The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a controversial, beloved, and critically acclaimed film. What is interesting in the famous feature film.
The Shining (The Shining) is a 1980 film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the book by the famous American writer Stephen King. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd.
The story follows a family of father, mother and son who isolate themselves in a mountain hotel to look after the structure during its winter closure. The father is a writer, but for now he is trying to focus on writing a new novel. The Overlook Hotel, the hotel in which we are staying, stands over an old Indian cemetery. and is inhabited by ancient and disturbing creatures. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) lets the madness of this place, the terrible events that have happened, the blood and despair wash over him.
Son of Danny endowed with a certain ability (Flicker) will see everything that has happened over the years in the hotel, and these are terrible events. As time goes on, more and more unsettling things happen inside the Overlook Hotel, until Jack Torrance loses his sanity and his family gets caught up in it too.
“The Shining”, curiosities and anecdotes about Stanley Kubrick’s film
It’s well known now that Stephen King didn’t quite appreciate Kubrick’s film. The writer was so outraged that he decided to make his own version. In fact, in 1997, the mini-series The Shining was created based on the script by Stephen King, in which the writer also makes a cameo appearance and plays a conductor in a white tuxedo.
According to Stephen King, the fact that the character of Jack Nicholson immediately looked angry and so the concept of evolution brought about by the Overlook Hotel would disappear.
A few years after the publication of the book in 1977 Stephen King wrote a sequel in 2013. Doctor Sleep, which in 2019 became a Mike Flanagan film starring Ewan McGregor as the adult Danny Torrance. The story of how Danny was able to move on with his life after the events of the Overlook Hotel and all the aftermath. This time, King promoted the film.
One of the many anecdotes associated with the film concerns Shelley Duvall. The actress during the filming was subjected to a lot of pressure from the director. known to be a very choosy, extremely manic and very obsessive person. For example, the famous scene on the stairs where Jack climbs and Wendy pushes him away with a club in her hand was repeated 127 times.
The actress had a few less serene moments on set. Although in a 1979 interview he stated: “If not for a flurry of ideas and a clash of heads, things would not have turned out so well. After all, we knew that it was all done to improve our productivity. There were no offenses.” Thus drowning out the voices that would make her suffer from the director.
More recently, in 2021, Shelley Duvall wanted to reemphasize: “He was very warm and friendly to me. He spent a lot of time with me and Jack. He liked to sit and talk for hours while the team waited.”
“The Shining” and tributes to other directors
Steven Spielberg in his film Ready Player One paid homage to The Shining, and therefore Kubrick, by inserting several scenes set in the Overlook Hotel. Also in Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence not everyone noticed that when the main character interacts with an android bartender who wears the same clothes as the bartender from The Shining. In addition, the bar has the same now iconic geometric shapes as the carpeting of the Overlook Hotel.
General information about the filming of The Shining
In addition to the aforementioned 127-shot staircase scene, Hallorann explains “The Shining” to Danny as another sensational shot. the scene was filmed 148 times. In addition, not everyone knows that the famous and intimidating twins that Danny meets in the hallway are inspired by Diana Arbus’ photo of “Identical Twins” from 1967. Another special gem is the famous snow maze. it was made from 900 tons of salt and polystyrene.
Speaking of this location, the scene where Jack chases Danny through the maze ran for over a month. The film crew and actors got lost all the time and had to resort to help radio to help.