Hierarchies of Violence in The Shining 

Excellent review. Few people point out that Wendy does all the maintenance work on the hotel, yet Jack treats her dismissively. There’s the scene where she talks about his writing and getting back into the habit and he sarcastically replies, Yes, that’s all it is. He clearly doesn’t like her or Danny that much from the get go and resents them. Yet, like many abusive people he needs them to give him the semblance of normality.

The bathroom slur seemed so out of place when I was young, but now I know it's totally deliberate and serves the theme. Jack even repeats it, showing he's on board with whatever as long as he can be a part of the Overlook's high society. To be a part of, as Ullman puts it, "all the best people."

It's telling too that the only time you see Jack and Danny spend any time together one on one is when Danny goes to get his fire engine. We see Wendy playing with him, making his meals, watching cartoons with him, comforting him when he's upset, etc. But we never see Jack talking to or caring for Danny. Either that's by design because Wendy doesn't trust Jack alone with Danny, or Jack just doesn't have any interest in spending time with him.

I think I've seen everyone of the The Shining video essays on RU-vid and this was, by far, the best. Thanks so much.

EXCELLENT take on the film. Well done, sir.

I will add to the chorus of praise for this essay. Like many, I've seen many many many people's analysis on the text and subtext of this movie... This is far and away the best, and most concise, one made. Thank you for such a great video

I keep saying I'm going to make a video about The Shining, and/or The Exorcist. But as a new channel, I've not had the courage! Your insights are fresh and I love them. Also, Shelly Duvall's monologue about Danny's injury is one of the best film performances EVER! I love your videos and really appreciate the work you obviously put into them. Thank you!

“The ability to perceive history.” Genius!!

As for Room 237, I think most of the theories are probably accurate, not just the indigenous genocide theme. Kubrick was saying that all these different forms of violence are related, because there's something evil in human nature. It's not just "white colonialism" (though it's certainly that too), it's human evil itself, and how "man's inhumanity to man" occurs over and over through human history. Humanity has a dark side, and people prey on other people in all sorts of ways ... and that's probably what Kubrick was trying to say. And what better way to say it than with domestic violence, a microcosm of the macrocosm. The 1921 photo at the end suggests that human violence is cyclic and never really changes. I think the main mistake of Room 237 is everybody wanting to say The Shining was about ONE specific theme (indigenous genocide, the Holocaust, etc) when in reality it has a much broader meaning, and involves all of these themes, not just one. As for faking the moon landing, I don't believe he did it. But I think Kubrick was well aware of the theory, and put that Apollo 11 shirt on Danny just to tease the conspiracists 🙂

Oh man, this is SO GOOD! I've seen the domestic abuse theme in The Shining discussed before, so the idea is not new to me. But you explain it so well and concise and poignant, both in word and image. What to me makes the movie even scarier is another theme that is being argued for it: there is a sizable portion of people (my guess is men) on youtube who believe the crux of the movie to be that Wendy is imagining the whole thing. The arguments are so scary, because they are based on very obviously abusive scenes being interpreted as harmless and normal. So the horror-scary scenes where Jack behaves aggressively must obviously be all in Wendy's head. Because, you know, Jack's such a regular Joe. Not only have people made videos arguing this point, but commenters agree with it so vehemently, and even spread the word about this 'better' theory in comment sections of other Shining videos. It's so scary to see that even a movie portraying domestic abuse so explicitly and overtly and at its very worst, can evoke such a sense of normalcy in a certain subgroup of people, who then so readily default to 'b#*ches be crazy man'. It actually made me nauseous, to suddenly be so intimately close to abusers' points of view. It still creeps me out to this day. The Shining truly is a masterpiece, and I'm so thankful for analysts like you who can communicate that genius to us laypeople without turning it into a flat simplification.

Fantastic video. Room 237, all sorts of theories… and we have overlooked what is actually obvious and infront of us.

