Chula Vista

So Kubrick sets up the overhead shot, films it, yells cut, and has the crew move everything 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Why? I can guarantee that pretty much no-one noticed this during their first viewing of the movie. So why do it?

During the scene where Wendy is going through the hotel with the knife looking for Danny they have the camera filming her straight on a number of times inter-cut with showing us what she's seeing. Each time they show Wendy the background color is either predominantly red or blue.

When it's red the knife is in one of her hands and when it's blue it's in the other. Again, why do this?

Stanley being Stanley.

And it was Danny who let Jack out of the food storage room.........

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Frownland

I think that with The Shining you could make a case that those are subtle cues hinting at Jack's deteriorating mental state.

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Oriphiel

Again, I don't think it's that crazy that he was making a commentary about perspective, casting doubts on what supposedly "good" characters like Wendy and Danny encountered. After all, isn't that one of the main themes of the movie anyway?

Red is the color of blood, and for that reason our bodies are able to notice that color more than others, since it's basically the color of danger and pain. Jack truly makes up his mind about "correcting" his family in a room that is painted completely red, Wendy is holding a knife when the color red appears, etc., all makes sense as a commentary on fear.

What drove Jack to try to kill his family (or, alternatively, what caused Wendy to believe he was attacking her)? Is the fear that warped their perceptions the same as the fear that drove the Americans into massacring the Native Americans? Is it the same hysteria that caused Germany to follow the Nazi party? Is it the same paranoia that makes it easier for people to believe that the government staged various historical events than to go by what has been verified by people they don't trust? After all, they're giving into timeless survival instincts and the tribal mentality that has existed throughout humanity's history, and it's just like Grady says (and again, i'm paraphrasing): "I've always been here, and so have you".

Was it the ghosts that gave it away? When you first watch the movie, he's the one who is pegged as the obvious villain. But like Chula said earlier, there are different narratives going on, and different ways to look at the movie. Jack isn't the only one who sees things that don't make sense, and that may just be Kubrick screwing with the audience, it still makes you wonder if maybe the whole family wasn't afflicted by cabin fever and latent fears/grudges coming to surface.

Edit: Hey Chula, I have a question. Throughout the movie, you hear Jack typing his "story". Has anyone ever listened to when he hits the letter and space keys, to see if he's actually typing "All work and No Play... etc."? It'd be freaky if he was actually typing something else the whole time.

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Chula Vista

The Apollo narrative is pretty complex. After 2001 came out NASA contacted Kubrick and arranged a meeting with him. The official story is that NASA wanted some consulting on how to best do the video and still photograph work for the upcoming moon shot.

The theory is that Stanley was actually hired and paid lots of money and given some very high tech equipment (In order to shoot the movie Barry Lyndon Kubrick somehow got a hold of 3 of the lenses that were developed specifically for NASA for the moon landing) in return for helping NASA stage some of the visuals of the moon landing.

He was sworn to secrecy but the theory is that he dropped hints about his involvement throughout The Shining. He also delayed the opening of his final film Eyes Wide Shut to July 16, 1999 - the 30th anniversary to the day of the Apollo 11 launch.

- The hotel they filmed the Shining in didn't have a room 237. Stanley specifically chose that number for the room. The average distance between the earth and the moon is 237,000 miles.

- If you look closely at the pages Jack typed the word All is actually typed as A11 a lot of the time. A11 - Apollo 11.

And then there's this.



There's a bunch more subtle stuff too.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Oriphiel

I don't know, if Kubrick really filmed a fake landing, I think he would have snuck something into the footage itself (like, things being randomly reversed).

Edit: That'd be the ultimate Kubrick mind-f**k!

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Chula Vista

Pictures over the couch have been removed and the glass case is against the opposite wall.



The missing chair.







Extra red chairs have been added in the right foreground.



Jack's typewriter.



Couch, end and coffee tables, and rug have all been removed.





Chair behind Wendy has been moved.



There's tons more like this.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Oriphiel

Alright, I think we've played out most of what there is to discuss about The Shining (without getting too in depth with it). Unless anyone else wants to add/say anything, i'm down if you want to talk about a new movie (Kubrick-directed or otherwise).

Edit: Or, if you want to keep talking about it, I guess i'm cool with that too. I've still got a question or two (What makes you think that Danny opened the pantry door? Why did Wendy see those ghosts at the end? And speaking of which, what was up with this: )

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Chula Vista

One last thing, the river of blood pouring out of the elevators and down the hall was said to have represented this event, where the river ran red from the slaughtered native Americans.

Marias Massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Oriphiel

An interesting parallel. Apparently, it's a massacre that began because the man in command was drunk, and because the first shot was fired by a man who secretly wanted the massacre to happen as a diversion (to protect the group that the army was actually looking for, which his wife was apart of). And the movie The Shining features a man who gets drunk on ghost alchohol and wants to divert attention (and blame) from his past abuses of his son, culminating in a potential massacre.

But if we're going to continue discussing this movie, then there are more pressing matters that need explaining, namely...



Seriously, what was up with that? Was it just Kubrick trying to get a rise out of the audience?

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Chula Vista

THE SHINING (1979) analysis by Rob Ager

Re: Danny

We know that the ghosts were visions/hallucinations. Every time Jack spoke with a ghost there was a mirror in front of him behind the "ghost" or the polished metal door in the pantry when he
spoke with Grady. Safe to assume a ghost could not unlock that door.

Danny knew that as long as Jack was alive there was a chance his mom would (once again) forgive him and let him out. She had a habit of always forgiving Jack even when he was abusing Danny.

So Danny unlocks the door and then goes and hides. He then lures Jack directly into the maze which he and his mom had learned by heart since they would always be checking it out. He also knew
his dad didn't know the maze at all since we never see Jack in it with them.

So he leads Jack to the center of the maze and then backtracks and covers his tracks knowing Jack will get lost giving Danny and his mom time to escape.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”