“THE SHINING” and Broken Realities
How this 1980 Kubrick classic highlights the gradual decay of family relationships.
*Contains spoilers*
I. DISTORTED REALITY
The Shining is a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece. Kubrick was able to tell an incredible story, bringing it to life with innovative and unforgettable direction and cinematography.
There is much to be said about The Shining, from its phenomenal acting, bold symbolism, and the countless hours writers and critics have dedicated to analyzing the film’s every scene.
One such writer that does some of the most phenomenal film analysis is director, Rob Ager. Ager has published unique analytical takes on The Shining. (as well as other Kubrick classics such as Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.)
The analysis presented by Ager is indeed some of the most spot-on, he gives a comprehensive look at what many writers who watch Kubrick’s film tend to miss.
However, what is often overlooked about The Shining is the theme of naivety.
The story is about a family dismissive of the historical tragedies that may also fall victim of. The Torrance family believes themselves to be an average family, and because of this false belief, they dismiss the red flags that foreshadow their tragedy to come.
Jack (like his son Danny) is alluded to also having the ability to ”shine” . Here, he is seen looking at the very maze Wendy and Danny are walking in. He is like the telepathic overseer: a dominant ruler over his family.
In the very center of the mazer replica you can see Wendy and Danny walking about. This is to distort what is real, and what is illusion. For Jack, this replica is indeed real, it truly does contain his wife and son.
2. LIFE IN PICTURE
Throughout the film, what appears to be reality is often distorted and confusing; from the misleading corridors to the ghost-like characters that accompany Jack during his downward spiral toward insanity. However, this distortion between reality and fiction is also referenced to symbolically.
The film’s opening shots look very familiar to what we see in the picture frames in the very next scene.
For example,
In the film’s opening credits, they show a car traversing through winding roads in the mountains. Similar images appear in the very next scene. In the picture frames of the hotel where Jack goes for “The Interview,” you can see these images hanging outside of the office walls. This may seem like nothing significant, but when juxtaposed with the image seen in the final scene revealing Jack Torrance at the dinner party, the placing of these images appears to be very symbolic. What is an image and what is the current reality are blurred. The pictures in the frames are reflections of the present.
Jack goes for the interview
The picture show on the wall at the end of the film: Dated 1921
3. REJECTING PROPHECY
The notion of fulfilling prophecy is a recurring theme in The Shining. What is going to happen is brilliantly foreshadowed in several different ways.
During “The Interview,” Jack is told about the caretaker in the 70s who watched over The Overlook Hotel. It is revealed to Jack that the previous caretaker killed his own family and desecrated the bodies. Nevertheless, Stewart Ullman, is laughing as he is explaining this horrifying detail to Jack. He then proclaims,
“… It’s still hard for me to believe it happened here”
Ullman laughs about a serious series of murders and does not believe they actually happened. Reality is once again in doubt.
Jack responds to Ullman by saying that his wife won’t be scared or shocked by hearing that this horrible homicide that took place in the hotel.
“And as far as my wife is concerned, I’m sure she’ll be absolutely fascinated when I tell her about it. She’s a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict”
Though Wendy may watch horror films, she is not equipped to deal with the reality of her own circumstance. She is in denial and lacks the ability to communicate with the people in her life. Wendy has probably become desensitized by horror films since she would probably not take the warning signs projected by previous homicide seriously enough.
Characters make light of tragedy or do not believe their own lives to be real. They all are oblivious to the reality of their circumstance. Jack ignores his alcoholism and bad temper, Wendy downplays abusive behavior from Jack, and Danny has an imaginary friend — all three live a false reality.
4. SUPPRESSING TRAUMA
Wendy (Jack’s Wife) volunteers information to Danny’s doctor. She explains how Jack hurt her son during a physical altercation, resulting in Danny having a dislocated shoulder. Wendy, while explaining this, raises concerns of possible child abuse. But this explanation is made light of by Wendy.
She states,
“It was just one of those things…you know…purely an accident… it’s just a thing you do 100 times with a child…in a park or in the streets...”
Wendy casually dismisses the possibility of child abuse by her husband.
In the car scene where Jack, Wendy, and Danny ride to the hotel together for the first time, Danny asks about another tragedy in the area where settlers were snowbound and had to resort to cannibalism to stay alive.
After Wendy is concerned about the graphic detail of such a story — Danny interjects, “Don’t worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.”
Jack sarcastically replies,
“See? It’s ok. It’s he saw it on television.”
the scene ends *
In this scene there is even more emphasis on the lack of seriousness. Considering the child has already learned about cannibalism on TV, the relationship between image and reality is once again brought into question. If he learned about cannibalism on the TV, because of the graphic nature on the TV, Danny is somewhat desensitized to the graphic nature of the topic. Danny learned about Cannibalism from TV and Wendy is a “Horror film addict” — they are somewhat detached from the notion of tragedy and murder; they are oblivious to their fate.
Later, Danny sees the twins covered in blood in the hallway and tells himself,
“It’s just like pictures in a book Danny…it isn’t real…..”
Danny’s imaginary friend “Tony” explains that the horror is “just like pictures in a book”
And in the very next scene, Danny is watching a television program. Did Danny ignore the previous incident? Did he not tell his parents about what he saw?
“It isn’t real” cuts to a scene of Danny watching TV.
The Torrance family cannot escape from their fate. They do not communicate with each other and are in denial about who they truly are. The child is symbolic because he represents suppressed childhood trauma; both of his parents suppress similar inconvenient truths. Not only is the family tragedy foreshadowed by many of the other tragedies in and around the Overlook Hotel, but the film’s final image of the dinner party makes the tragic events that occur during the film seem preordained by the historical events that come before it.
Wendy hears about a missing woman on TV and that the snow storm may cause the patrol team to stop searching for the missing woman’s body. This inspires Wendy to check to see if her radio is working at the hotel.
Wendy checks the Radio at the hotel to see if it works.
Wendy gets in contact with the officers via her radio, but has nothing substantial to say. The officer awkwardly tells her to call if she needs anything. Wendy is not the best communicator.
We, the viewers, are watching the movie. We know that these films are not actual, but their images still haunt us. The trueness or reality of the film’s events and their relationship to past events are not of the utmost importance — what happens after these events is also not significant.
All that matters in The Shining is what Kubrick reveals to us day-by-day. The only thing that matters is the tragic event itself and the relic of history in the film’s final frame. If we are ignorant of the seriousness of our past and current circumstance, we will fall blindly as victims of future happenings.
Halloran has one of the very few serious conversations in the movie. He sits Danny down at a table, face to face, and explains “The Shining”. “The Shining” is explained as a method of communication. This is why Danny and Halloran have such a frank and serious chat. This is the complete opposite to what Jack had for his interview. In this film, communication is the key for survival.