You're right, that scene is so important as there is no explanation outside the supernatural. It makes everything that has happened or will happen open to interpretation. Great point
Danny let him out. He is victimized by jack, but he loves his father. Classic signs of abuse, my opinion. Kubrick can’t show it happen, or it would answer the questions you ask, and I don’t think he would dare do that. If you want it to be a ghost, it’s a ghost. If you don’t believe that, it was Danny, maybe?
stonewallbaron09 there is evidence that Jack could have been abusing Danny (dislocated shoulder mentioned to dr at beginning) but if it was Danny who let him out there should be themes of stockholm syndrome or some other kind of allusion to dannys apparant sodomasochism as a clue. I don't think Kubrick would make that a possibility in the film and not allude or give clues (not saying he didn't I'm just not aware of any)
Kanadian Khaos Kween I think that why it’s so good. Kubrick left out just enough for you to draw your own conclusions, and it works in so many ways. And I think the bear costume guy blowing the old man would be a clue for the abuse, also jack saying forever and ever to Danny tells me he the twins saying it isn’t real, and they aren’t real, it’s up to the viewer to decide what the hells going on
@@stonewallbaron09 i disagree. There may indeed be clues (haven't watched in many years) but dog costume and man "ghosts" were only seen (in movie) by Wendy; Danny never saw them so that cannot be considered a clue.
At 7:40 Wendy is carrying a mannequin. Kubrick was protective of the young child actor and did not want him exposed to too much extreme conflict while shooting. The boy actor did not know it was a horror film until he was a teenager.
Danny was 5 years old and I watched him getting interviewed at that age and older. He said he was shocked when he found out the shining was a scary movie
Danny was actually kept at the bottom of a 20 foot well between takes. I worked in the industry as a well technician. Basically lowering and bringing people up from wells
Danny is traumatized, Jack is an emotional and physical abuser, Wendy is mousy, weak and in denial. AND the hotel is supernaturally haunted and able to influence/possess the occupants into doing violence and feeling fear. The difference this family has is Danny's power. Danny's shining enables them to escape the supernatural forces and their emotional and physical abuser. So many are making this an either/or situation. It's not. It's obviously both right from the start. It's made clear right off the bat that Jack has been violent and his demeanor screams he has not changed. Wendy is super nervous and weak right off the bat and Danny's supernatural ability is explicitly shown to be real.
Exactly. Kubrick has stated this. He intentionally makes you uncertain what is real and knows you'll believe it's in Jack's head. Then he shows you, with the door unlocking moment, that they are real. It's both. Jack is a disturbed, violent person sent over the edge and the supernatural is involved. You begin to go deeper when you start to understand what the supernatural represents and how it relates to the overall story and themes. He attributed this insiration to Stephen Crane's short story The Blue Hotel, in which you're made to believe the main character is ultra paranoid that he's being cheated in a card game and in the end its revealed to be true.
Wendy wasn't weak at all. When it was a matter of life and death, she didn't cower in the corner. She smacked Jack in the head with a bat, then dragged and locked him in the pantry. She got Danny out the window then cut Jack's hand preventing him from coming in. When looking for Danny, she didn't lose it after seeing Halloran dead and the ghosts and blood pouring out the elevator. She fought it off, found him and drove the snocat to safety. Halloran was supposed to be the knight in shining armor, but in the end it was Wendy who was the real hero.
@@zoots15I totally agree with all you said. That's Wendy's character arch. When it really mattered she found a strength she didn't know was there. And of course she's the hero. In fact I think she found her strength in the best scene of the movie: on the stairs with the bat. So good.
@Kris Pistofferson Calm down, pal. Which analysts are you referring to specifically? Also, the reason many people are hesitant to accept the ghosts as real I would imagine has less to do with Kubrick’s (or their own) beliefs and more so to do with the fact that his movies are very multifaceted and the answer of “it was just ghosts the whole time!” doesn’t really fit his style.
@@freezerbr1de The metal door of the pantry/freezer area is somewhat reflective, not exactly a mirror but like. When Jack talks to Grady there are mirrors over the restroom sinks and Jack at least part of the time is looking in that direction.
@@sweetbunnybun With the layers and possibilities of "The Shining" I won't make a for-sure statement but my guess is that whatever supernatural force dwelt in the Overlook is what Jack out.