It is my view that the Native American genocide theory is correct, but it is actually the underlying meta narrative of the film and the Indian burial ground plays no actual role in the film's universe. It is an abstract idea Kubrick wanted to send out subliminally. The actual in-universe lore, I believe, is that the hotel is literally a giant hungry mouth (note that "Ahwahnee", the name of the hotel Kubrick modeled the Overlook interiors after, literally means "wide gaping mouth"), and Jack is a specific type of entity that is sent out by the Overlook to draw in unsuspecting victims to feed the hotel's lust for violence and hatred, but he is mostly unaware of this until he goes to the Overlook. And when he experiences certain things at the Overlook, he realizes he is totally at home and loves the racist history of the place, and embraces the evil it stands for, and his evil acts feed the evil of the hotel. And it ends on an uncertain note because the evil is ongoing. I also think the entities that the Overlook employs to seek out victims have the same last name every time, but their first names differ. Like Delbert and Charles Grady. The guy in the photograph at the end, by the Grady logic, would be a Torrance, but we don't know anything else about him. Notice how the ghosts all refer to Jack as "Mr. Torrance."

Room 237 is mostly nonsense But I do find it fascinating how people’s interpretations of one movie are developed. The one that is actually proven in the “documentary” is that the layout of the hotel is impossible, which Kubrick did intentionally

Excellent analysis but something I think I should mention is that people don't often notice the abuse because of the themes of addiction. Jack hates every minute he has been sober and the moment he gets a drink, things start going tits up. But at the same time, people seem to think that the booze is what allows for the abuse and even excuses Jack's behaviour. The idea of 'He didn't mean it, he was drunk.'

Great insight. I've always thought, when I watch the shining movie, Jack reminds me of my abusive father, while Danny reminds me of myself. However in the novel, I can see myself in both Jack and Danny.

Oh wow. The realization that the ability to "shine" can been seen as a metaphor for abuse survivors recognizing hierarchies of violence hits so hard.

Damn, you really continue to make my videos look like shit. I love The Shining so much and it’s probably my favourite horror film (if you don’t count Eyes Wide Shut). In my rewatches, I’ve picked up on the themes of domestic violence but I never thought of how the ability to shine stems from abuse and allows the person who is abused by others and the systems that surround them to have a better understanding of violence, hatred and discrimination. Tying in Halloran in that way was brilliant. This is your best video to date. Keep up the great work.

Shelley Duvall did a good job playing a flesh and blood Olive Oyl in 1980.

Wow, I was thinking about making a viseo essay on The Shining but I wasn't sure if my ideas are correct or just overthinking And seeing some of the exact thoughts I had expressed in this video completely legitimized it Thank you so much 💙

The character of Mr. Halloran is especially interesting to me, because... Unlike the Indigenous people slaughtered, he's a part of modern society (which is patriarchal and White supremacist), but he's at the margins. That is, he's been brought up in the culture and shares a lot of its ways of living; he's accepted as part of society on some level. But he's still treated worse and excluded from a lot of spaces, and... The movie makes it obvious that even people who are nice to his face look down on him. So it's like what Judith Butler said about being Queered in society: when society others you and places you on the outside, you can see how arbitrary it is, that it's not "facts and logic" but something we made up. Speaking of which! Not that you did, but I HATE to see the supernatural elements in a film like this dismissed, because that's part of it: it's called positivism. Mr. Halloran talks about how people don't believe in "the shining," they look down on it as silly superstition. Jack also seems to kind of make fun of Wendy for being interested in things like ghost stories. There's this idea that if we can't prove it, it's not real, which places epistemology before ontology. That is, it acts as if reality is contingent upon our ability to know about it. Not that science and logic aren't great ways of knowing about the world; the problem is when those are framed as the only valid ways of knowing. It's used to dismiss the perspectives of Indigenous people, people like Mr. Halloran, his grandmother, women in general, children... Note that neither the therapist nor Wendy take seriously the idea that Tony is actually real. I think that's why spooky children and things like Indigenous burial grounds are such tropes in horror. Yes, that usage is othering, but if horror addresses societal anxieties... I think the one horror expresses over and over and over, even when it's also interested in other things, is that positivism is a lie, and everyone else is right.

You're spot on about the Indian references! Watching the movie again, older and wiser, I caught on to how Jack is told that all the right people lived in this hotel, and what they boy is seeing with all his visions are the many, many crimes committed by these people in this place - the collective memory of the hotel, embodying the crimes that happened in America itself. When the family is going to the mountains where the hotel is, the son says explorers in this place in the past had to resort to cannabalism!!

