audience gets to an explanation of these phenomena is when Scatman Crothers explains to Danny that both of them possess an ability to do something called "shining", which allowed Crothers to speak to his grandmother without opening his mouth. It is unknown whether "Tony" has any connection to Danny's telepathic ability. Another thing that intrigued me was the nature of Tony's writing and speaking of the words "Red rum", which is "murder" spelled backwards. It is possible that Tony spoke and wrote that words as a kind of an omen of death towards both himself and his mother, however it is also possible that he did so in an attempt to warn her of the impending danger the two of them were in. There is genuine evidence for both sides of this debate. If Tony had been doing this in order to warn Wendy, why would did he not just warn her directly, instead of writing and speaking in a coded backwards messages? However, if he intended it to be an evil omen, and not as a warning, why did he write the words on a door so that she could see them in a mirror, which would allow her to read them forwards, and realize the danger she was in? This ambiguity of Danny's character and his powers allows the audience to reach conclusions on their own, which is one of the aspects of this film that makes it truly great.

The Shining: Wendy Torrance

The Shining is one of the most interesting and in depth movies of the modern age, and parts of it can be analyzed time and time again with no solid conclusion being reached. Kubrick's subliminal messages and changes that he places throughout the movie give strength to endless discussion. However, I believe that one of the most overlooked and curious aspects of the movie is Kubrick's presentation of Wendy Torrance. She is Jack's husband and Danny's mother. Although she manages to keep her head straight and escape with Danny from Jack, for most of the movie she seems more of an empty, clueless, shallow women. One would assume that, just by knowing the plot of the movie, if she was able to escape her deranged husband trying to kill her she must be a strong, determined mother that will do anything to save herself along with her son. However, this is actually not the case after viewing the film. Instead, for the most part she aimlessly plays the part of "the typical dumb wife" that never addresses the obvious problems her husband and son are having that lead to Jack's attempted killing spree. As Stephan King said after watching Kubrick's interpretation of his book, "She's basically just there to scream and be stupid" (Miller). And thats exactly what she does. She gives off a vibe of indecisiveness and shallowness, like all she is meant to for is to react when Jack finally snaps by wailing and pleading for her life. Even when the family is driving up to the lodge in the beginning of the movie and Danny is telling some story, she seems like she is only half there and the other half is somewhere else, preoccupied. 

The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece, The Shining, is an extraordinary film, not necessarily because of what we are shown, but perhaps what we are not shown.  Many aspects of the film, big and small, are not fully explained.  The biggest one, to me, is the appearance of what we assume to be either ghosts or figments of the imagination in the hotel.  At first, this only happens with Jack, during his visits to the bar and talking with Lloyd.  But near the end, we see it with Wendy, as she sees the "couple" in that infamous scene, as well as Delbert Grady.  As far as I know, it is completely ambiguous whether the hotel is supposed to be haunted or if Jack (and Wendy to an extent) are just insane at that point.  There are definitely some supernatural elements in the film, like the "shine," so it doesn't have to be completely logical.  I think Kubrick played around with the movie a lot and just tried to have fun with it.  Another great mystery is the photo at the end.  We were all left wondering why Jack was in that photo from 1921 and why it was significant in any way (like the man in the bear costume).  I did a little research, and it turns out Kubrick was playing with opposites; in the novel, it is a picture of Jesus, and in the film, Jesus is replaced by Jack who is posing like the devil (credit to frequentlyaskedquestions2.blogspot.com/).  The Shining is great because it is so mysterious, and with proper investigation, I think many more secrets and intricacies could be uncovered, just like that photo.

The Shining

The horror film The Shining has gone down in history as one of the greatest horror films in time. Mr. Bauks said critics during the time period when this movie came out, did not like it so much; however, now that people have looked more into it; its become more interesting. I believe the reason this horror film is so successful is because of all the questions you are left with. When the movie ends, you are left with a million questions; Was this a dream of Jacks? How did Danny develop to be like this? Is Danny the cause to Jack going insane? Why was there a bear? If Dick Hollaran knew about the shining, why didn't he prevent it? I could go on and on, but that is the gist of it.

