I have taken a huge liking for Stephen King even though I'd be the first citizen of a nation carved out for the most easily scared people on the planet. His writing is extremely immersing. The characters seem very life-like and have all the traits that you'd encounter in a person of flesh and blood. Sadly (or may be not), he writes mostly horror plots. It's absolutely unbelievable how a well-written book affects you.
So I recently read The Shining and though it is not as tightly woven as Salem's Lot or Carrie (the only other Stephen King books which I have read), it did the job. The lives and thoughts of the three Torrances - Jack, Wendy and their son Danny - are penned out quite exhaustively throughout the first four hundred pages.
As a former alcoholic, Jack's struggle to stay away from alcohol is brought out through his thoughts every time he goes through an extreme emotion. The struggle is intense with his urge on one hand and his family's well-being on the other. He keeps denying to himself that he never had an alcohol problem though history witnesses otherwise. As a school teacher, he has been unfair and even abusive to one of his students. He has even hurt his son in a bout of rage. He keeps thinking that Wendy hasn't forgiven him for this and that her mother keeps conspiring against him.
Wendy is trying to strike a balance and has married Jack against her mother's wishes. She knows that Jack has a problem but has a doubt inclining towards Jack's well-being.
I didn't really like Danny's character. He's got an imaginary friend - Tony - who pops up and shows him weird things. Some of them are from the future while the rest of them are too weird. He keeps hallucinating and I felt like turning the pages when he kept having his stupid visions.
The family moves to a secluded hotel on a mountain top as Jack is appointed to be the caretaker of the hotel during its close-down period of extreme winter. As it happens, the hotel is haunted because of the crimes (Knife-slashing murders! Bath tub drownings!) that have occurred there in the past. The hotel ghosts (collectively called "it") choose Jack to be their weapon of choice and corrupt his mind to the extent of edging him towards killing his family.
The movie adaptation of The Shining is directed by Stanley Kubrick who is hailed to be one of the greatest movie makers of all time. I tried watching the movie before but the sound and the shock factor was too scary for me to go beyond the first five minutes.
Having read the book, I mustered up the required courage and watched it all. Though having known the plot spoils a thrilling movie, I think it gave a me an edge over the shock factor and allowed me to sit through even the scariest of scenes instead of watching it with my eyes closed for nine-tenths of the run-time.
While all movies suffer from the time constraint, one can't help but compare them with the books on which they're based. The Shining (movie) doesn't quite explore the depths of the characters as the background stories are never really brought forward. For example, Jack hitting a school student, subsequently losing his job and being at the mercy of the person who gets him the new job become key shapers of his character. Even the past crimes in the hotel (besides the previous caretaker killing his family) should have been given some screen time.
Jack Nicholson's delivery of dialogue seems a bit different than the ordinary. There seems to be too much of a dramatic effect imbibed in the way he played the angry scenes. Too many neck movements, too many pauses or too many emphasized words. Something's amiss. I felt that his character was edging towards being a victim of "it" in the book while in the movie it seems like he brought all the badness to himself. A crucial tool for this was how another character (Hallorann) almost gets possessed by "it" but shakes himself out of it. (This is also where the book seems to be a wonderful ode to one of my favourites Edgar Allan Poe taking a leaf out of his The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat and The Masque of the Red Death while the book does not)
Shelley Duvall did a perfect Wendy. She reportedly had an extremely tough time while shooting the movie thanks to Kubrick's eccentricities but the outcome seems just perfect. Her anorexic physique and her weak/confused character is an excellent portrayal of Wendy trying to fight through the circumstances and keep things going.
I thought Danny in the movie was more irritating than the Danny in the book what with his imaginary friend taking over his body and talking in a funny voice with a dancing finger. I read that the finger dancing bit was thought by the kid himself but all it does is impart a comic sense to the imaginary friend. Can't really blame the kid since this was his first acting stint.
As expected, there are a few variations from the book and the best one is the hedge maze replacing the hedge animals outside the book. In the book, the hedge animals approaching the characters and the characters getting extremely scared is sort of funny and lowered the scare factor. On the other hand, the hedge maze in the movie had a great effect with the characters running madly through it during the climax. The twin sisters appearing out of nowhere in the movie and asking Danny to play with them are extremely scary!
