Film Review - The Shining (1980)

Stanley Kubicks' film The Shining is the product of a genius bored with the mainstream of genre  and looking to make a film that was more of a statement of art, horror and the people who make and watch horror. Stanley Kubrick had an IQ of 200, an incredibly smart man, everything you see in his films is meticulously thought over and precise, there are no mistakes in his work, everything is deliberate. 

(Figure 1 – The Shining – Movie still – Typewriter, white)

One of the subconscious themes Kubrick uses in symbolism in this film is the suggestion of the Nazi Holocaust, and the Third Reich. Symbolism of the Holocaust occurs when Jack is writing his novel in the Colorado lounge, the typewriter he is using is an ‘Adler’, this is a German brand, the word ‘Adler’ means Eagle in German; the eagle was heavily associated with the German Nazi Party and is featured in abundance throughout the film in the scenery of the Overlook Hotel. The typewriter changes halfway through the scene from white, to blue. “Kubrick also links the colors blue and yellow in a vision of Danny’s that has a compelling historical resonance. While Kubrick uses blue in The Shining in its traditional associations with the ethereal, the transcendent, ghosts, and death, we should not overlook its use as the color here of cold, natural, emotional, and hierarchical power as well.”. (Cocks, 2010)

(Figure 2 - The shining - Movie Still - Ullmans Office)

Another thing Kubrick does is more deliberate to the viewer and it complements the film design. Kubrick deliberately creates a set of surrealist quality by creating a building layout which doesn't physically work, for example during the scene where Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) meets the owner of the Overlook Hotel for an interview in his office, there is a window in the background. The window fits in an impossible space as there is a corridor on the other side of the wall. "My interpretation of this set design anomaly, as presented in the previous version of this analysis, was that Kubrick was deliberately disorientating the viewer." (Ager, 2008) It is Arguable that the subliminal disorientation during the film in such a subtle way makes this space and many others through the film e.g. the maze, the Colorado Lounge, the Gold room, Room 237 and the Torrence Bedroom feel unnatural and unsafe for the viewer despite the use of symmetry in the majority of his scenery.  

(Figure 3)

Its very interesting that the set seems to have an impersonal and disregarding view of humans, almost like it has a personality itself. It is arguable that the set begins to effect the character of Jack and drives him to madness in a cycle like the previous caretaker of the hotel. Its a good example of the exterior set affecting the characters in a way which is totally overpowering and dominating. "we also begin to get ample indication that he will follow in the footsteps of the previous caretaker, Grady, a steady-seeming fellow who chopped up his wife and daughters one winter’s day and then blew his brains out." (Jameson, 2017) 

Bibliography:

Cocks, G. (2010). A Quality of Obsession Considerably Further East: The Holocaust in the Cinema of Stanley Kubrick: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies

Ager, R. (2008). THE SHINING (1979) analysis by Rob Ager. [online] Collativelearning.com. Available at: http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining%20-%20chap%204.html [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].

Jameson, R. (2017). Kubrick’s Shining - Film Comment. [online] Film Comment. Available at: https://www.filmcomment.com/article/stanley-kubrick-the-shining/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].

Illustration:

Figure 1 - The Shining (1980). [Film] Stanley Kubrick, Elstree Studios: Warner Bros and Hawk Films.

Figure 2 - The Shining (1980). [Film] Stanley Kubrick, Elstree Studios: Warner Bros and Hawk Films.

Figure 3 - Floor Plan.The Stanley Kubrick Archives. [Book] Alison Castle: Taschen