I believe the relationship between Danny and Jack throughout this film is quite interesting. From the beginning we see the potential in the father and son relationship, until Wendy tells us about the incident when Jack tore Danny's shoulder. This began the questions about who Jack really was. Throughout the film, Jack and Danny share some similar experiences. They both enter room 237 and have something weird happen to them. They both sleepwalk. They both envision Jack murdering Wendy and Danny. They are so caught up in their envisions, that they both often loose track of time.

The last thing about their relationship is the sexual part. There seems to be a lot of sexual references in this movie, that the viewer does not see until they really research what happened. For example, the number 42, might have had a sexual reference in the movie. When Danny is brushing his teeth during the shining scene, right before he goes and sits on his fathers lap, him and his mother had just watched the movie "Summer of 42." This movie is about a younger man having an affair with an older women. Although this is just something to think about. It does seem a little strange. Again, we are left with what was King trying to say.

The Shining Film Response

Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining is one of the scariest movies in film history. The film is basically a puzzle with missing pieces. Throughout the movie the audience had to solve the puzzle, to understand mystery. For me, however, after finishing watching the movie I still had many questions left. This film followed an isolated family who were on the edge of sanity. Jack starts off as troubled writer and alcoholic, as the film progresses he starts sleeping in late and his behavior becomes completely unpredictable. In one scene, Jack yells at his wife for interrupting him while he is writing, he also talks to Lloyd in the bathroom, who is an imaginary bartender. Majority of the film is interpreted as hallucinations rather than spirits. There is elements of reality, but meanwhile theres a missing pieces in the character’s stories. Kubrick also did a great job with illustrating the characters rather than giving their backstories. For example, Jack is an alcoholic and hurts his child, Danny. 

Many scenes in The Shining create suspense through the characters verbally interacting with each other, which results in them becoming mentally deranged. The most frightening and one of the most well-known scene in film history is the “Here’s Johnny” scene. Jack peers through a hole in the door which he made with an axe, he shouts to his wife wendy things like, “come out, come out, wherever you are” and the innocent/childish words he says creates suspense because of the strange choice of words he uses within the situation. This makes Jack appear insane, irrational and dangerous. The music also adds to the horror in this sign, there is a high pitched scratching of string instruments. Overall, this film is a tad bit confusing but is no doubt one of the most successful horror films in history.

Stanley Kubrick likes tracking shots

Sure, The Shining is a scary film. But Kubrick adds a scare factor that I don't think I've ever seen before. Whether the scene is supposed to be scary or not, the movie doesn't go 5 minutes without a long tracking shot following one or more of the characters. There's the immensely popular tracking of Danny on the tricycle- we get to see what he sees when he sees it as he rounds the corners in the hallways. So when he stops and sees the twin girls, we're right there with him. The majority of the screen time when Jack is clambering after Danny with the axe is done with tracking shots to give the feeling of impending doom. Jack feels like this dark, unstoppable force right on Danny's heels.

The most fantastic scene, in my opinion, was Wendy's discovery of Jack's work. The scene begins with- you guessed it- a tracking shot of Wendy clutching her baseball bat, looking for Jack. As she approaches the typewriter, the camera goes to an extreme low angle right on the edge of the table so that we see Wendy looking nearly straight down at it. We then get to see what she's been staring at through her point of view shot- the creepy sentence, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," typed over and over again onto the pages. We see Wendy start to breathe heavily as she looks over and sees piles of the same thing. We experience her confusion from her point of view as she flips through the pages one by one, as if she's expecting something different to be written on the next page.

In comes Jack. He emerges from the darkness behind Wendy, and very calmly talks as he steps into the bright blue light coming from the tall windows. We see Wendy bathed in the light while Jack is silhouetted by it. As the scene progresses, Jack advances and Wendy backpedals towards the stairs. the camera switches between tracking shots of the two of them as they circle, bringing Jack's head into the window light. He seems to glow.