Very nice essay - interesting observation how so few people seem to pick up on a very overt feature of the movie. Don't know if you've seen Real Dimensional Pictures' video on The Shining, but he points a few more details that were clearly part of an effort by Kubrick to make The Overlook into a microcosm of American history and society. Regarding Kubrick's radically different interpretation of Stuart Ullman, RDP points out the character is actually made to resemble an American president. In the job interview, he's shown in a shot with a big star-spangled banner featured prominently on his desk, while he himself is dressed in a blue suit, with a red tie and a shirt with red and white stripes. Meanwhile, Kubrick changes Ullman's behaviour to be polite and well-mannered - very "presidential", you might say - even when discussing atrocities in his business's history. Also, on the film's brief allusions to racism that Halloran may have experienced, it's worth noting that the only black character in this movie is the hotel chef. He's a menial worker at a low rank in the hotel's hierarchy whose role is to provide service to rich white people on vacation. Finally, maybe at odds with your essay, RDP sees The Shining movie as giving Jack a struggle in his personal life a little different to that in the book. Basically, Jack is a victim insofar as he is lost in a mythical American dream. Notice the constant motif of the 1920s party, the Roaring Twenties being the time when ideas of a society where anyone can make it and you can achieve anything if you work hard were strong. Notice also how Jack ends up trapped in that era of time, frozen in the photo at the end. RDP also points out how Jack is constantly striving to make something important of his mundane life, and his loathing for his family is a case of feeling like they're in the way. Jack wants the caretaker gig so he can finally get time to start a career as a famous writer - hence why, when Wendy says they should leave and take Danny to a doctor, Jack isn't willing to take the chance something will go wrong in the hotel, because: "It is so fucking typical of you to create a problem like this when I have a chance to accomplish something! When I am really into my work! I couldn't do much if I went back to Boulder now, could I?! Shovelling down driveways! Work at a carwash! Does that appeal to you?! " So, yeah, TLDR, violence and oppression in American society is definitely a big theme to the film.

Just found this channel it’s really good

Other details to support the theme of American hierarchical opression is that Ullman is tailored and looks a lot like JFK as well as the fact that he says the previous caretaker neatly stacked his family's bodies in the West Wing, which might be a coincidence but it really seems like it's a subtle reference to the White House.

Well DONE!

Good job. I think there are probably too many conspiracy theories about this film. The reason why is because Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick, and the lady that wrote the script with Kubrick...I don't know her name. Which also proves your point. They were all complex geniuses with a vision. I like how all those visions come together in the film. And so there really is a lot there. Some of it in purpose. Some of it might be goofs. Like those doors in the hallway right by where the Colorado lounge is...

This is the best analysis of The Shining I’ve seen, and I swear I must’ve seen about 40 different videos on it at this point. The connection between the conquest/genocide themes and the domestic abuse themes is spot on. The white mans burden and the burden of a family man are similar enough, brought on by himself, and the burden is guilt. While society can accept his history, Jack can not.

Well done.

Does anyone ever bring up their names are Jack and Danny like Jack Daniels

Your Halloween videos on Horror Movies are great! I do hope for next year's like Cinemassacre Monster Madness or something.

I only read the book. It's interesting that the movie doesn't give Jack a chance for redemption and makes him more responsible for his actions than he is in the book. I can see that it creates an interesting message...but it also makes him a much more boring character.

@EyebrowCinema you forgot to mention another indian tribe feature which was a painting shown outside Mr Ulman's office before Jack's interview.

Stuart Ulmann initials U.S.

Never noticed how much the actress that played Wendy was/is extremely beautiful.

Damn.

Hollaran suffering childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his grandfather is confirmed in the book version of Doctor Sleep.

8:00

Had me until near the end

"even if it's so often ............. *Overlooked*." i see what you did there . jpg

If you guys enjoy this analysis, check out Rob Agers videos on The Shining

Well done! 👏🏼 when you take away the elements of the story such as the ghosts and hotel setting. You’re left with a beta male/family annihilator POS. No wonder Stephen king was so pissed at Kubrick. Since he had modeled jack after himself.

