Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson Directed By: Stanley Kubrick Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Original recording remastered, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: June 12, 2001 Running Time: 143 minutes Theatrical Release Date: May 23, 1980
Product Description: A married couple with a small son are employed to look after a resort hotel high in the Colorado mountains. As a result they are the sole occupants during the long winter. The hotel manager warns them not to accept the job because of a tragedy that occurred during the winter of 1970. Based on the book by Stephen King.Running Time: 146 min.System Requirements:Starring: Jack Nicholson Shelley Duvall Danny Lloyd Scatman Crothers Barry Nelson and Philip Stone. Directed By: Stanley Kubrick. Running Time: 142 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Standard" format. Copyright 2000 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 085392115624 Manufacturer No: 21156
Amazon.com essential video: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is less an adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling horror novel than a complete reimagining of it from the inside out. In King's book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretaker and provokes him to murderous rage against his wife and young son. Kubrick's movie is an existential Road Runner cartoon (his steadicam scurrying through the hotel's labyrinthine hallways), in which the cavernously empty spaces inside the Overlook mirror the emptiness in the soul of the blocked writer, who's settled in for a long winter's hibernation. As many have pointed out, King's protagonist goes mad, but Kubrick's Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is Looney Tunes from the moment we meet him--all arching eyebrows and mischievous grin. (Both Nicholson and Shelley Duvall reach new levels of hysteria in their performances, driven to extremes by the director's fanatical demands for take after take after take.) The Shining is terrifying--but not in the way fans of the novel might expect. When it was redone as a TV miniseries (reportedly because of King's dissatisfaction with the Kubrick film), the famous topiary-animal attack (which was deemed impossible to film in 1980) was there--but the deeper horror was lost. Kubrick's The Shining gets under your skin and chills your bones; it stays with you, inhabits you, haunts you. And there's no place to hide... --Jim Emerson
Amazon.com: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is less an adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling horror novel than a complete reimagining of it from the inside out. In King's book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretaker and provokes him to murderous rage against his wife and young son. Kubrick's movie is an existential Road Runner cartoon (his steadicam scurrying through the hotel's labyrinthine hallways), in which the cavernously empty spaces inside the Overlook mirror the emptiness in the soul of the blocked writer, who's settled in for a long winter's hibernation. As many have pointed out, King's protagonist goes mad, but Kubrick's Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is Looney Tunes from the moment we meet him--all arching eyebrows and mischievous grin. (Both Nicholson and Shelley Duvall reach new levels of hysteria in their performances, driven to extremes by the director's fanatical demands for take after take after take.) The Shining is terrifying--but not in the way fans of the novel might expect. When it was redone as a TV miniseries (reportedly because of King's dissatisfaction with the Kubrick film), the famous topiary-animal attack (which was deemed impossible to film in 1980) was there--but the deeper horror was lost. Kubrick's The Shining gets under your skin and chills your bones; it stays with you, inhabits you, haunts you. And there's no place to hide... --Jim Emerson
CLASSIC I'm woefully underqualified to review a master classic movie like this. I watched it for the first time in 2008, and it is not dated in the least. It managed to scare, thrill and keep me glued to the screen. Excellent story, characters, scenery, just about everything. A classic horror film.
The Shining - a genuine classic The Shining strikes me as one of only three Stephen King adaptations that are completely successful, the others being Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. Unlike that other film, The Shining was from the start in for a substantial makeover, in this case by Stanley Kubrick and his co-screenwriter Diane Johnson. For this reason, the film has never really pleased many fans of the original book who believe that films must be faithfully and accurately transcribed to screen in order to be considered a successful adaptation.
Watching The Shining today, what strikes me are the incredibly elegant sets, the almost complete lack of special effects (one trick shot of the hedge maze notwithstanding), the stunning cinematography and the tricky tone the film manages to maintain between horror film, domestic drama and very black comedy. There are scenes in the film that never fail to make me laugh and others that give one the appropriate creepy frisson expected of a horror film.
