the shining research

One of the main themes of the shining is it’s emphasis on family. I would argue that the lack of family structure is what divides the characters and causes their problems. When the movie starts, Jack and Wendy only have a few scenes together, and almost none where they are all pictured with Danny. As the story progresses, lack of family structure is highlighted with abuse and little to no communication. Wendy tries to emphasize her and Danny’s discomfort to Jack, but he doesn’t listen.

Connected with lack of family structure, another evident theme was isolation. I was surprised by how many scenes were shot with singular characters exploring the hotel or running from and to each other alone. I was expecting that because there were few main characters, their scenes would be together.

I first perceived Wendy as a typical housewife because of how she reacted to moving into the hotel. She cares for her child and husband, cooking for them and entertaining them. Even though I noticed these things, the most prominent thing about Wendy to me was her style. She contrasts Jack and Danny’s muted tones in most scenes which had me wondering if this costume choice was intentional. Later we learn that Wendy is not blind to her husband’s descent into madness, and makes attempts to save herself and her son which are shut down and met with aggression.

Jack’s character is one that I had no opinion about at first. His facial expressions were off putting as the movie progressed, and obviously by the end he was just unsettling. I understand Wendy’s reaction to shutting down after him yelling, and I couldn’t bring myself to empathize with Jack. It seemed all of his motivations were selfish even before he was “overtaken by madness”.

Danny’s character almost became duller overtime. I found myself wishing he had more things to say rather than being frozen in fear. He seemed interesting when he interacted with Halloran, but the term “red rum” was lost on me and other scenes had me confused about the purpose of his character.

Although I had seen spoilers of the movie, Jack’s character is obvious from the beginning of the film. I found myself agreeing with a review stating “Picture Dustin Hoffman, Harrison Ford, or someone similar, and how dramatic and shocking their descent to axe-wielding maniachood would have been”. In my opinion, the story should not have focused so much on Jack, like the film, or Danny, like the book, but instead followed Wendy’s character more closely. The audience is aware of Danny’s character and his ability to see things in the hotel, and Jack’s decision to come to the hotel for writing, but it made me question Wendy’s backstory. Where did she come from? What was her job or aspiration? How did she end up marrying a man like Jack?

Along with Wendy’s character, there were some visual aspects that made me question their connection to the plot. Was “red rum” connected to the scene with blood? “They just threw all this random imagery at us just to confuse us and convince us that it's actually brilliant” is a statement i somewhat agree with. While I can admit it felt the imagery was “random” I can assume it had something to do with the book. This review goes on to state that Jack’s character was more “funny than scary” which I disagree with, but it made me think of how frustrating it was to watch Wendy weakly fight him off with an axe. Was this another attempt to show her as a typical feminine character? Although I could understand her hesitation to attack her husband, I felt this could have been illustrated better.

Kubrick does bring this film to life “in his own way” which is why it has remained a classic for so long. I was impressed by the cinematography and choice of lighting for the film, and how artistic a horror film could be. Before seeing reviews comparing the movie to the book, I could understand how “perfect” the cast was. Nicholson has a face and smile that is unsettling from the very beginning, contrasting Duvall’s doe-like eyes perfectly.

After seeing how loosely the book was mentioned, it doesn’t surprise me that Jack’s only reference to his teaching job is a t-shirt he wears that mentions the school’s name. Kubrick’s only suggestion to Milena is the Torrance family is one of “middle america”. This is interesting to me because I am used to hearing of directors being more specific with how they want to illustrate their characters. Another detail that stood out to me is Milena’s choice to source most of the costumes from 1970’s catalogues. She took Kubrick’s suggestion of “middle america” literally, shopping mainly where middle class americans would shop- sears. I also appreciated how closely the characters resonated with the actors. Shelly wrote a letter to Kubrick describing pieces of her wardrobe she felt would fit her character which made me wonder if Kubrick’s close fit cast choice was intentional- as Jack and Danny’s names were the same as their characters. I found Wendy’s costumes to have the most personality- her blue robe fitting in well with the blue walls of the hotel, or the contrasting red statement pieces to juxtapose Jacks dull colors. I also noticed that for most of the film she matches Danny’s color palette- possibly a reference to their innocence and difference from Jack.

Milena’s other work and the shining both display character development. Her pieces for Jack show this, specifically when she rejected a red shirt from his collection because it was too early on to show his “descent to madness”. She also chose the dress for the twins not from their time period, because the dress she ended up picking was “timeless” and she was right. It’s hard to imagine the shining twins wearing any other style of clothing. Her other work contrasts the shining because it is often a display of her knowledge of uniforms- like in the grand budapest hotel.

Design for TSP primer- The Shining

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