This Just In: Book Critics "On Crack," Claims Matt

THE SHINING

See, as the post title shows, you don't need a fancy "journalism degree" to come up with some eye-catching headlines! Enjoy your forthcoming flamewar with the world of literary criticism.

Again, you've picked a topic that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about. I've never read a Stephen King novel, and though I've seen several films based on his novels over the years—Carrie, The Shining, Silver Bullet, Stand by Me, The Running Man (more of a "Schwarzenegger movie" than a "Stephen King movie"), Pet Sematary, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, 1408, which turn out to be only a fraction of the total adaptations; I knew he'd been adapted a lot, but I had no idea! There were three King films in 1983 and 1990 each, not even counting sequels—I've by no means sought them out. "Based on the novel by Stephen King" typically isn't a cinematic mark of quality. I'll mostly talk about one of the exceptions to that, The Shining.

First off, let me say that I've never been a big horror-movie guy. As far as I can remember, the number of horror films I've seen more than once or twice can be counted on one hand, and that's being generous by counting quasi-horror films: The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, Psycho (horror/suspense), and Alien (horror/sci-fi). I've never read a horror novel either, not even "Goosebumps" as a kid. Take from that what you will.

There's a lot to say about The Shining. In terms of its craftsmanship it's instantly recognizable as a Kubrick film: painstaking cinematography, long (often lingering) shots, and a sense of isolation and detachment. While the subjects that his films portray are as varied as one could imagine—a military courtroom drama, a meditative space epic of vast scope, a darkly satirical near-future dystopia, an eighteenth-century period piece, the Vietnam War, to name some examples—the way that they're portrayed is pretty consistent, and consistently brilliant and challenging. So the fact that The Shining had a master filmmaker like Kubrick at the helm makes it pretty inarguable, in my opinion, that it is the greatest film to be made of a King story.

SRELIOPS

The only ground on which that assertion could justifiably be questioned is how much of a "Stephen King movie" it actually is. I've read that King was unhappy with the deviations that Kubrick made from his novel, but from what I've heard the main change that he was unhappy with was the ending, namely the fact that Jack doesn't redeem himself. (Funny, since Anthony Burgess had the very same complaint about Kubrick's Alex in A Clockwork Orange; in Barry Lyndon, on the other hand, Kubrick did give the protagonist some final redemption, whereas Thackeray didn't.)

I hadn't heard that King's problem with Kubrick's adaptation was a perceived failure to include alcoholism and family dynamics. If so, my guess would be that his complaint is that those issues are dealt with differently from in the novel, since they're certainly present in the film—indeed, they're front and center. What I've always gotten from the film is that Jack's madness is merely an extreme escalation of symptoms already present in him, which the hotel uses alcohol to bring out and amplify. I always got the sense that Jack feels emasculated by his family, particularly by how contemporary society was changing a husband and father's relationship to his family. He always wanted to play the benevolent but dominant paterfamilias, making decisions for them (like moving to the Overlook) and being the breadwinner (through his writing). But that family model was increasingly becoming a thing of the past (of, for instance, the 1920s), and as a result Jack feels impotent (his writer's block) and resentful (his description in the bar of how he broke Danny's arm). The Overlook represents a return to that older family dynamic, characterized by authority and stability—"You are the caretaker. You have always been the caretaker."—without the interference of "outsiders" and "willful boys." Jack's falling off the wagon represents a reversion to selfishness, in which wife and children are merely appendages of the paterfamilias's ego, and his homicidal insanity is a reassertion of old-school paternal authority. To me, the film is all about family dynamics, though maybe not the ones that King wrote about.

SPOILERS AREN'T HERE, MRS. TORRANCE

And the planets must be in alignment or something, because this weekend it's being shown at midnight screenings at E Street Cinema here in DC. One of my greatest cinematic pleasures is seeing a film I know only from DVD or VHS on the big screen for the first time. Last fall it was Aliens, a couple weeks ago it was A Clockwork Orange (the opening credits and first scene demand theater viewing), and this weekend I'll add The Shining to that list.

P.S. — In anticipation of rewatching the first five seasons of Lost before the sixth season begins, I suggest you check out this forum thread from CHUD. They've got some really fascinating insights and discussions on there, and it hasn't gotten so long yet that you can't read it from the beginning. It'll definitely get your first-season juices flowing.