I see all the things you see, but I also see some of the other too that you deny. Let's talk about the influence of the bankers and the "gold" room and the difference between when we're watching Jack versus the story Jack wrote.

I think it's pretty harsh to say that Jack was villainous and hateful of his family from the beginning. But he is flawed and bitter and grows more bitter and selfish over time.

Bold of you to claim ball bouncing as an "act of aggression" I am one Indian who isnt thrilled with being used to peddle crap on RU-vid

I'm sorry to disagree, but Wendy is the caretaker...

Thought I was watching a BLM take on The Shining at first. Interesting take on the film but u don't into effect the supernatural aspects and the crazy architectural of the hotel as holding sway with pushing Jack over the edge. I have watched this movie over 100 times and saw it on rerelease last year on it's 40th anniversary and saw it in 1980 with my Mom when I was 13 and I pull something new each time I watch it. Only recently noticed how much of a slacker Jack was and how Wendy did all the work to maintain The Overlook. Jack simply was bored into lunacy. Finally, could u or someone reading this explain how so many people refer to the girls as "THE TWINS" when it's obvious they are not and even referred to by their different ages. It is really annoying when so many intelligent reviewers get this simple fact wrong.

Nah dude it was spooky ghosts, who let him out of the cooler?!

The hotel is a mind that demands blood, without knowing exactly why it needs it.

you should do doctor sleep. I think it was way better then the shinning. it was a great direction to go after the shining

Why is everyone so certain that Jack is the homicidal child abuser? Watch closely. Wendy is the crazy one. Most of the movie is her hallucinations. She is the crazy lady in 237 that wrung Danny's neck. After bashing Jack during one of her episodes, she placed him in the maze to freeze to death. Who is the homicidal child abuser now?

Naaw, just a bunch of stupid, feminist caca. Something is wrong with Danny from the beginning. But what? Wendy's not disheveled and confused. The family isn't so scared of Jack in the opening scenes. The white man didn't invent war. He invented domestication of horses and guns and trains. Gave him an advantage. I think that stripe on Danny's jacket might suggest a military uniform, stripes down the pants leg used to be common. When Danny picks darts to play with, I think it suggests he is going over to the Indian side, instead of dropping bombs. The two images of Indians you point out are both wearing war bonnets....hmmm.

For me, The Shining has always been a remarkably difficult film to watch. Not because there is anything particularly frightening in it in the typical fashion of a horror film. My bump in the road with The Shining is just how real it is, and how personal that reality is for me. This movie does an incredible job of capturing the environment and fear of domestic violence. The way it makes you feel like you’re always walking on egg shells. The feeling that even if there is nothing overtly wrong with the place or the situation, just the empty lobby of a hotel for example, you still are never really safe. It’s a powder keg that could be set off by any little thing, at any little time, and you’ll never really be sure just what will set it off, or when. All you know is that eventually, inevitably, it will explode, and you are going to get hurt. And there’s nothing you can do about it. All you can do is try, most of the time futilely, to prepare yourself for it. It’s just the most dreadful feeling in the world, and it’s one I am unfortunately far too familiar with to enjoy exposing myself to it any further. Still, despite everything it so expertly dredges up, the part of me that drove me into filmmaking cannot help but adore the film. Everything about it is so meticulously and masterfully crafted. I may have referred to Poltergeist as the perfect scary movie in that it hits just the right note to be both scary and fun enough to be enjoyed across all spectrums, but The Shining is a *perfect* scary movie. It is practically infallible. I cannot find a single flaw in the film, and I cannot say that about many films. The only other one I can think of is Schindler’s List. It may very well be Kubrick’s magnum opus, a prestigious title indeed considering the man’s filmography. It is such a strange feeling, this clash of adoration and terror. I suppose it’s a bit seeing a tiger at the zoo. I am perfectly content to admire its beauty from afar, but I certainly have no interest in getting up close and personal with it. Anyway, your analysis of the film was expert, as always. I have greatly enjoyed this run of Halloween horror essays, and I eagerly look forward to what you will be moving onto next.

“Art can be interpreted any way, but the best interpretations tend to be the ones that actively engage with the text rather than use the text as an excuse for rambling.” I’m gonna petition youtube to pin this to every video essay on this site. Great stuff, Daniel.