Sir, this is a fascinating, humane, and very insightful analysis of The Shining. Well done. This is the most socially-conscious commentary on this movie I've ever heard, with a special compassion for Danny. My only thought is I don't personally think Henry totally gives in to fantasy at the end of Eraserhead. My interpretation of Eraserhead is that the whole thing is a dream Henry is having, and, at the end, he is released from the earthly realm of lust, relational struggles, and loneliness, and he enters a pure state where he finally can be embraced by heaven and be at peace. I should add that I don't see Eraserhead as approving of suicide, only that the film is sympathetic toward the hard aspects of life, and the Lady in the Radiator is a metaphor for everything that gives us hope and the will to keep living. I don't see the baby in Eraserhead as a literal baby, or as symbolic of children. Rather, I see the baby as symbolic of the tough aspects of the human condition. By the way, Stanley Kubrick had everyone who would help him make The Shining join him in watching Eraserhead, so that they could see the mood he was after.
Jack is also a narcissist, a loafer. He lets others do the heavy lifting. He is not a responsible man. He does not take charge. He rages when someone reminds him of his inadequacies.
@@MalmroseProjects His conversation with Grady in the restroom is a reflection on this and social constructs. Talk of "correcting" and the casual use of the n-word might be a commentary on violence in society through history. And Jack mentions the "White Man's Burden".
MacGuffin Yes. I don’t think that’s fair to the actress because a director like Kubrick gets what he wants from the actors. Most people who criticize her have never seen her in other films such as 3 Women. She portrays an entirely opposite persona.
Thematic symbolism of the hedge maze: When you're being abused there seems like no way out. Jack is unable to escape his internal madness and the abuse he's trapped himself into and freezes to death
Kind of relates to earlier in the film Jack is seen looking at a model of the maze while Wendy and danny are walking around the maze, the abuse from him with no way out
I may go as far as to suggest that Jack, in a brief flash of sanity, just decided to sit there in the maze, effectively killing himself to let his family escape. He knew he had to stay in the hotel. It was where he belonged.
@@Mario_N64 They were already going to escape. You are giving Jack too much credit. He got lost because Danny covered his tracks and retraced his steps.
The ghosts were real, but Kubrick left that up to the viewer to determine that. The one place where Kubrick reveals the true nature of the ghosts is when Jack gets let out of the freezer.
captcorajus yeah but don’t you actually think him being let out of the freezer could be a metaphor for how someone like Wendy keeps making excuses for jack, and going back to jack even though it’s obvious that he will hurt her (and Danny) again.. i dont know I think this video makes some great points and the freezer scene could easily be explained by that metaphor that I just suggested
Absolutely brilliant. I've watched The Shining for what seems like hundreds of times, and I've checked out a lot of analysis of it, and you've constructed a beautifully reasoned explanation of its many mysteries. Very impressive. Also, as a survivor of trauma, I appreciate your perspective and glad you've survived as well. Thank you.
I don’t believe that Jack was the one to abuse Danny in room 237, largely in part because Danny stated it was a woman, and Jack sees a woman in there as well. While he is certainly an abuser, the Overlook is undoubtedly filled with malevolent spirits.
It’s symbolic. Definitely was a ghost or entity of the hotel throwing the ball, but the tennis ball is hard not to notice how convenient it is since Jack was playing with one earlier. And Room 237 is symbolic of many things of I believe to be the case but I’d be reported for exposing to much lol anyway 1. Desire for a new woman who’s more sexy than his wife and doesn’t talk at all and is just a s*x object for Jack when she needs her. His desire for a woman when he only needs her when he conveniently wants her when he’s donee with his work. 2. Represents the s*xual abuse with Danny. Perhaps he fantasizes his son doing acts with him as if he was a young woman, which could explain why Danny is super quiet throughout the movie and the lady strangely doesn’t talk. The choke marks could represent his abusive side in hitting Danny but also viewed in another light with r-victims.
The only kind of person who says analysis is bad, is a person who wants to dumb people down. Stories are supposed to teach moral lessons. That's why reading comprehension is taught and encouraged in school. All art is supposed to be interpreted and analyzed. Otherwise, there would be no reason to bother. It's meant to provoke emotion.
@@theongreyjoy1947 really? What profound messages do you get from horror movies or porn? Or, sometimes both intermingled? By the way, it’s great listening to a 12 year old on RUclips who probably hasn’t even hit puberty yet discuss the ways of the world and the human psyche!
You're right, but a lot of what is being speculated about here can be resolved by just reading the book, which, from my memory of reading it as a kid, provides far more back story and insight into the characters than the movie was able to do.
