GradeSaver, The Possibilities of Mental Illness in the Shining. Because the Overlook Hotel (in the film, at least) was built on an Indian burial ground, the blood coming out from the elevator has been interpreted as that of the Indians buried there. Jack is seen reading a Playgirl magazine with an article about incest, while the movie’s sexual imagery plays like a child’s naive understanding of sexuality, like Jack kissing the naked woman he finds in the bathtub. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema and BabbleTop. Danny was warned by the Grady twins that something terrible was going to happen, and “REDRUM” was the warning passed on to Danny and Wendy through Danny. It was great. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. Either way, The Shining is not so much a ghost story in a literal sense, but a story about the “ghosts” (or “demons”, in some cases) of violence and abuse, and how these can come back to continue with the cycle. Another theorist, Bill Blakemore, asserts that the imagery of bloodshed in The Shining refers to the history of violence against Native Americans. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. To watch my previous video analysis of The Shining, based upon some of the concepts described in the text of the article, scroll to the bottom of this page. There’s a widespread conspiracy that the 1969 Moon landing was faked so that America could win the Space Race over the Soviet Union. Perhaps the most analyzed part of the ending is the final shot of a photograph from 1921 that shows Jack with other guests in the hotel’s ballroom. One of the wilder theories about The Shining is that it’s not about anything in particular, but in referencing so many Freudian concepts in a movie that can’t be fully understood, Kubrick may have made a movie that quintessentially captures the chaos of life. The elevator blood scene (or “river of blood”, as some call it) first appears as a vision to Danny, and materializes near the end of the film, when Wendy is looking for Danny. Jack had a history of anger issues and violence, mainly against his family. What happens to Wendy and Danny after that is unknown (in the film, at least), although a deleted scene featured them in a hospital, recovering both physically and mentally from everything they went through at the hotel. Danny wears a sweater with the Apollo 11 space shuttle on it, while Room 237 (changed from 217 in the book) could be reference to the 237,000-mile distance between the Earth and the Moon. One of the most memorable scenes from The Shining is the blood coming out from the elevator. A one-stop shop for all things video games. “Monarch” was rumored to be the code name of MKUltra, the CIA’s shady mind control experiment that used LSD to break down prisoners’ brains. Although this fits the haunting vibe of the film, Kubrick himself explained that the photo actually suggests that Jack was a reincarnation of an earlier official at the hotel, which makes sense when going back to his conversation with Grady in the bathroom, where the butler tells Jack that he has “always been the caretaker”. There’s a scene in The Shining in which Wendy finds Jack screaming at his typewriter, and he says he fell asleep and had a horrible nightmare in which he was forced to murder his family. Powers & Origins Explained, Hubie Halloween Cameo Got A Boston News Anchor Fired, MCU Theory: The Eternals' True Enemy Is Oblivion, Matrix 4 Will Change Film Industry Like The Original Says Star, Dune Director Forgot He’d Rejected Casting Timothée Chalamet In Prisoners, Adam Brody Says Shazam! As mentioned above, the film ends with Wendy and Danny escaping during a snowstorm thanks to the snowcat Hallorann arrived in. Kubrick was keenly interested in the Holocaust and developed a movie about it called The Aryan Papers before Schindler’s List shut it down. According to Ascher's film, a poster in the Overlook Hotel's game room depicting a cowboy riding a bull calls to mind the figure of the minotaur, imagery that is followed up by the hedge maze as an allusion to Greek myth. Some viewers have taken this as a suggestion that the whole movie is a nightmare taking place inside Jack’s booze-addled mind. In The Shining, the previous winter caretaker snapped and killed his family, then Jack did the same. The Shining essays are academic essays for citation. Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, The Shining follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. The trio went to the Overlook Hotel where the husband would work as a … Exploring the Themes of Familicide and Insanity in The Shining, Toxic Masculinity in the Films of Stanley Kubrick, Racial Stereotypes and Cinematic Adaptation: The Shining Critical Analysis. "Vänligheten är ett språk som de döva kan höra och de blinda kan se". But since this is a Kubrick movie, it’s not that simple. 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. Citing the surfeit of the number 42 (a reference to the year in which the Germans decided to exterminate the Jews) in various scenes of the film, the German make of the typewriter with which Jack writes obsessively, and the plethora of imagery depicting eagles (an image used by the Nazis), Cocks asserts that Kubrick intentionally drew a connection between the evils of the Overlook Hotel to those of the Holocaust. Cameo Changed His Career, The Batman Set Photos Tease Catwoman & Falcone Moment From The Comics, Captain Marvel 2 Can Give Kamala Khan Her Ms. Marvel Name In The MCU. He might have had his anger under control for a while before taking the job, but he went back to it there. The novel ends with Danny and Wendy spending the summer at a resort in Maine where Hallorann works as head chef. Room 237 points to the jar of Calumet (meaning "peace pipe") baking powder, which depicts a Native American chief, that