You point out how overanalyzed the Shining is and yet this is the first video critique I came across that unflinchingly points out the seemingly obvious reading that so many theories dance around or completely ignore. Additionally, your analysis manages to precisely voice interpretations which were only feelings for me when watching the movie. So, thank you for that!

At the end of the movie when jack is shown at the 1920s party, it took place on the 4th of July

The Shining is one of the few films I would give a perfect 10/10, nothing is done poorly about the entire film and I believe that it is the best horror movie ever made.

Funny you should mention the "shining as an effect of abuse subtext" cause in doctor sleep haleran confirms that his grandmother abused him.

I fuckin love this movie. The Delbert Grady scene is my favorite scene in movie history. The twist of Grady going from bumbling servant to sinister overlord never gets old

An analysis that relies on the material under discussion rather than unrelated stuff the analyzer is interested in? Heroically fresh! Must be why this is one of the best vids on "The Shining" on RU-vid (along with Eyepatch Wolf's take, which also stresses domestic violence). Great job again!

An epic horror masterpiece from start to finish. It has the perfect soundtrack to go along, its eerie and creepy. Even though the story is clear, it still leaves you with so many unanswered questions. People have come up with so many theories or analyses which are interesting although the moonlanding theory is ridiculous. Rob Ager debunked it thankfully. I believe more in the Native American theory because its everywhere in the film including the soundtrack itself. The film really messes with you. Maybe the whole movie is just Jack's new book that he's working on. After hearing Grady's story, he says, "well that's is quite a story".

Great analysis! The use of domestic abuse, the use of "overlook," was brilliant. You actually figured it out. The name of the hotel itself was to get the audience to "overlook" the fact that Jack created the horror and that Danny would defeat Jack's goal of murder.

This has been a great series of horror essays. You’ve really opened my eyes to the hidden themes and a lot of parallels to real life past and present. I think what I’ve learnt from these videos is that horror films do have the capacity to talk about the real horrors in life behind all the supernatural imagery. I think this Shining video is the culmination of all these topics you have discussed.

I may be pulling this out of my ass, but it's kind of interesting that as Jack aggressive behavior becomes more evident the winter weather becomes harsher. And the color of The Overlook Hotel's facade is replaced by stark, icy whiteness.

the domestic abuse "angle" seemed obvious to me as well, it's very clearly presented as having gone on for longer than the timespan of the movie. It really does seem to be missed or ignored when folk aren't looking for it...like when they think they're seeing a ghost story. I whole heartedly agree with the idea "Shining" is a metaphor for being a victim of abuse, the whole section with Halloran and Danny from the kitchen tour, to the ice-cream conversation is laced with visual hints, a blink and you'll miss it time jump that folk think is a continuity error (the freezer door being opened). Each of Danny's visions after his first documented blackout with the doctor have these little time jumps. Halloran even makes pronunciation slips that mirror Danny's speech pattern, implying you're seeing this from Danny' perspective and we're not hearing or seeing what Halloran was actually saying, only what has been parsed through a traumatised kids brain. It struck me that Halloran may be trying to tease out information confirming his suspicion that danny has been abused, he's very delicate in his questioning, tonally, and is confused by responses that you'd think a psychic would know, given what he already seemed to have read from Danny's mind. He see's Jack for what he is and that's also why he makes the return journey when the phonelines go down, solid intuition about an abusive situation. using the evidence for the entire story being non-supernatural. i've seen the Kubrick quote where he refers to the book explicitly showing the events have to be supernatural, and people saying "see, he's admitting his film is doing the same"...all i see is Kubrick making a statement about the book, very specifically, and letting the listener jump to a conclusion that he never actually said...much like with the film itself, where we make assumptions, but if you listen to the dialogue very carefully, the character isn't saying what you thought initially XD of course the beauty of this film is that there is no hard and fast explanation of the events causes, it's as true to say its a ghost story, the hotel is a corrupting force, magical psychic stuff does exist etc...but the nuance of the family's performances definitely allow for the alternative to be entirely true as well, with all the very disturbing implications those 237 scene's imply if it's not supernatural

