- Sep 29, 2016
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So, because our corporate overlords have suggested to us "Dr. Sleep," my interest is drawn back to one of my favorite movies - Stanley Kubrick's the Shining.
Loosely based on the book (and I say loosely; Steven King absolutely hated the film as he felt it was nothing like his book), the Shining tells the story of a man named Jack Torrance, a failed writer and English teacher, who has taken a job at the Overlook Hotel, where he will act as Caretaker over the Winter while the Hotel is closed. The Overlook Hotel, however, is home to at least one horrifying incident (the movie suggests very clearly that it's way more) in which a former caretaker, Charles Grady, snapped and killed his wife and two daughters with an axe, and then blew out his brains. Jack's son, Danny, has an ability called "the Shining," in which he can communicate to other people who have this ability by thought, and he can see things happen in the future as well as traces of things that happened before which have attached themselves to certain places.
Spoilers below; if you haven't seen it, don't read the rest of this.
Sounds kind of straight forward, especially in terms of predicting what happens, but the movie never fully explains itself and suggests multiple different things - both at a surface level and clues scattered throughout the film which suggest that there's something much deeper that's hidden from us that is going on.
At the surface level, there's so much weird things that don't add up.
For one, are all the ghosts real entities? The ghosts seem to be able to perform activities such as causing physical harm to Danny as well as unlocking Jack Torrance's cold room freezer that couldn't be explained by it just being imaginary or a product of the Shining.
Moreover, Jack's wife is able to see these ghosts despite the fact that there's nothing in the film that suggests she, herself, has the Shining.
But at the same time, whenever Jack talks to a ghost he can see, he is always facing a mirror - when he is talking to the Butler in the bathroom, he's directly looking into the mirror and seeing his own reflection.
Same with the Gold Ball Room, where the entire room and bar is covered in mirrors.
The bathroom in Room 237 also has mirrors. The only time he's talking to a ghost without a mirror is when he's locked away, and he can't actually see the ghost.
Moreover, in a glaring continuity error, when he's talking to the Butler, he gets the first name wrong of the previous caretaker - calls him "Delbert Grady" instead of "Charles Grady." His conversations with Delbert Grady are nonsensical as well because Delbert Grady says that he's not the caretaker and hasn't killed his daughters, and then proceeds to tell him that he "corrected" his daughters.
Yet this doesn't explain why Shelly and Danny are able to see these ghosts if they are just products of his own insanity.
Is it because they are creations of the Shining? The other character who has the Shining claims there are some folks who have it but refuse to acknowledge or believe in it - is it a reference to all the other characters? And if they are just traces and images, why is it the case that they seem to manipulate Jack and cause physical harm to Danny?
There's also the unanswered question of the ending photograph, which shows Jack, paradoxically, in the photograph of a July 4th Ball from 1921.
Some have suggested that this suggests Jack is reincarnating, forced to come back to the Hotel and commit the same cycle of violence over and over again. Kubrick himself said that that's what the photograph is supposed to suggest. Yet some have said that this photograph is a list of the hotel's victims, and now Jack himself is a member of the hotel and resides there forever, and ever, and ever; according to one source, there was originally a deleted idea where in the Ballroom, Jack would look into the mirror and see the entire ballroom covered in the corpses and blood of all the members of the party. This would also explain the "eternal" aspect which the ghosts keep suggesting.
And that's not even asking the questions of what's causing it. Is it the hotel? Is it the Devil? Is it the nature of the world? What is it?
What's in Room 237? What's so appealing about it? Is it symbolic? Is it real?
And that's just a surface-level analysis of this masterpiece of film. There are so many clear patterns hidden in this film that all suggest different things.
Did Jack sell his soul to Satan, which possessed him? When Jack meets with the bartender for the first time, he says before the bartender appears "I would sell my soul for a drink right now." And then a creepy, nonblinking, pale individual with a cryptic / evil smile, wide-open eyes, wearing red with pointed ears appears and gives him a drink. Later on in the film, Jack is yelling at his wife about how he made a contract with the Hotel and horrible things would happen to him if he broke the contract. When he is talking to the bartender, he acts completely different, acting as though he's known the bartender this whole time. And finally, the final photograph - which is allegedly based on a completely original photograph with Jack's face brushed on - has a pose that is unnatural and weirdly fits the infamous "Baphomet" image that people here are probably used to seeing. Moreover, the song playing is "Midnight, and the Stars and You....", and said image of the goat has a star and moon.