It gets better. As they are tracked up the stairs and Jack starts to spit about bashing Wendy's skull in, Jacks face slowly becomes bathed in red light, as if he's backing Wendy up into hell.

The Shinning

The shining presents so many different questions. The main question is what the f*** is going on. I believe that this is all a dream. There is something eerie about the entire movie that makes it seem not real. Using what we know about Daniel and his “shine” I have concluded that it is Daniels dream and he is seeing into his future, or the dream that he is having is just one of his nightmares. Even if the “shine” isn’t real, it can just be one of Daniel’s nightmares. Part of the reason that I think the “shine” isn’t a real thing, is that if Dick had the shine, wouldn’t he have known that Jack had an axe and was going to kill him? I feel like it is an extremely elaborate nightmare. This would explain the sort of things that don’t make sense i.e. the dude in the tux and the guy in the bear costume. As Mr. Bauks said, the begging in the helicopter gives that bit of a dreamy sense. If it was a dream you know it can’t be Jack’s dream because he dies. It has to be either Danny or the mom’s dream, but most likely it is Danny’s because the entire movie seems to revolve around him. Back to the bear. After some research, it seems that there is a lot of sexual references throughout the entire movie. It seems that Jack and Danny have had a very abusive relationship. Jack is very involved with sexual actions within the movie. It is possible that there is some sexual problems with Jack and Danny. Bear references seem to pop up everywhere as well Just something that I read, it is very weird. THIS MIGHT BE A NIGHTMARE REFLECTING ON WHAT HAPPENED

The Shining

After watching The Shining, I was left with many unanswered questions. It is honestly impossible for me to write all my questions and analysis in 250 words. What caused Jack to go insane? Was it real or all in his head? Why did this particular family experience these events when past families had not? I think it all starts out with Danny. As we find out in the beginning of the movie, Danny has "the shine". I am not exactly clear on what "the shine" entitles Danny to be able to do, but obviously he is different from most people. So, I have come to the conclusion that the shine is what causes the ghosts, or whatever you want to call them, to take over the house. The only character in the movie, besides Jon, to die is Dick Hallorann. Dick and Danny both have the shine and from the start of the movie they both can sense a feeling of danger throughout the hotel. I think Dick having the shine has something to do with why Stephen King decided to kill him. I think there is something about this shining power that ignites the house to morph and come to life. Maybe Dick is killed because the haunted house wants him dead, not Jon. I also started to think about Tony. My main confusion with Tony was whether he was a good character or a bad character. Obviously he warns Danny about upcoming events, but at the same time he takes over his body and causes him to do some weird things. This question made me think maybe Tony is the reason for all the madness; maybe he was a past guest in the hotel. I'm not exactly sure what Tony's purpose is, but in the end he does not really do anything to save Danny.

Shinning; Horrifying Masterpiece

The shinning will forever be one of the most classic horror films of all time. The reason for the success is because of the director Stanley Kubrick’s, genius-filming ideas. Not only does Kubrick put together one of the most terrifying horror films of all time, but he also puts together a great puzzle. At the end of the movie the viewer is perplexed as to “what has happened”? The best part is that there isn’t one for sure answer but countless theories. Everyone has different ideas as to why the main character Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) ends up in a haunting photo shot during a party in the year 1921. It’s confusing and makes the viewer really have to think and trace the steps of the movie backward. I suppose my own theory as to why he is in the photo is because who ever takes care of the hotel and is haunted by the spirits, gets added to the photo as if the photo is collecting spirits. Who ever dies gets added to the photo from 1921. As far as the horror aspect goes of the film, it’s fair to say I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Kubrick’s capability of scaring the audience seemed so flawless and simple, but actually terrorizing the audience the way he did was a work of art. One of the skills I noticed he used during the film was tracking with the camera. For example he would build up suspense when Danny was riding the big wheel by following him around the hotel for a long period of time. This makes the viewer anxious because we know in our heads that something is bound to happen. It scares us and makes us more conscious of the movie. Overall the shinning is a great piece of cinematography. Stanley Kubrick did everything right in putting together one of the best horror films in Hollywood history.