Ladies and gentlemen, I am cursed. It's awful, and I must live with it. My curse you ask? I
have to read a book before watching a film adaptation. It really is quite the affliction. Never mind. Well, I do mind, but there's not time to complain!
My curse has been in action this week my dear reader(s?). Last week, I started reading Stephen King's "The Shining." It was good. Very good actually. Fantastic! Take it this way, I normally take a little longer than 5 days to read a 650 page book! So yeah... it was pretty great! So for those of you who (somehow) haven't heard of "The Shining," here's a basic plot summary:
Jack Torrance, an ex-school teacher and recovering alcoholic, has just
gotten a job as the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, a prestigious
hotel with a... reputation! From October to May 1st, he, along with his wife
and child, must live in the hotel, making sure nothing goes wrong before it
re-opens in the Spring. His 5 year old son, Danny, has the "Shining," a gift
that allows him to read people's minds and to see into the future, all with the
help of his imaginary friend (or is he imaginary?) Tony. In the hotel, Danny
meets Dick Halloran, the chef, just before he leaves for the winter. Dick also
has the "Shining" and tells Danny that there are some strange things that go on
in the hotel, but nothing that will hurt him. Dick tells Danny to contact him using
his gift if ever things become too dangerous. As the young family are left on their
own in the hotel, things go smoothly until Jack starts to look into the history of the
place. He becomes obsessed and starts acting strangely. Danny, meanwhile, ventures
into room 217, a room he was specifically told not to go into by Dick. In the room,
he finds the corpse of one of the former guests who had died during her stay. She
strangles Danny, though doesn't kill him. This kicks off a series of supernatural events
surrounding the hotel, including moving topiary and ghosts of a party that
occurred long ago. As Jack learns more about the hotel, he becomes
more infatuated with it. He begins to become possessed by the hotel
and eventually becomes aggressive towards his wife, Wendy, who up until
this point was really the voice of sanity, and his child. Danny calls Dick, who
is in Miami, and he races to the hotel before it's too late. Jack is completely
taken over by the hotel after he manages to get served a few martinis in the
ghost party that has been haunting the family. Jack begins to chase his
family with a roque mallet. He injures his wife, breaking some of her ribs and
her back, and also attacks Dick as he arrives at the hotel. The two victims do
manage to survive however, and Danny reminds his father, or what used
to be his father's body, as he was merely a body possessed by the demons of
the hotel now, that he has not cooled down the boiler with steam. As Jack
runs to the boiler before the hotel explodes (it was a really old boiler), Dick,
Wendy and Danny escape, whilst Jack is too late to save the hotel and
is killed in the explosion. The other three survive and move on with their lives.
No twins, no axe, no "Here's Johnny!" The book, as you can see, is a tad different to the film. But is the film any good at all?
I adore Stanley Kubrick. I really do. I was introduced to him by a friend last year and I think his work is fantastic. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is arguably the best sci-fi film of all time and "Full Metal Jacket" comes second only to "Apocalypse Now" in terms of Vietnam war films (in my opinion anyway). This isn't the first time that ol' Stan made a film adaptation of a book. This 1980 production came 9 years after, one of my personal favourite films of all time, "A Clockwork Orange." I need to be careful not to go on a tangent on how amazing that film is! The difference between these two films, is that Kubrick largely sticks to the narrative in the former, though the ending of the film is different to the (heavily criticized) ending of the book. Despite my love of Monsieur Kubrick however, a certain Mr King did NOT like his version of "The Shining." [NOTE: Mr King is Stephen King for those of you who don't know... but you really should know!!!]
Here's the bottom line. I like the movie. It's good... really good! The narrative alters, but it still works, and I actually prefer how Jack meets his demise in the film. I do have a major issue with it though... the character development. It's like looking at a completely different set of characters when watching the film, and it really is disappointing. Take a look:
- Jack Torrance: Loving father and husband, with a few inner-demons (alcoholism). He quit drinking alcohol after accidentally breaking his son's arm whilst drunk. He was fired from his old job as an English teacher at a prestigious New England school after viciously attacking a troublesome student, which he has no real recollection of, other than what happened just before he started to hit him and just after he stopped. He doesn't go insane, rather, he is possessed by the hotel itself. There is a touching moment that I feel really defines Jack's character in the novel. As he's chasing his son down a corridor with a mallet, he finally catches up to him at a dead end. As he walks toward him, Danny shouts, "YOU'RE NOT MY DADDY." After shouting this a few times, the message gets through and Jack manages to break out of his possession for just a few moments. He collapses to his knees, looks at his son, and tells him to run and lets him know how much his daddy loves him. He kisses Danny's hand and lets him run, before the hotel takes back Jack's body and basically destroys Jack's face with the mallet in his hands (which is the real death of Jack in the book, not the explosion which destroys his body). We feel sorry for Jack, we want him to pull through, we're touched by this father-son moment, and we're sad when he dies. In the film though... eh. Jack Nicholson is an amazing actor and he was fantastic in the film... but how many times have we seen a crazy Jack Nicholson? Okay, maybe not "Chinatown," but that's about it. Stephen King mentioned Christopher Reeve as a potential candidate to play Jack Torrance because it would have been far more shocking to the audiences than to see Jack Nicholson go insane. To be fair, I'd have been pretty surprised to see Superman chase his wife and kid through a hotel with an axe! The character in the film doesn't seem to be very loving. His past is never really addressed (oooh, I forgot to mention that in the book, Jack had an abusive father as well!) and we don't really feel anything for him. Jack Nicholson played him fantastically, but it's not the Jack we sympathize with in the book, and that's a real shame.