@@michellemckillop8935 Thank you for your thoughts. I think he is a bit older than he might sound. I think his voice just sounds that way. As I listened to him I was thinking he is probably late teens, early twenties. If he is 12, he is quite a smart kid because what he said was well reasoned and supported by evidence from the film.
Great analysis. I just realized after watching this film for the thousandth time the symbolism behind the naked woman in the bathtub scene. The scene is symbolic of what Jack thinks of his marriage to Wendy (at least, that's my interpretation). The woman in the tub is at first beautiful and sexual, just as Jack might have viewed Wendy at the beginning of their relationship. By the time they get to the hotel, Jack has gotten to the point where he is no longer sexually attracted to her, hence, the beautiful woman turning into an old corpse woman. That's how he sees Wendy at this point. This movie is so amazing that I'm still realizing some of the symbolism. For example, when Wendy sees the dog costumed dude performing felacio on the tuxedo guy, it's symbolic of Wendy realizing for the first time that Jack sexually abused Wendy (or, rather, the hotel is attacking her for not doing anything about Jack's sexual abuse of Danny). All of the ghosts in the hotel seem to exploit specific psychological weaknesses in the characters. The twins, for example, represent, in part, Danny's lack of a true childhood - that's how they are trying to tempt him - by asking him to come play with them as most normal children would do).
"See, it's okay, he saw it on television" Now this remark from Jack was at least sarkastic. Jack was well edugated man, teacher and a writer. He considered TV as an intertainment of idiots.
I took it as also a jab at Wendy for allowing Danny to see something so horrific. Implying she hadn’t been protective enough. That was probably the biggest whiff I saw in this analysis.
Re: "America's entry into colonialism," I think the best starting point for that was Jamestown, 1607. The Spanish-American war was just the final nail in that coffin...for the end 19th century, and starter 20th c., at least.
I’ve never heard anyone call it satire. Most if not all people at the time took it at face value if it was indeed a satire. Mark Twain even wrote a satirical anti imperialism essay in response.
Fab analysis! One thing I would add: No one ever mentions that Grady is British. This adds subtext his statement that Jack "has always been the caretaker" and that he should know because "he's always been there."
Jack was once a boy who shined. Like Danny. Jack is a man who was driven insane by his ability to shine. Danny is horrified by his father in the present and by an understanding that the shine could make him insane when he reaches his father’s age. The hotel is a living thing that shines. The tennis ball is the Overlook Hotel’s way of “playing” with the Father and Son. It serves as a way to stoke rage in Jack and fear in Danny (both of which it feeds on). Jack is an Evil man, so he can’t connect with Danny, even though they both have the ability to shine. Halloran is a good man, so he can connect with Danny. Danny’s horror is knowing he’s in an evil place with an evil man. Jack went to the overlook hotel not to get away, but because that’s where he belonged. Wendy and Danny were the price he had to pay for admission. (Just like Grady before him. And all the others who “reside” there)
wendy also has the shining? how do you explain the bear scene, you're right the ball is some kind of game for jack and danny maybe in the deleted scene the hotel wanted to kill wendy
Wendy dresses like an abused woman. He clothes cover her all the way to her wrists. Her body language when she’s talking to the Dr. is really telling. I used to think Shelly Duval was just a bad actor in this. But Wendy is hiding her abuse from the Dr. and the acting is brilliant.
I enjoyed this, love the shining. I didn't agree with everything you were saying but I think that's what so great about Kubrick, no one answer and lots to interpret.
This was intelligently presented. However, the fact that Danny's behavior/acting is meant to convey that he has deep emotional issues feels so obvious I don't see how it bears any other interpretation. The idea that "shining" is a metaphor for trauma is not accurate. "Shining" is simply a term for psychic ability. There really is nothing mysterious about "what it is." Halloran recounts nurturing, positive experiences of the "shining" with his grandmother, so it is not inherently traumatic. Halloran is explaining that "shining" is inherently neutral. It can be experienced in positive ways. On the other hand, the fact that Danny "shines" means he is picking up the negative emotions and underlying abusive tensions in his family and the residual energies of historical events in the Overlook. Since these experiences are frightening, they are traumatic. The impact of "shining" is situationally determined, not universally traumatic. I do completely agree that abuse and trauma are essential themes of this movie.
