The Shining (1980) R Horror Drama Director: Stanley Kubrick Release Date: June 13, 1980 Cast: Danny Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, Jack Nicholson, Scatman Crothers Writers: Diane Johnson, Stanley Kubrick Rating: R Runtime: 146 minutes Cinematographer: John Alcott Producer: Stanley Kubrick Production Company: Roger in his costume, jumping, running, barking, howling, and absolutely humiliating himself in front of an assortment of celebrators. Wendy parallels this in her last line of dialogue to Danny as he runs to get his fire engine: Make sure you come right back 'cause Im gonna make lunch soon. The puzzled look on Jacks face can be interpreted as an effort to get his mind straight, and notice him using slurs every time he talks to Wendy. Its rumbling overcome by Jacks maddening bellows, who eventually freezes to death. Either way though, it's a haunting moment in The Shining, as the dynamic between the two men is uncomfortable, to say the least. 13 minutes into the movie when Danny wakes up in his bedroom, his head rests on a bear pillow and very surprisingly 13 minutes from the end we encounter the bear man. Before we get into The Shining fan theories, its important to acknowledge the source material. The fact that his films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining require detailed explanations says a lot about his craft. This concept is further paralleled in our first view of Dannys bedroom in the Overlook. 'The Shining:' Who is the Man in the Bear Costume? The Shining novel, however, has a very different ending, and one that even made way for a sequel: Doctor Sleep. The film within a film parallel is also hinted at by the television content initially filling up our entire view of the scene before zooming out to reveal Danny and Wendy in the lobby. Mr Ullmann converses with Jack regarding formal details and warns him about the history of the Overlook. This gives you an inkling of the absurd lengths Kubrick will go to make a tiny subliminal detail that will go unnoticed by almost everyone watching the picture. When Ullman and Bill Watson approach Jack in the lobby on Closing Day, Jack is reading a January 1978 issue of Playgirl Magazine. The meaning and topics addressed in the novel are very different than those in The Shining movie Stephen King hates so much, given Kubricks many changes to the story in order to fit his vision. At The Overlook Hotel, there is a picture of two bears above Danny's bed, and there's a prominently featured bear skin rug in the lobby. There is also Jack and Danny's conversation in the apartment suite with Danny on Jack's lap. The infamous bear costume scene and the quick view of Jack reading a Playgirl magazine are pointed to as evidence that Dannys abuse goes beyond physical into sexual. Of course, there are some more convincing (and coherent) than others, but The Shining is, at its core, a story about violence and abuse and how these are often cyclical. Jack embraced Danny on the bed in the fatherly love scene, from which Danny would have also been able to see his own predicament in a mirror. The Overlook is built on the sacred lands of Native Americans . Powered by WordPress.com VIP. This makes the scene even more baffling and the unknown even more frightening. The maze in The Shining went over better than the hedge animals would've in Kubrick's vision. The core ofThe Shiningmoon landing theory posits that not only was the 1969 moon landing a hoax, but that Kubrick was the one who constructed the fake footage. From the sinister musical scoring to the casts class acts, the film has all the components for a great horror movie. One major deviation would be Kubricks decision to throw the ghost subtext out in the trash. Wednesday, and Danny finds the Room 237 ajar and we see him walking towards it because a red ball rolls upto him out of nowhere from that direction. Privacy Policy. Diane Johnson said this of Stanley Kubrick's non-horror vision: "The ending was changed almost entirely because Kubrick found it a clich to just blow everything up. But also the sexual abuse is shown in a scene between Jack and his father in the bizarre scene with the man in the bear costume and older gentleman. Interesting. Theres barely any ambiguity about the end, since it only exists if we are certain of any one explanation, but there isnt one in this case. Wendy and Danny lock themselves in the bathroom, and Wendy sends Danny through the window. Move forward a few seconds and we see a close-up of Jack, his unsettling green eyes beautifully matching the green sweater, a rough stubble compared to his shaven appearance a few seconds earlier, indications of insomnia as a result of writers block. The bears are only discernible in the HD version. Note how the scene opens with a close-up shot of the beige typewriter and slowly zooms out. Vivian Kubrick explains in the commentary that James Mason was acting in a local theatre, and so Kubrick gave him an invitation. We also see two doors on either side of Room 237 that lead nowhere. As for Jack, he does die but not in the snow: a malfunctioning boiler explodes and kills Jack while also destroying the hotel. Her gullible belief of Dannys room 237 story is plain silly. Related: IT Chapter Two's Shining Reference Hints At Stephen King's Shared Universe. Realizing that he is leaving footprints in the snow, Danny carefully maneuvers backwards over his own . Another bear reference is found in Dannys bedroom at the Overlook. Coming back around to consciousness, Danny awakes to see that his trousers are around his ankles and he is laying on top of a large stuffed toy bear. Move forward, we see Wendy talking to the radio operator about the failed telephone connectivity because of the snow storm. Jack also mentions his wife being a horror movie addict and her character is typical of a scream queen/damsel in distress (something out of a conventional 40s horror flick). Danny driving a different tricycle, the disappearance of the wooden mantelpiece, the typewriters changing or a shot of Jack waking up right after a tracking shot (which is shown through a mirror, a reflection of reality in the movie). Subscribe for more filmmaking videos like this. But it is clear that there is no Jack Torrance left, his insanity has reached its zenith. Wendy keeps swinging the bat to keep him away, and begs him to take Danny to a doctor. Dwarfed by the towering presence of the building, however, Jack soon becomes engulfed by an evil, violent presence, influencing his temper toward his wife and psychic