- Wendy: Oh Lord, where to begin? Well, Wendy loves her son and husband very much. She has a difficult relationship with her own mother, and she fears becoming like her. She's mentally strong, and stays strong for Danny. She risks her life for her son and her character is inspiring. In the film... no. She's a waste of space! She's just an annoying, whiny, screeching waste of skin. Sorry Ms Duvall, but it's true. Mabe you played her badly, maybe that was the character ol' Stan gave you to play, but either way, we hate you (well, your character in the film at least!!!). Plus, she looks like the love child of a German attacking midfielder who plays for Arsenal and a Uruguayan striker (for those who are unfamiliar with these names, look up Mesut "Preying Mantis eyes" Ozil and Chewy... I mean, Luis Suarez!).
- Danny: Danny is a five year old kid, but he's fairly mature in the book. He doesn't want to be considered a baby, and when things are told from his perspective in the novel, they do not sound like the thoughts of a toddler. He's got, as Dick Halloran calls it, "the shine." He has an imaginary friend called Tony who "shows him things" (i.e. his dad chasing him with a mallet and calling him a "little shit"). In the film... he's pretty much the same to be fair. Maybe not as mature, and Tony goes from being his imaginary friend who appears to him in his mind to his index finger, but other than that, it's what you'd expect. The kid playing him is decent as well. It's always a risk with child actors, or at least I'd imagine so.
- Dick Halloran: I like him in both versions actually. He's pretty much the same in both. In the book, he's described as about 60 years of age with an afro and quote tall. He may be missing the afro in the film, but it didn't take too much from his character. Although, it should be mentioned at the end of the book, after Jack is blown up, the hotel tries to get to Dick as well. It tries to convince Dick to kill Danny and Wendy, but he manages to resist and they escape. Yay. In the film, I'm very p**sed off that he dies. What the hell???
- Mr Ullman: Pretty small character, so there's not much to write. In the book, he's described as an "officious prick" and in the film he's a really friendly guy. I mean, really? Did his character have to change? Did ol' Stan go into this thinking, "I'm gonna really piss off Stephen with this one?" Oh well. Doesn't really matter!
- Mr Watson: Again, a fairly small character. Again, both completely different personalities in the book and film. In the book he's crude, bold and doesn't care who he's around. In the film, he's polite, and much younger than in the book. "Sigh," never mind... again! Only a small part I suppose!
That's about it really for the characters. There are some really minor ones as well, but they're not worth mentioning.
 |
Weeping Angels...
Don't Blink! |
There's just one more thing... the inaccuracies, oh the inaccuracies! There are NO ghost twins in the book. There is NO hedge maze in the book. Jack NEVER shouts "Here's Johnny" in the book. There is NO elevator filled with blood in the book. There is NO picture at the end of the book with Jack Torrance at a party in the 1920s that confuses everyone who reads it! I'm aware I mentioned some of these earlier, but I really need to get my point across here!!! You know what is in the book? Hedge animals that move. You know that episode of Dr Who, "Blink?" The one with the Weeping Angels. Basically, if you didn't look at the Angels, they moved... they moved quickly!!! If you were touched by one, you were sent back in time with no way of getting back and you'd live your life out then... quite humane really! Well, the hedge animals are like that, but instead of sending you back in time, they'll, y'know... kill you!!! There are two lions, a dog and a rabbit. We first see them coming toward Jack, before backing off after he insists that they're not real. Then they chase Danny, who just makes it back to the hotel. One of them attacks Dick, who sets it on fire. They're all killed in the explosion eventually, but I'm just saying, I'd rather see them than the hedge maze!
Well, that's about it for my rant! Y'know, despite all this, I do like the film. If you look at it independently and make no comparisons to the book, it's excellent. When you read the book however... the film can go from 5* to 4* or maybe 3*. That's what I mean when I say I'm cursed. Well, onto the next book. Who knows, maybe this one will have a film that lives up to the hype? I loved the film adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange" and I've read that too. Who knows, maybe the curse will be broken again!
My Final Rating for The Shining: 7.8/10
