SXN80 Canon: The Shining (1980) (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Started by Charlie Work, Nov 20, 2015, in Entertainment Add to Reading List

Should Stanley Kubrick's The Shining join SXN80's Canon of Great Film?

  1. Yes

    10 vote(s)
    100.0%
  2. No

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. Charlie Work
    Posts: 14,879
    Likes: 25,809
    Joined: Nov 28, 2014

    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    Nov 20, 2015
    [​IMG]
    We totally didn't lift this shot from The Omen lol.

    If God can be a big black slab from outer space, why can't the devil be a bartender named Lloyd? Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror movie completes the cosmology begun in 2001 by turning a specimen (Jack Nicholson) loose in the inner space of a deserted, snowbound hotel. He, too, is reborn--not as a space baby, but as a grinning, wisecracking ax murderer. (Dave Kehr)



    Kubrick delivers this uncertainty in a film where the actors themselves vibrate with unease. There is one take involving Scatman Crothers that Kubrick famously repeated 160 times. Was that "perfectionism," or was it a mind game designed to convince the actors they were trapped in the hotel with another madman, their director? Did Kubrick sense that their dismay would be absorbed into their performances? (Roger Ebert)



    It took nerve, or maybe something like hubris, for Kubrick to go against all convention and s---t most of the gothic in broad daylight. Probably he liked the idea of our waking into a nightmare instead of falling asleep into one. And, having used so many night shots in A Clockwork Orange and so much romantic lighting in Barry Lyndon, he may have wanted the technical challenge of the most glaring kind of brightness. . . . There isn't a dark corner anywhere; even the kitchen storerooms have a flourescent boldness. But the conventions of gothics are fun. Who wants to see evil in daylight, through a wide-angle lens? We go to The Shining hoping for nasty scare effects and for an appeal to our giddiest nighttime fears -- vaporous figures, shadowy places. What we get doesn't tease the imagination. Visually, the movie often feels like a cheat, because most of the horror images are not integrated into the travelling shots; the horrors involved in the hotel's bloody past usually appear in inserts that flash on like the pictures in a slide show. (Pauline Kael)
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  2. Charlie Work
    Posts: 14,879
    Likes: 25,809
    Joined: Nov 28, 2014

    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    Nov 20, 2015
     
    #2
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024
  3. boyz n the suburbs
    Posts: 11,581
    Likes: 18,084
    Joined: Jul 7, 2015
    Location: Canada

    boyz n the suburbs In my city, I'm a young God

    Nov 20, 2015
    Definitely.
     
    #3
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024
  4. reservoirGod
    Posts: 11,623
    Likes: 17,971
    Joined: Mar 7, 2011
    Location: Alaska

    reservoirGod reckless adventurer.

    Nov 20, 2015
    Watch "Room 237."
     
    #4
    1
    Pinhead likes this.
    1
    Pinhead likes this.
    Mar 28, 2024
  5. Charlie Work
    Posts: 14,879
    Likes: 25,809
    Joined: Nov 28, 2014

    Charlie Work Level 5 Goblin

    Nov 20, 2015
    Definitely more valuable as an exploration of fanatic movie fandom than anything else.
     
    #5
    1
    Pinhead likes this.
    1
    Pinhead likes this.
    Mar 28, 2024
  6. reservoirGod
    Posts: 11,623
    Likes: 17,971
    Joined: Mar 7, 2011
    Location: Alaska

    reservoirGod reckless adventurer.

    Nov 20, 2015
    Yes. It's interesting. I don't subscribe to any of the theories presented.
     
    #6
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024
  7. Swizz
    Posts: 3,363
    Likes: 10,127
    Joined: Feb 15, 2011

    Nov 20, 2015
    Couldn't make it through it, laughable theories

    Yes to the question at hand. Kubrick masterfully builds a sense of dread, and Nicholson gives one of my favorite performances. Enjoyed it much more than the book. I'm due for a rewatch
     
    #7
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024
  8. Vahn
    Posts: 3,381
    Likes: 4,781
    Joined: Feb 15, 2011

    Vahn butterfly jewels beauty

    Nov 20, 2015
    One of his best. Seeing it on the big screen was nice.
     
    #8
    3
    CJ Poe, Twan and Pinhead like this.
    3
    CJ Poe, Twan and Pinhead like this.
    Mar 28, 2024
  9. Raziel
    Posts: 3,454
    Likes: 4,093
    Joined: Feb 16, 2011

    Raziel Ice like Paul Wall but I can't take mine out

    Nov 20, 2015
    I think I liked the book a bit more but the film was surprisingly disturbing and scary for me at 29
     
    #9
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024
  10. Joshua Smoses
    Posts: 647
    Likes: 753
    Joined: Nov 23, 2014

    Joshua Smoses Pink fur, looking like Cam

    Nov 20, 2015
    Absolutely. The film captures and maintains a constant sense of dread for all 2 and a half hours of its runtime, and Kubrick's visual sense and acting direction is at its peak. Some questionable writing decisions, but the end product is so good they almost don't matter.
     
    #10
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024
  11. CJ Poe
    Posts: 11,060
    Likes: 17,931
    Joined: Feb 15, 2011

    CJ Poe The Dark Vegan

    Nov 22, 2015
    One of my favorite films; and definitely on my top 500
     
    #11
    0 0
    Mar 28, 2024