room 237 is bad

I haven't seen yet your reply to my Poltergeist comment, Daniel, but I've already watched this video essay. I'm very glad you focused on and delved upon the domestic abuse as the true horror Kubrick's version manages to show and imply. I wish you talked a little more about isolation, because I think it's also an important theme. However, I'm also thankful you interpreted Jack as the villain, because I do agree with such reading. He is fueled to being violent due to the supernatural elements that manifest to him at the Overlook, but that's only a pretext, because his violent attitude and behaviour had shown again and again prior to the beginning of the movie, therefore establishing him as an abuser who may never change, and he never shows any true regret to what he has done. That's why the movie is so effective in portraying horror, as that is extremely relatable because it happens everywhere around the globe. The want and need for power is what drives men, principally men, to be abusive and to maintain power. I think Kubrick's version is a very deep critique of that. It's curious to note how he treated Shelley Duval while filming. It is often said that he was rude towards her and even said to other actors on set to mistreat her, so that her performance would be more believable and shocking. So, in that regard, the hierarchy of power is further underlined in the very core of the film. Keep up your great work! I really like your video essays about horror media. I hope in the future you cover more horror genres or other media that covers it, like books, manga, even paintings. Also, I hope you cover media from other countries other than the English speaking nations. There are tons of great examples from Korea, Germany, Japan and many others that I'm sure you can write about in your personal and thought provocative style.

For some reason this is now causing me to think about The Shining sequence from Ready Player One. Not to imply any malicious intent on the part of the filmmakers, but given the depth of The Shining’s dark themes that you illustrate, it’s now striking me how weird it really is to recreate it in a movie like RP1. One could probably make a whole video on the decisions surrounding that sequence

honestly i think the performances really sell the theme of abuse shelly, danny really sell that they fear jack and jack nicholson really sells the contempt he has for his family they’re is always some sort of tension when they’re together

My favorite detail in The Shining is that the twins are killed by the axe, which threatens Wendy - the girls represent wendy, Danny's mother. And a bit of a shame that Dr. Sleep just makes all the ghosts in the hotel with concrete pasts, as opposed to larger thematic representations.

12:47 hahahahaah... "...King himself criticizes..." who cares? King is a good formulaic writer who made a career at writing novels in such a way so that he could market them to Hollywood and then be adapted by screenplay writers. King should fall on his knees and declare undying love to Kubrick for taking King's quaint little ghost story and using it as a framework to create a masterpiece of film.

Definetly my favorite horror movie, while being one of my least favorite movies to talk about. Movies like this and 2001 have just been picked apart to death and then some, so I'm glad someone can get something new out of an analysis of it.

Wait, So THIS movie has an indian burial ground? huh. Had not picked up that tidbit of info before.

10:36 YES. I can't believe how many people didn't get (or perhaps don't want to get) this part.

this is why the wendy theory is garbage

9:19 one thing that I paid attention to visually is the usage of color ("natural" tones like brown and occasionally green + obviously shadowy black or white often as the backdrop versus the loud reds & blues) in almost every scene. I had wondered why Wendy swapped out of red/blue and into brown&green - quite a stark difference, the only other time it happened iirc was when they were first moving into the hotel and she and Danny first wore browns, juxtaposed against the hotel itself having a smattering or red and then blue chairs they were passing through the interior area. This moment makes perfect sense, as you see her backing up against and almost blending into the native American mural... against Jack coming in red white and blue to kill her 😩 again tying that cycle of violence into the present. Kubrick was such a great user of visual metaphors and the like... like really if you rewatch and just forget about the plot, it is truly a visually stunning work.

Amazing review, something I wanted to mention was how on my first viewing, I found Jack (and others like the ghost of the bartender or the guys in the interview) to be incredibly uncomfortable. With something uncanny and fake about their expressions and dialogue (like how Jim Carrey acts in comedies, but if it was a horror movie and he was the villain). This turned scenes that would normally be casual conversations into effective horror segments.

Kubrick wouldn't have known this but the Halloran character was also featured in the It novel as a young man who witnessed terrible brutality to his community in a flashback. The It novel, and not the films unfortunately, also feature a main subtext of abuse and how that can destroy people psychologically throughout the course of their lives.