When you were talking about him not being a great guy from from the start and how you wouldn't expect it from a nicer guy. I'm currently rereading the shining and I think the nice guy is working more for me. I know what he is going to do and its terrifying to pick up the clues that he is slowing going insane
This essay stands out among a bunch of Shining Analysis vids. I won’t presume to know whether it is the “best” or not but I really benefited from it and find the tone a lot more palatable than the norm in this niche. It is well considered without coming off like a self-congratulatory jerk creating video evidence that he has won a game of chess.
One more enemy of the most targeted population. White men. I Guess you can relate to her nazi, racist hints??? Move to Africa to your Brothers, where no white baaad racist men exist.. GOD DAMN IT... IM SCANDINAVIAN. AND VALUE ALL PEOPLE EVEN. ITS SICKENING TO HEAR A WHITE MAN BE SO POLITICAL CORRECT I GET ANGRY, SO ITS NICE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN DIVIDES US IN THIS MOMENT.. YOUR A RACIST AGAINST THE WHITE MAN, FOOL :@
At 27:11, the ghost or image or spirit or whatever of Jack is seen as the present Jack walks by. He is in the background, same jeans and dark red jacket that Jack wears in the rest of the movie, and he is vigorously cleaning in an almost crazy kind of way.
I disagree with your interpretation of the 237 scene. Rather I think it’s a metaphor for Jack’s relationship with not Wendy but Danny. He’s in the role of his son and the woman is him. When he goes to the woman and starts kissing her it’s meant to represent the typical love between parent and child. Then when she turns ugly that’s supposed to represent the abuse.
I don't see it..to me the lady in the room was another evil spirit that resides there ..a woman committed suicide in the rooms history..though the Spirit there that Jack encountered was more than likely an evil spirit among the others in the hotel
That could be possible considering when Jack slams the door shut, he takes a few steps backwards in a very similar fashion that Danny did while retracing his steps in the maze in attempt to cover his tracks.
If Delbert Grady's appearance is reflective of him as he may have been in 1921, it's more likely that he would have been Charles Grady's grandfather, maybe even great-grandfather.
11:40 Incorrect. Jack is traumatized by the transformation of the woman in room 237, in a mental reciprocation of the trauma he subjected Danny to in the same room.
I disagree. Jack is the hag. He demonstrates this when he harasses Wendy in the stairwell. He was moving the the hag and she whacked him. Flick all about mirrors...shining.
Correct. Grady is Jack. That's why you can't see his reflection. That's why the 180 degree rule is broken... because there is no distinction between the two.
Kubrick did parody. For example, Dr Strangelove was a parody of Fail Safe. A Clockwork Orange was a parody of I am Curious Yellow. Full Metal Jacket was a parody of the Green Berets. The Shining was a parody of the book, The Shining.
Enjoyed your analysis and commentary. One scene that you did not mention, which adds some credibility to your analysis in Jacks psyche and views on marriage and family, is very quick and many miss it. But I believe body language says a lot. View the scene where the Torrence family without Danny are getting the tour of their living quarters. Jack is the last to enter the room just after the two beautiful girls are descending the stairs behind them. Mr. Ullman and the girls say goodbye. Jack is last to enter the room, yet before he does, he leans back, slows his pace just long enough to get a good eye full of the two pretty girls. Now as a guy, a wandering eye may be normal for most, but men very seldom do so whilst in the presence of their wives for fear of getting "caught". Jack doesn't seem to worry about getting caught. Just an observation and opinion on my part.
the main theme is indeed domestic violence leading ultimately to r and murder = redrum (with the booze pun thrown in). the worst most ultimate darkest unthinkable taboo- pd file in cest r, the hotel is just an ave family home, proof- the moment jack turns really nasty and basically decides to kill them is directly after he asks wendy in a calm voice- 'you mean leave the hotel?', this represents battered wife leaving a and taking the kid with her, the exact kinda thing would / could trigger an abusive father to totally ott and kill them- 'you cant leave me and the kid, i'll kill ya before i allow that to happen'. he yells at her, walks and goes and meets grady right then. the indain land / gold rush thing is a sub plot, not the main / primary gist.
This is a good analysis (seriously, you're brilliant especially in the second half), but I don't understand why you put down the child actor who plays Danny, as well as calling the character not smart. It never crossed my mind that Danny was not smart, or that the child's performance was lacking somehow. If he was directed by Kubrick, chances are the child was quite aware of his performance.