There's also a black moose head in the background when Jack is staring at his family from inside menacingly. According to one source, apparently Kubrick was extremely adamant about this one detail and wanted to order six Mooseheads until he found one that fit. He wanted to use it more throughout the film, but it got burned during an accidental fire in production.
More than this, did this cycle of evil start with the Native American genocide in this area, or is this film a metaphor about Native American genocide and how America's foundations are that of a cycle of violence which can never be separated from its foundation? We learn early on that the hotel was built on a "Native American burial ground," and Native American imagery is used throughout the entire film, as well as American imagery. The floor patterns are Native American, there is Native American artwork hidden throughout the background, there are canned goods which have Native American labels on them. During the ballroom scene, many of the women have bands with feathers on their head. What is the significance?
(Pay attention to the women)
Is this film about Danny experiencing sexual abuse at the hands of Jack, and Danny dealing with it? See this documentary here; there's so much evidence that suggests this:
How can it be all three without them contradicting the intended purposes of the other?
There are so many patterns and suggestions in this film, that people have made a documentary compiling all of the possible meanings in the film "Room 237," and have suggested that this movie is about Kubrick faking the moon landings
Some have thought it's about the Holocaust
Some have noticed the typewriter change and have thought it symbolizes that this whole movie was a book Jack wrote and successfully published.
Some have noticed the "Monarch" poster, and thought this film was a metaphor for MK-Ultra and reality-changing LSD and drugs.
People have noticed the numbers 12, 21, 24, and 42 appear throughout the form in various ways. "Midnight and the Stars and You," the photograph appearing in "1921," Danny's sweater saying "42," Danny watching a movie with the title "42," the license plate saying "42," room 237 is 2 + 3 + 7 = 12 and 2 * 3 * 7= 42. Shelly swings the bat 42 times. When Jack appears at the bar before the ghost, one seat is missing with 4 seats and 2 seats. In the movie, the times that appear in the movie are 8 AM and 4 PM during the transitions. 4 + 8 = 12. Both Delbert Grady, Charles Grady add up to 12. Jack Torrance's name adds up to 12.
What is going on here?
What are your thoughts and opinions on the movie, and all the speculative theories surrounding this movie?
Loosely based on the book (and I say loosely; Steven King absolutely hated the film as he felt it was nothing like his book), the Shining tells the story of a man named Jack Torrance, a failed writer and English teacher, who has taken a job at the Overlook Hotel, where he will act as Caretaker over the Winter while the Hotel is closed. The Overlook Hotel, however, is home to at least one horrifying incident (the movie suggests very clearly that it's way more) in which a former caretaker, Charles Grady, snapped and killed his wife and two daughters with an axe, and then blew out his brains. Jack's son, Danny, has an ability called "the Shining," in which he can communicate to other people who have this ability by thought, and he can see things happen in the future as well as traces of things that happened before which have attached themselves to certain places.
Spoilers below; if you haven't seen it, don't read the rest of this.
Sounds kind of straight forward, especially in terms of predicting what happens, but the movie never fully explains itself and suggests multiple different things - both at a surface level and clues scattered throughout the film which suggest that there's something much deeper that's hidden from us that is going on.
At the surface level, there's so much weird things that don't add up.
For one, are all the ghosts real entities? The ghosts seem to be able to perform activities such as causing physical harm to Danny as well as unlocking Jack Torrance's cold room freezer that couldn't be explained by it just being imaginary or a product of the Shining.
Moreover, Jack's wife is able to see these ghosts despite the fact that there's nothing in the film that suggests she, herself, has the Shining.
But at the same time, whenever Jack talks to a ghost he can see, he is always facing a mirror - when he is talking to the Butler in the bathroom, he's directly looking into the mirror and seeing his own reflection.
Same with the Gold Ball Room, where the entire room and bar is covered in mirrors.
The bathroom in Room 237 also has mirrors. The only time he's talking to a ghost without a mirror is when he's locked away, and he can't actually see the ghost.
Moreover, in a glaring continuity error, when he's talking to the Butler, he gets the first name wrong of the previous caretaker - calls him "Delbert Grady" instead of "Charles Grady." His conversations with Delbert Grady are nonsensical as well because Delbert Grady says that he's not the caretaker and hasn't killed his daughters, and then proceeds to tell him that he "corrected" his daughters.