featured in the Overlook's kitchen storage room, suggesting that it further highlights the history of genocide against Native Americans in the world of the film. As mentioned above, Kubrick left many details open to interpretation, whether for viewers to come up with their own explanations or just to mess with them. Kubrick failed in adapting Stephen King’s novel, but he succeeded in making a film full of metaphors and symbolism that have made way for countless interpretations on its true meaning. History professor Geoffrey Cocks, for example, believes that the film is a statement on the horrors of the Holocaust. She was also a contributor for FanSided's BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Danny has visions about the hotel right after Jack gets the job and during his time at the hotel, and has a traumatizing experience when drawn into the “forbidden” room 237. Although King didn’t oppose to that at the time, he wasn’t expecting Kubrick to go as far as to change the essence of the book. This tension between local natives and over-industrious white men was grounded in fact, as Kubrick apparently researched the history of the area surrounding Colorado's Stanley Hotel, the hotel on which Kubrick based the Overlook, finding evidence of real-life clashes between local Navajo tribes and white pioneers. NEXT: Stanley Kubrick's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes. The final shot of the photograph suggests that Jack, or whatever demon possessed him, will spend eternity resurfacing in the Overlook in search of new blood. A one-stop shop for all things video games. In the novel, Jack manages to fight the hotel’s possession long enough for him to tell Danny to run for his life. The Shining study guide contains a biography of Stanley Kubrick, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The movie is filled with tiny details that suggest symbolic ideas and thematic substance. Danny and Hallorann are the two characters with “shining” abilities, which allows them to communicate with each other even when miles apart. RELATED: IT Chapter Two's Shining Reference Hints At Stephen King's Shared Universe. The Shining Hidden Meanings of The Shining Given the legendary place that Kubrick's The Shining occupies in cinema culture, it is perhaps unsurprising that it has been the subject of endless interpretation, including a few extreme readings. CHAPTER LIST (note: the first two chapters are merely preliminary notes, please go straight to chapter three for the detailed film … The three remain close, and Hallorann comforts Danny over the loss of his father and teaches him to fish. The aforementioned sequel, Doctor Sleep, got a cinematic adaptation that serves as both a sequel to The Shining novel and Kubrick’s film, in a way. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Jack then goes after Danny, who runs into the hedge maze – all this during a snowstorm. Jack is a recovering alcoholic, and relapses at the hotel. In this reading of The Shining, Jack would allegorize the monstrous Minotaur, whereas Danny would be a stand-in for the hero, Theseus. Meanwhile, Wendy runs through the hotel looking for her son. Because the Overlook Hotel (in the film, at least) was built on an Indian … The bear/sexual abuse interpretation hasn’t been confirmed by those involved in the film, so it’s up to each viewer if they accept it or not. The ghost is Delbert Grady, and the past caretaker was Charles Grady. The 10 Most Outrageous Theories About What The Shining Really Means 1 / 10 Director Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is arguably the most cerebral horror film ever made. Still, there’s a chance that that’s why Kubrick chose that photo. Ullman also mentions that the hotel suffered attacks from local tribes when it was being built, yet the hotel also appropriates Native American artwork for the murals adorning its walls. A common trope in American horror movies is the “Indian burial ground.” It plays heavily on white guilt, as white people build on land in which native people are buried and then the building is haunted by their spirits. Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is regarded by many as one of the greatest films ever made, and one that to this day continues to be the subject of many analyses and discussions. It’s also very scary, a stunning exercise in atmosphere and dread, and earns its place as not just one of the best horror movies ever made, but also, one of the best movies ever made. Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, and independent filmmaker, and he's good at at least two of those things. It also fits with the role of both Grady characters mentioned in the film: the past caretaker and the ghost. The elevator blood scene (or “river of blood”, as some call it) first appears as a vision to Danny, and materializes near the end of the film, when Wendy is looking for Danny. Wendy and Danny reunite and leave the hotel in a snowcat, and Jack freezes to death. RELATED: The Shining Has An Alternate Ending You Will NEVER See. One of the wilder theories about The Shining is that it’s not about anything in … A pretty pedestrian reading of The Shining is that the Overlook Hotel represents Hell. Danny’s “shine” reaches its peak at the Overlook Hotel, which mixed with the hotel’s spirits and own evil, unleashes some real horrors. It’s unknown if it will address specific details from the ending of the first film or if it will just casually reference them, but it does acknowledge the events from the film. Unlike the film, Hallorann doesn’t die, and helps Wendy and Danny escape. In The Shining, Stuart Ullman mentions that the Overlook was built on an "Indian burial ground," suggesting that the ghosts that haunt the hotel are the vengeful spirits of murdered Native Americans.

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