I've always thought the actor's performance of Danny was convincing - I think his serious, solemn, introverted personality just seems odd in relation to most child stars, who are extroverted and zany 40 year olds.
No one should ever say it’s bad cause it’s not like the book cause that’s the point of an adaptation to be different but still well made and with a theme
Carl Jung and the concept of the shadow is a huge influence on the storytelling. I believe The Shining represents the collective psychic shadow. Things people would rather not see about themselves and their societies. Danny is smarter and less repressed, so in the end he can recognize and accept his shadow side and utilize it to escape the hotel. I think this is what the cannibalism conversation hints at. Danny is already aware of the horors of the world. He has the advantage of the TV. His generation is more aware of the darkness of humanity. In this sene, one can look at shining as a sense of awareness. Intelligence. The hotel can be seen as the shadow side of America itself.
That's an excellent way of looking at the movie. You read my subconscious- because that's how I'd assimilated the movie into my psyche- and your comment made it obvious to me. The Overlook IS America. Huge. Room for a legion of ghosts and a multitude of horrors. Pandemonium revisited.
@@dionmcgee5610 thanks! I'm glad I've shined some light on the film for you (pun intended) I've seen this film more times than I can count. Kubrick's films grow with you. They run deep, as you may know. Revisiting them is always rewarding.
Hi Malmrose, I've read the book and seen the movie, and while I enjoy both, I've really tried to understand King's criticism of the film, which has been pretty vicious. I compare the book and the movie a lot, and I think maybe Kubrick saw a lot of themes you brought up that could be used to criticize these larger issues, where King put them in there because one of his strongest influences were the series from pre-CCA horror comic publisher "EC Comics," especially the "Tales from the Crypt" series, which I'd bet dimes to dollars would have contained those themes uncritically. I think King's books do have criticism of American culture, especially small town America (see "It" and "Salem's Lot"), but that wasn't really the purpose he brought to the Shining. Those themes were incidental to the primary story. The "built over an Indian burial ground" bit was probably there to give a feeling that the hotel was creepy, haunted, or built under nefarious circumstances. King wrote the Shining during his alcoholism to introspect and face his own negative emotions towards his family. It's pretty well known King hated Kubrick's version of the Shining, even describing Wendy's portrayal as misogynistic, and I think because Jack Torrance is essentially a critical author insert. King does a very literal critical author insert in the last book of the Dark Tower series, where the characters actually meet him and find him an underwhelming, selfish idiot, so this wouldn't be the last time he did something like that. King writes that he was worried that he might get drunk and strike his children (if such ever happened, it's not been made public) I think the core of King's criticism would probably stem from Jack Torrance being irredeemable, whereas King used the book to struggle with his own internalized toxicity. In the end of the book, Jack finally throws off the hotel's influence and literally blows it up. Jack Torrance becoming irredeemable makes it as though King himself is irredeemable. You mentioned that framing abusers as sympathetic can frame abuse as sympathetic, but this wasn't King's purpose in the novel--the abuse was unsympathetic and awful, and a nefarious influence (which King stated came from alcohol as much as the Hotel), it was rather an abusive person succumbing but ultimately overcoming their abusive tendencies. And this would've been a highly personal journey for King, since he poured his own concerns that sometimes he felt his relationship with his children and wife was adversarial into the book. While I disagree with King's criticisms, this analysis really made me think about them hard and understand them a little better--those criticisms were stemming from a personal place. Kubrick's rewrite, to King, said King himself was irredeemable. I've only seen a couple thinkpieces on this criticism and why King despised the movie so much, and the only one that gave King any leeway was saying "Kubrick is an aesthete, whereas King is a character writer," which I thought was unfair to Kubrick, because he, too, carefully depicted his characters. (Most just slam King for disliking a good movie.)