I guess heavy music was a characteristic of Kubrick's movies (have seen only one other movie of his - A Clockwork Orange) and it had the necessary effect. The background music while the family rides through the mountains and while the kid's tricycles around are eerie.
Overall, the movie did a great job of capturing most of the parts of the book. It wins in scaring the watcher but loses out in leaving a lasting impact.
So I recently read The Shining and though it is not as tightly woven as Salem's Lot or Carrie (the only other Stephen King books which I have read), it did the job. The lives and thoughts of the three Torrances - Jack, Wendy and their son Danny - are penned out quite exhaustively throughout the first four hundred pages.
As a former alcoholic, Jack's struggle to stay away from alcohol is brought out through his thoughts every time he goes through an extreme emotion. The struggle is intense with his urge on one hand and his family's well-being on the other. He keeps denying to himself that he never had an alcohol problem though history witnesses otherwise. As a school teacher, he has been unfair and even abusive to one of his students. He has even hurt his son in a bout of rage. He keeps thinking that Wendy hasn't forgiven him for this and that her mother keeps conspiring against him.
Wendy is trying to strike a balance and has married Jack against her mother's wishes. She knows that Jack has a problem but has a doubt inclining towards Jack's well-being.
I didn't really like Danny's character. He's got an imaginary friend - Tony - who pops up and shows him weird things. Some of them are from the future while the rest of them are too weird. He keeps hallucinating and I felt like turning the pages when he kept having his stupid visions.
The family moves to a secluded hotel on a mountain top as Jack is appointed to be the caretaker of the hotel during its close-down period of extreme winter. As it happens, the hotel is haunted because of the crimes (Knife-slashing murders! Bath tub drownings!) that have occurred there in the past. The hotel ghosts (collectively called "it") choose Jack to be their weapon of choice and corrupt his mind to the extent of edging him towards killing his family.
The movie adaptation of The Shining is directed by Stanley Kubrick who is hailed to be one of the greatest movie makers of all time. I tried watching the movie before but the sound and the shock factor was too scary for me to go beyond the first five minutes.
Having read the book, I mustered up the required courage and watched it all. Though having known the plot spoils a thrilling movie, I think it gave a me an edge over the shock factor and allowed me to sit through even the scariest of scenes instead of watching it with my eyes closed for nine-tenths of the run-time.
While all movies suffer from the time constraint, one can't help but compare them with the books on which they're based. The Shining (movie) doesn't quite explore the depths of the characters as the background stories are never really brought forward. For example, Jack hitting a school student, subsequently losing his job and being at the mercy of the person who gets him the new job become key shapers of his character. Even the past crimes in the hotel (besides the previous caretaker killing his family) should have been given some screen time.
Jack Nicholson's delivery of dialogue seems a bit different than the ordinary. There seems to be too much of a dramatic effect imbibed in the way he played the angry scenes. Too many neck movements, too many pauses or too many emphasized words. Something's amiss. I felt that his character was edging towards being a victim of "it" in the book while in the movie it seems like he brought all the badness to himself. A crucial tool for this was how another character (Hallorann) almost gets possessed by "it" but shakes himself out of it. (This is also where the book seems to be a wonderful ode to one of my favourites Edgar Allan Poe taking a leaf out of his The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat and The Masque of the Red Death while the book does not)
As expected, there are a few variations from the book and the best one is the hedge maze replacing the hedge animals outside the book. In the book, the hedge animals approaching the characters and the characters getting extremely scared is sort of funny and lowered the scare factor. On the other hand, the hedge maze in the movie had a great effect with the characters running madly through it during the climax. The twin sisters appearing out of nowhere in the movie and asking Danny to play with them are extremely scary!
I guess heavy music was a characteristic of Kubrick's movies (have seen only one other movie of his - A Clockwork Orange) and it had the necessary effect. The background music while the family rides through the mountains and while the kid's tricycles around are eerie.
Overall, the movie did a great job of capturing most of the parts of the book. It wins in scaring the watcher but loses out in leaving a lasting impact.