son. Even the Gold Room is spatially impossible due to its enormous size, a beautiful irony of the vastness of the effect of claustrophobia. He goes upto the bar and meets Lloyd who fixes him another drink and says the expense is on the house, indicating the effort of the Overlook to carry Jack down the hill of madness. The first thing to note is that in the film the guy is dressed in a bear costume instead of a dog costume. If you love The Shining, then theres a good chance that youre a fan of the horror genre. But it is the mystery and strangeness of it all that makes it so terrifying. And the parallels continue. The same physical abuse evidence is used alongside other interpretable details. In any other film from any other director, you may discard the information as sheer coincidence, but Kubrick was famously cryptic, scattering clues and imagery throughout each and every one of his films leading to a more concealed secret. It seems ridiculous on the surface, but Ager's in-depth analysis points to some very compelling evidence of sexual abuse. This scene is during the most climatic part of the movie. (Rob Ager's work plagiarized) Collative Learning 214K subscribers Subscribe 4.1K 167K views 5 years ago Watch my new Shining analysis video. First few seconds and we are already given a taste of the mise en scne. Its understandable: Kubrick asked for freedom to change whatever he wanted, and he wasnt kidding. The Overlook or the hedge structure. This is right before the fatherly love scene. The bear symbolizes homosexuality and sexual abuse. One of the things that horror stories can do is to show us the archetypes of the unconscious; we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly. Contents 1 Biography 2 Notes & Trivia 3 See also 4 External Links 5 Appearances 6 References The shot passes by within 13 seconds and is never referenced again which raises many unanswered questions. A very expensive split-second because it requires a working second storey to be added to the already incredibly large Lounge set. The Shining is Stephen King's third published novel and the one that established his name in the horror genre. In attempting to answer "what is The Shining about?" In Lolita, Mason played Humbert Humbert, a man who has a sexual relationship with his underage stepdaughter. It's considered one of his best novels to date and one that has gone through all types of analysis thanks to the various themes it addresses, such as family, addiction, isolation, and mental health. The hallucination ends when an hysteric Wendy comes running in and informs Jack about a woman in Room 237 who tried to strangle Danny. Breaking the cycle. Of course, the ghost of Grady freeing Jack from the freezer remains hard to explain away, although that doesn't stop some from trying. Among those are the ending of The Shining and some of the scenes that come moments before that final shot of the photo. Jack as warned by Grady kills Halloran with a strike to the chest in the lobby. The ghost is Delbert Grady, and the past caretaker was Charles Grady. In Doctor Sleep, Adult Danny Torrance is forced to head to the Overlook in order to unleash a greater evil on villain Rose the Hat, but while there encounters the ghost of his father. The biggest reason for the sideways panning when Ullman shows the hotel is to let the viewers sink in every corridor and direction, before he changes the set design completely, creating an anomaly to disorientate the viewers.Theres also an EXIT sign cleverly put on the left end of the hallway leading to Torrances apartment where the bathroom is, strange foreshadowing. Over the past four decades, The Shining has been picked apart, shot by shot, by hundreds of viewers looking for hidden meanings, ranging from film scholars who adore the work of Kubrick to conspiracy theorists who think that Kubrick was involved in faking the Moon landing. Instead of being inside, the young boy is out in the hedge maze being pursued by his father. The easiest one to notice is in the scene of Danny talking to the psychiatrist. We are tracking a yellow car driving through the mountains and at the same time observing the vastness and seclusion of the landscape. There seems to be many hints in the film that Wendy is aware of her sons abuse and is covering up and denying the issue. Wendy distraught over Dannys deteriorating state goes looking for Jack and finds hundreds of pages by his typewriter, all of them clustered with the sentence All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. The following video is based upon chapters 16 & 17 of this analysis, though both the video and article equivalents Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. One of the most frequent questions Ive received about The Shining is What does the guy in the bear costume mean? The popular interpretation is that the scene is a throwback to a subplot of Stephen Kings book, in which a party guest in a dog costume has a homosexual relationship with one of the hotels former owners. Wendy defends herself with a knife and slashes Jacks arm, causing him to retreat. Notice how Ullman even points his finger at the magazine as if informing us of its significance. In 2019, famed horror director Mike Flanagan brought the story to the big screen, starring Ewan McGregor in the titular role. Directed by modern horror master Mike Flanagan, Doctor Sleep offered an unexpected treat in the form of an extended cameo by none other than Jack Torrance himself, now played by Henry Thomas. This broader theory became directly connected to The Shining as Kubricks subtle way of validating the claims. He doesnt want to spend any time with her, he refuses to take her for a walk after breakfast, he bars her from entering the Colorado Lounge where he hangs out and he stays up all night while she's in bed and sleeps alone in the day. She has either overlooked or deliberately ignored the abuse that has cause Dannys problems. Danny escapes the maze and reunites with Wendy, and they escape in Hallorans snowcat. What she sees when she gets there is a disturbing image of a man in a bear costume performing fellatio on a man in a tuxedo. Without Kubrick around to spell out his intentions, the answer is, . He might have had his anger under control for a while before taking the job, but he went back to it there. And some of the landscape opens with a close-up shot of the scenes that come moments before final! Wendy talking to the casts class acts, the young boy is out in the.... 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