Review of The Shining (1980) by Gavin M — 15 Mar 2015

Well hello boys and girls. Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" is without a doubt one of the most disturbing and horrifying horror movies ever made. It's right up there with William Friedkin's "The Exorcist," which I still consider to be the scariest movie ever made.

But Kubrick's "The Shining" which is based off of a Stephen King novel is definitely in the rankings as far as great horror movies go. Nobody but Kubrick could have directed this movie as it has Kubrick's bizarre and stylish direction written all over it.

From the minute the opening credits begin with the famous haunting score from the movie, you know this is not going to be a pleasant movie. I think that was Kubrick's intention from the get go. Jack Nicholson.

Fucking Jack Nicholson gives another horrifying yet memorable role as Jack Torrance, the new care taker of the Overlook Hotel who slowly descends into madness as he is in charge of overlooking the hotel for 5 months until May the first, and becomes literally and critically a crazy killing lunatic.

Nobody, but Nicholson could have played this role, it's too crazy and horrifying of a performance that only Nicholson himself could have pulled off, since he's always had that wild and crazy personality to him as an actor that I love because he's never afraid to show the crazy side of him in his movies and that is what makes not only one of my all time favorite actors next to Robert DeNiro, but one of the best actors that has ever lived.

It's almost tough to watch even though you can't take your eyes off Nicholson as we slowly see him losing his mind just like DeNiro did in "Taxi Driver," but at least DeNiro's character had some what of a better result to his character at the end of the Scorsese's movie.

But Nicholson is just stone cold FUCK nuts in this movie, beyond help, like locked up in the nutty farm and have the key thrown away. Just the scene alone when his character is taunting Shelly DuVall's character up the main stairs in the Overlook Hotel, which by the way Shelly DuVall is terrific in this movie and mostly because I read Kubrick literally pushed her to the breaking point directing her in this just to get those horrifying looks on her face the whole time she is scared to death of Nicholson's character look genuinely real as hell! Which makes me love directors like Kubrick as they are so daring like Oliver Stone, to push their actors as much as possible in order to get the performances he needs out of them.

Just as long as he doesn't turn into Francis Ford Coppola in "Apocalypse Now" everything is okay. But "The Shining" definitely stands the test of time as one of the greatest movies ever made.

Not just horror, but just as a movie in general as I truly believe "The Shining" is a character study the worst possible case of a complete and psychotic breakdown within a person and his mind.

You see it in every frame with Nicholson as we even know in the creepy and eerie scene as he watches his wife and son Danny,(Who is also played brilliantly by Danny Lloyd that even he gives you the creeps with the whole "REDRUM! REDRUM!" thing) from inside the Overlook Hotel just starring them down eerily as they play with each other outside in the snow.

It's a clear sign that the man is already losing his marbles as they say. But I think Nicholson's character within' that first month overlooking the hotel lost his marbles as the minute Shelly DuVall comes in to the big living room area where Nicholson's character sits behind his type writer and is typing his new writing project that little does she know, he's already writing the famous "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" sequence that comes within the last hour of the film and that right there is when you realize at the final hour that the whole time Nicholson's character was losing his mind.

This is definitely not a movie I can watch all the time given it' disturbing them, but I will admit there is something intriguing about the film as it is a Kubrick classic and the fact Nicholson like I said is so terrifying to watch in the role that made him just even more big of a superstar with every other ole he took on before that with "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and so forth and so on just goes to show Nicholson is the one of the greatest icons right next to Clint Eastwood and Robert DeNiro that he himself is an actor that will always stand the test of time.