Yet this doesn't explain why Shelly and Danny are able to see these ghosts if they are just products of his own insanity.
Is it because they are creations of the Shining? The other character who has the Shining claims there are some folks who have it but refuse to acknowledge or believe in it - is it a reference to all the other characters? And if they are just traces and images, why is it the case that they seem to manipulate Jack and cause physical harm to Danny?
There's also the unanswered question of the ending photograph, which shows Jack, paradoxically, in the photograph of a July 4th Ball from 1921.
Some have suggested that this suggests Jack is reincarnating, forced to come back to the Hotel and commit the same cycle of violence over and over again. Kubrick himself said that that's what the photograph is supposed to suggest. Yet some have said that this photograph is a list of the hotel's victims, and now Jack himself is a member of the hotel and resides there forever, and ever, and ever; according to one source, there was originally a deleted idea where in the Ballroom, Jack would look into the mirror and see the entire ballroom covered in the corpses and blood of all the members of the party. This would also explain the "eternal" aspect which the ghosts keep suggesting.
And that's not even asking the questions of what's causing it. Is it the hotel? Is it the Devil? Is it the nature of the world? What is it?
What's in Room 237? What's so appealing about it? Is it symbolic? Is it real?
And that's just a surface-level analysis of this masterpiece of film. There are so many clear patterns hidden in this film that all suggest different things.
Did Jack sell his soul to Satan, which possessed him? When Jack meets with the bartender for the first time, he says before the bartender appears "I would sell my soul for a drink right now." And then a creepy, nonblinking, pale individual with a cryptic / evil smile, wide-open eyes, wearing red with pointed ears appears and gives him a drink. Later on in the film, Jack is yelling at his wife about how he made a contract with the Hotel and horrible things would happen to him if he broke the contract. When he is talking to the bartender, he acts completely different, acting as though he's known the bartender this whole time. And finally, the final photograph - which is allegedly based on a completely original photograph with Jack's face brushed on - has a pose that is unnatural and weirdly fits the infamous "Baphomet" image that people here are probably used to seeing. Moreover, the song playing is "Midnight, and the Stars and You....", and said image of the goat has a star and moon.
There's also a black moose head in the background when Jack is staring at his family from inside menacingly. According to one source, apparently Kubrick was extremely adamant about this one detail and wanted to order six Mooseheads until he found one that fit. He wanted to use it more throughout the film, but it got burned during an accidental fire in production.
More than this, did this cycle of evil start with the Native American genocide in this area, or is this film a metaphor about Native American genocide and how America's foundations are that of a cycle of violence which can never be separated from its foundation? We learn early on that the hotel was built on a "Native American burial ground," and Native American imagery is used throughout the entire film, as well as American imagery. The floor patterns are Native American, there is Native American artwork hidden throughout the background, there are canned goods which have Native American labels on them. During the ballroom scene, many of the women have bands with feathers on their head. What is the significance?
(Pay attention to the women)
Is this film about Danny experiencing sexual abuse at the hands of Jack, and Danny dealing with it? See this documentary here; there's so much evidence that suggests this:
How can it be all three without them contradicting the intended purposes of the other?
There are so many patterns and suggestions in this film, that people have made a documentary compiling all of the possible meanings in the film "Room 237," and have suggested that this movie is about Kubrick faking the moon landings
Some have thought it's about the Holocaust
Some have noticed the typewriter change and have thought it symbolizes that this whole movie was a book Jack wrote and successfully published.
Some have noticed the "Monarch" poster, and thought this film was a metaphor for MK-Ultra and reality-changing LSD and drugs.
People have noticed the numbers 12, 21, 24, and 42 appear throughout the form in various ways. "Midnight and the Stars and You," the photograph appearing in "1921," Danny's sweater saying "42," Danny watching a movie with the title "42," the license plate saying "42," room 237 is 2 + 3 + 7 = 12 and 2 * 3 * 7= 42. Shelly swings the bat 42 times. When Jack appears at the bar before the ghost, one seat is missing with 4 seats and 2 seats. In the movie, the times that appear in the movie are 8 AM and 4 PM during the transitions. 4 + 8 = 12. Both Delbert Grady, Charles Grady add up to 12. Jack Torrance's name adds up to 12.
What is going on here?
What are your thoughts and opinions on the movie, and all the speculative theories surrounding this movie?