It is implied that the hotel itself is trying to feed on people's shining. However, it can only do so in minuscule amounts and can never get very far on its own. It can only get the jackpot if people with shining die in its presence. That's why it uses its ghosts to get physical humans to do its bidding. If you listen to dialogue between Jack and the hotel's ghosts, you hear them make references to a third, more powerful party, e.g "Orders from the house", "I and others", etc. Of course, you may ask why hasn't it killed Halloran already if it wants his shining so badly. Answer: It can't. Halloran is implied to possess too little shining for the hotel to feed off. What little it got from him is only enough for it to affect Danny and more importantly, Jack. It's stated that the shining is hereditary, and while Danny got a lion's share of the gift, Jack had a little. Little enough that the hotel can barely consider touching, but enough for Jack to perceive the hotel hauntings. Wendy on the other hand was a complete rube. (Dr Sleep reference) You can see all this in action throughout the movie. When Danny moved in with his family, the hotel began feeding on him at once. But yet again, never in large amounts that the hotel would like. Danny would have to die for the hotel to feed properly. When Danny resisted the hotel's attempts, (the twins, Room 237) the hotel began working on Jack instead. After all, it had obtained enough shining to show itself at last except to Wendy who was by all accounts, normal. Once Halloran was killed by Jack however, the hotel was able to feed on all the shining he had. Notice on how Wendy began seeing the ghosts and hauntings only after Halloran was killed. The hotel had succeeded in turning Jack, but the movie played out as it did. The hotel got Halloran, but Wendy and Danny through determination and resourcefulness escaped Jack and the hotel's clutches. As the hotel wasn't destroyed in the film unlike the novel, all it could do was wait. Wait until another victim approached it's grounds once more... But that's a Doctor Sleep story :P
Interesting that one of the earliest conversations in the film revolves around television (more or less), and the most famous line is taken from the Johnny Carson Show.
I read an analysis somewhere saying the most important scene was when the chef and Danny sat down to eat ice cream. He tells Danny he has an ability called “the shining.” He can communicate telepathically and there’s a theory they Danny is the one who created hallucinations or at least has the special capability to summoned the spirits. He’s been abused by his father, who he wants dead. The kid had been abused so badly he has to talk to his finger, a little person he made up to cope with the abuse. The bear references: the bear by his side when he was being examined by the doctor. The guy in the bear costume. The bear picture above the boy’s bed.
I have watched quite a few videos analyzing this film, and read many articles as well. Your analysis is the best because you link it to the events in the film. Very well done and reasoned. The depth you and Rob Ager bring to the analysis of this film is on a different level from others I have seen. Most Sincerely, Chris Howley, Wollaston, Massachusetts
I believe that the film is subjectively open to interpretations based on the deliberate continuity errors and misleading set design of the hotel’s interior and exterior by Kubrick to trick the audience. If you observe the scenes throughout carefully it has various elements of a dysfunctional family related to trauma,alcoholism,abuse,lust,denial and violence projected by the visuals created within the characters minds. In addition another fascinating factor about the direction is the foreshadowing of scenes through symbolisms and props as if they are setting the tone for the upcoming events like jack playing with the ball in the lobby and colorado lounge as axe swinging and murder of Dick Hallorann. My interpretation is the chain of violence throughout history shown in the film.
I find it very telling, especially in light of this analysis, that even Jack Nicholson said Kubrick with a completely different director with him than he was Duvall. It has been said he was basically abusive to her during the filming, so much so that her hair started to fall out.
This is the best analysis of The Shining that I have ever heard. The Shining is one of my favorite films of all time, and I have spent many viewings trying to find the true meaning of the movie. Your video has a clarity and logic that I have never achieved in all these years.
Do you really think Kubrick would be interested in making a movie about the crap topics this girl comes up with? Dive into the man, this girl is lost in her issues she only sees herself everywhere. It's pathetic. Take off with Jay Weidner in the Apollo II and you might get somewhere.
the shining being a metaphor for abuse is spot on-it’s exactly what I thought when I first watched it. I think dick had been abused as well, and was trying to reach out. Wendy doesn’t see the shining because she’s so committed to denying her husband is abusive or hurts danny. When she finally sees the ghosts, that shows she finally confronts her husband being an abuser and dangerous.
Again, this analysis was blocked worldwide off of a copyright claim, but considering that this is fair use and I've had to contest these claims with each video at this point, I'm hoping that the claim will get dropped. Until then, watch it while it's still available!
Malmrose Projects hi, i'm doing a research on this movie but i have little time and i'm trying to find as much footage as possible. I would like to watch the whole video but since i'm near exams i din't have the time, so i'd be glad if you could tell me if in this video there's a color analysis of the film (that's the research i'm doing).. thank you!! also if you have any article or whatever about the colors in this movie i'd be glad, cause i couldn't find a whole lot
Notice there is a weird looking shadow behind Danny's head at 0:22 seconds, looks kind of like a clown profile to me, and it is gone when the camera switches back to him at 1:09.