Such a thoughtful video essay, as always from your channel! I've seen The Shining only once, liked it well enough, and figured I wouldn't see it again. This video has definitely inspired a re-watch, with renewed interest and with a new way to view it too. Thank you!

I recently came across another interpretation of the symbols in this movie as tied to Jung's archetypes. Apparently Kubrick was influenced by the idea of the collective unconscious and the shadow when making the movie. Not sure if you noticed but in Ul man's desk there's a copy of Jung's Red Book 🧐

Well... After this video essay, The Shining is more Scary than ever! The only thing that I dislike about Kubrick's Shining is all that stories about how such a prick he was with Shelly Duvall

The shining classic film!

So, having the shining is like being woke? I can get behind that. I always wonder about what people think is scary about The Shining. For me, the scariest scene is when Wendy brings Jack food while he’s writing and he tells her she’s distracting him. What’s scary about The Shining is forming a bond with someone and find out you are trapped with an abusive, emotionally unhinged person. In The Shining, Wendy is trapped by her living situation with Jack in an isolated locale. It’s a much more cinematic representation of women who become trapped in abusive relationships for various reasons.

All that Kubrick needed to borrow from King was his hotel. The rest he (King) had all misunderstood, and Kubrick promptly showed him why.

This is just as good or better as the movie essays with a million views! Come on RU-vid!

Again, best critique of a movie, this is exactly why I subscribed and I always got more than what I expected.

Your essays are great man. Just stumbled upon them today and Subscribed after the first one

I think that's what's genius about Kubricks adaptation (and it shows what adaptations *should be*). It turned what is by all accounts, a pretty good pop-horror book into a psychological mind-fuck and a genuine masterpiece far transcending its subject matter. The supernatural is undoubtedly there (the freezer door opening from the outside is proof of this) it's so subtle and understated that you quite seriously imagine it's just a guy going nuts and abusing his wife and kids for now reason. As you mention, it turns it from supernatural to deeply domestic, and hence, much scarier. I mean, King can hate it all he likes, but it just shows who is the better artist. Sorry, it's just better this way (shrug).

Finally I found a true reading of the movie and it's symbols as they are instead of people trying to find "the truth", "the real meaning". It's all in the movie.

Great video and review. I find it interesting that when the movie came out, the "Indian Burial Ground" motif wasn't common, but then went on to be so overused (Poltergeist etc) that it's almost a trope now. When rewatching the film, the emphasis of this important subject I think Kubrick intended is almost trivialized.

The way Danny uses his finger to talk is a sign of dissociation. He doesn't feel comfortable voicing his opinions so he voices them through proxies (think little girls who put their dolls over their faces to "speak" through them)

Pssh.. everybody knows the Shining is about how Kubrick faked his death in order to direct the September 11th attacks

It is curious that the doctor's expression of horror mirrors Jack's own during his interview with Ullman when he is told about the murder history of the hotel. So maybe what we have is a repetition and augur that the hotel has some relation to the Torrance's domestic violence.

Fantastic Video 👍 I have always felt the Shining was about the evil of humans resonating throughout the ages.

👏👏👏

You’re a fucking genius

FINALLY. someone has the same interpretation as me

It's a really good video but you seemingly missed the obvious representation of Hallorann: black slavery. If you had, it would be the perfect Shining analysis video.

What's interesting to me is that Jack ends up influenced by the hotel where he himself was the caretaker. To me, that gets into how Whiteness is a cycle that gets perpetuated. I think... I think you can look at Jack as both villain AND victim, because... I mean, we're not just talking about the supernatural influence of the hotel, but also, like you said, enabling. Jack may have had underlying violent tendencies, but those were rewarded, and... I'm coming at this from the perspective of (in)determinism, where concepts like "deserving" totally de(con)struct. I think... It's almost like the family fulfill roles in a play where the story goes a certain way. They do have some kind of agency, but they're also caught up in something much greater than themselves. What we forget about, "it's society's fault," is that every one of us is a PART of society. At the same time, going back to (in)determinism, it's also like a great machine... But, you know, as long as things constantly move and change, there's always the possibility that something different can happen!

"America: A Shining City On A Hill..."

Everything about this video. Exactly. Thank you.