The film takes a distinctly more psychological approach than the novel. While the hotel does appear to be truly haunted in the film (Danny sees ghosts, Jack appears in the portrait in the final shot, etc.), it's also possible to read all of the scenes between Jack and Lloyd (the bartendner) or the Grady (the former caretaker) as the delusions of an alcoholic having a breakdown. Certainly, the subtext is at the very least made quite clear. Oddly, the one scene in the film that I recall making clear beyond question that the supernatural is at work (when the ghost of Grady opens the storage locker door to release Jack) is actually more ambivalent than I remembered. Jack speaks to Grady through the door and we simply hear the door being unlocked while the camera remains on Jack's face...the next time we see him he is hacking away at the bedroom door with an Axe. Perhaps he used the axe to bust open the locker door himself? In any event, Nicholson is great in the film, perhaps his finest hour along with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Next.
I can't wait to visit The Overloook Hotel in Blu-Ray...
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining "shines" on Blu-ray Disc!!! Great job Warner Bros!!! Finally available in the anamorphic widescreen format in sparkling Blu Ray!!! The picture is crisp and smooth almost 3-D!!! The same goes for the sound,simply amazing!!! It looks and sounds even better than the 2001 remastered DVD which looked incredible as well,but this one is even better in every way!!! There are a 3 new featurettes and the classic Making Of The Shining documentary(this was included on the original DVD's as well!) that was direced by Kubricks daughter Vivian(there is also a optional audio commentary by her as well,actually her commentary is much more enjoyable than the new feature commentary included with this new release!!!) The classic "blood from the elevator" teaser trailer is also included!!! A very recomended Blu Ray Disc!!! A Clockwork Orange is also another great Blu-Ray from Warner!!!,Blu's of 2001 and Full Metal Jacket are next on my wish list!!! Lets hope that other Kubrick classics Dr. Strangelove,Paths Of Glory,The Killing,Sparticus(it did get a HD DVD release no Blu,that was a real bummer!),etc will get the royal "Blu" treatment!!! A+
the shining on blu-ray It looks GREAT! After seeing it a million times on DVD, this is just beautiful. You won't believe how the hotel looks-at least when you use the PS3 to watch it.
"Come here, Wendy. I'm NOTTTT gonna hurt ya ....." The Shining (1980) is in every way an epic horror classic that really just gets under your skin. It's not only one of the best horror films ever, but also one of the best noteworthy flicks of 1980. I won't get into the plot too much as I'm sure by now it is no mystery to anyone. But I will share my feelings on it and what the impact of watching it is like. The Shining could almost be called a cinematic perfect storm with so many factors combining together that worked out so advantageously.
The first is Stephen King's novella, which this adaptation is one of the few to actually do justice to, the second is director Stanley Kubrick's masterful vision and the third, of course, is Jack Nicholson's frighteningly intense, tour-de-force performance that will scare the S#*% out of you! Ordinarily in most of his movies, it's fun to watch the always larger-than-life Jack chew scenery, but here in The Shining it's much more likely to scare than amuse you. I can only imagine how unnerving it must have been the crew on set during filming with Jack when he was in character and if they were ever worried if he would know when to break it between takes! Also, the son's repeated, high-pitched screaming of redrum (murder spelled backwards, as we all know) is pretty disturbing and scary as well.
Thanks largely in part due to a very creepy musical score and a remote, snowbound Colorado location at the resort, an overall sensation of forlorn dread and isolation permeates this film, which only further amplifies the terror factor. All of this combined with nightmarish, haunted hotel imagery, ghoulish apparitions and setting make for a pretty damn scary cinematic experience. Almost 30 years later, this horror epic still packs a potent punch. Definitely one that stays with you and one you don't want to ideally watch by yourself!
Even as an adult, to this day and beyond, this movie still gives me the creeps.
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