It is very interesting to see commentary on The Shining from different perspectives in time. I've noticed each generation applies their political and social views to the movie, regardless of it's time period of production. Older generations cite pedophilia, spousal abuse and demonic influence, young generations cite racial and gender privilege. This is what keeps the movie relevant. It is a mirror to see whatever you want to see.
I would just like to thank the creator and narrator of this analysis. It is so well thought out, well articulated, balanced and humble. The shining is also among my top four films; the others being Fight Club, Barton Fink and There will be Blood. I must say, at this very moment, I am experiencing what I believe is a fairly severe, yet survivable infection of either covid or a bad case of the flu. Over the past few days I have been doped up on NyQuil most of the time and drifting in and out of consciousness. So I decided the best use of my time would be to put RUclips on in the background and play a healthy dose of shining analysis and just let my mind wander. I came up for air with this analysis playing and it really got a hook in me and I'm going to play it again. Keep up the good work.!
the tennis ball rolls up on danny, next thing hes traumatised, and jack goes from previosuly wearing green to wearing the red jacket when he has his nightmare, your room 237 analysis is just way off / wrong. he Rs in the room.
Interesting....ive seen a few of these shining analyses by now....generally i think people read WAAAAY too much into this movie but still, interesting.
The main symbolism you missed was that the twins represent when Rome joined forces with the Jewish temple to destroy Jesus and construct the false religion known as the Roman Catholic Church which is also known as The Whore of Babylon which was symbolizes in the movie by the naked beautiful woman who in reality was a rotting corpse. The church gives the appearance of good and beauty but in reality is insanely addicted to the accumulation of wealth and power. These ghosts still haunt us today. Church and State which are supposed to be separate are actually working hand and hand to control and milk the masses of their labor and wealth. These “twins” continue to play their games which indoctrinate each generation into their cult of materialism. The maze symbolizes the proverbial rabbit hole of the mind when attempting to figure out what is real and what is artificial. Jack is the satanic corrupted side of humanity when they get their hands on power. The hotel is our mind filled with a picture of reality constructed from the many ghosts of our past. Each room made up of the many false beliefs fed to us by the many organizations that set out to enslave us for their own evil greed. In a way this hotel parallels the factory in Willy Wonka‘s chocolate factory. Each room representing a part of our psyche. But unlike Charlie and the chocolate factory that was dealing with human motivations, mainly symbolized by chocolate and other candy, this movie is dealing with the many ghosts that haunt our psyche from all the trauma our ancestors have suffered at the hands of those who wanted to control us.
Very intelligent commentary about the abuse, the victims, and Tony. The political views are overpainted however off the mark. Yes Jack is a Racist and misogynist, yes these things exist, yes white man's burden is utilized as Jack's drive and meaning for existence....However this widespread over generalization that society is evil in these ways is ridiculous. This movie simply takes hold of these themes and utilizes them as fodder for the machine in this movie that is EVIL. Evil ghosts, evil minds, evil people, evil behavior and actions with grave and horrific mental and physical consequences. Kubrick was a genius. Thx for the video and analysis.
The whole room 237 scene is never explained. Was it Danny’s dream, Halloran’s shine or Jack’s encounter with a ghost? Jack said there was nothing there. Which means either Jack lied or it was Danny’s dream.
A wonderful and well-thought out piece. Thanks for sharing your efforts. This analysis has made me reassess the film, making it feel like even more of a remarkable achievement. I want to watch it again right now. Glad I stumbled across your channel. Very impressive work. I didn't find that Room 237 discouraged all film analysis, but saw it as an example of how people can overreach with their interpretations, but your criticisms of it were solid enough to send me back to reassess that as well.
A film is art and you can see whatever metaphors you like, some were probably intended Kubrick and some weren’t. From all accounts, Kubrick wanted his films to be somewhat open to interpretation & mean different things to different people. With all that said, The Ghosts were real. The “Shining” was real. Kubrick & his script writing partner Diane Johnson have spoken about all of this. There were many drafts of the script, that were whittled down, many things from the book people praise or criticize Kubrick for not including were in the original draft. They were part of the story & were removed in order to tell the best story in the time allotted. Many of these things weren’t “changed”, they just weren’t shone on screen. Example: Jack finds the Overlook scrapbook & is researching the history of the overlook, that happens in the narrative of the film, but isn’t shone, the prop is still in the movie and open on Jack’s desk, next to the typewriter. Kubrick’s co-writer was very involved in the script writing and editing process. Her insights to the story she helped create are gospel. You may see other themes or “messages” in the film, & these can also be valid, but they don’t change the fact that the Shining is a story with supernatural elements.
