Stanley Kubrick was pretty famous for his IDGAF attitude, from his all-out assault on film conventions in 2001: A Space Odyssey to his punk rock A Clockwork Orange, all the way up to his final effort on Eyes Wide Shut (Yeah it’s an orgy. DEAL WITH IT). The Shining is an immensely interesting work for countless reasons, but one of these is the fact that Stephen King famously hated it.
I mean, if I was Stephen King I’m sure I would hate Kubrick’s version too. The two apparently have little to do with each other. And that’s because Kubrick was clearly seeking to do something else entirely with his movie than King was attempting in the novel. Most people assume that Kubrick’s intentions were far more high-minded than the novel dared intend, leading to all sorts of elaborate theories about what the movie means and the detail with which it treats its subjects (for a good sample of some of the absurd lengths people go to defend their theories, watch the terrific documentary Room 237). It’s certainly an adaptation that favors the impressionistic over story and subjectivity over narrative clarity, which for a film to attempt is always somewhat audacious, especially when it comes to source material that has a different perception. But this is one example of a film generally thought of as masterful taking its adaptive work and making it entirely its own thing.
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