Your Kubrick analyses are inspired! I especially enjoyed this one because it shone light on some completely new themes and meanings in the film. I must say I agree with almost everything you said (not only on that my top 10 starts of the same way as yours with 2001 followed by the rest of Kubrick's). Keep up the great work!
Something your video just made me realize, which I don’t think has ever been mentioned: when the female doctor tells Wendy not to worry @16:26, her tone is nearly identical to the HAL-9000 in 2001 when he tells Frank: “Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that.” The words are close and the voice and tone are almost perfect. There’s an old expression that one shouldn’t believe in coincidences. Certainly there are no coincidences in Kubrick films... maybe Stanley was just having a bit of fun with us.
Very insightful analysis and thanks for sharing! Very glad you added that little bit about Room 237 at the end. I watched it and probably every Shining fan has. I started off okay but then got kookier and kookier (I borrow your word here because there is no better). Analysis is good and, yes, we all do it when we watch movies, TV, read books, listen to music, view art, etc.
If Jack's encounter with the female in room 237 is a metaphor for Jack's marriage with Wendy, then why does Halloran warns Danny up front to stay away from room 237? The being in room 237 most certainly taps into the needs of Jack and pretends to offer an affair, only to trick and spook him for fun, but I don't see any metaphor. More a set up for a killing spree ensnaring Jack to become a part of the hotel's entourage, using Wendy and Danny as necessary sacrifices. (as in real life so often is the case.) Delbert Grady IS the hotel personified. He's the hotel's power. He's the one that unlocks the freezer to free Jack, I believe. The hotel is hell, a prison forever and ever and ever. But not for Danny and Wendy.
I wanna beinf up a point made by someone in another video the unusual fact of Danny not wanting to talk about Tony with that doctor an yet he is telling Mr Hollowin about Tony when they are eating some ice cream . now in theory Tony might have been working through Danny to keep from the doctor knowing about Tony a lot but what do you think about this ?
Or just maybe the hotel is haunted and it influences the Torrences. When Jack accepts the drink at the bar, in the gold room, thats when the hotel completely puts jack under it spells and he's no longer Mr.Torrence but is under the hotels spell.
This reading is rock-solid. So much of the latent meaning which always fascinated me in this film has been elucidated. Too bad the web, and this comments section, is overrun by reactionaries who think it's their duty to be dismissive, their loss.
They said that when the overlook was built on a Indian burial ground and that they had to rid some spirits. Wouldn’t that suggest that the presence of spirits is possible?
I actually noticed that the mural shown in the room which he writes, even mindlessly throwing a ball, is not just a series of crops. If you look carefully, you see its 2 blue stalks of crop, surrounded by 4 people seemingly holding crops, though also giving the slight appearance of champagne glasses. The most interesting though, if you notice the people in this design actually all have a head. But one head is all the way on the left, with one blue line and one red line connecting all the way across to the rest of the body. The blue line is actually the same color as the crops, as well as the text in the opening sequence. I believe this blue line represents the land which the native americans worked to sustain and nourish, and right below that is the blood of the same native americans from which we reaped the benefit. The only reason it seems important to look further into the mural is not only how prominent it is, but the nonchalance of Jack throwing the ball against our bloody history, thus essentially neglecting it. This is also the same room is one of the red elevators, seen behind Jack in a few scenes. Also, side note, I believe the chair which is viewed as a “continuity error” in many peoples eyes, is actually present in the flashback of Danny seeing the Grady Twins’ bloodied corpses. I think this represents the first potential clue that the hotel has the ability to control time and/or reality in some capacity. It is very possible this scene was to happen simultaneously with the scene of Danny seeing the twins, though I’m unsure of the timeline. Someone tell me I’m not crazy!
White Man’s Burden may have a double meaning here. Yes, it may trace back to that Rudyard Kipling thing, but I think what Jack is saying here is an old alcoholic thing to say. White Man’s Burden is also referred to when speaking about alcohol. The scenario I always think of is like the natives seeing the white man struggle with his own alcohol. Like if the white man didn’t consume alcohol, he wouldn’t have a burden. Or, in another way, the native people also have struggled with alcoholism. It could be like the burden that the white man placed on them.
ya except i dont think whites ought to be blamed for natives boozing it up. Booze is all over this world in all cultures. Sure europeans introduced booze to indains but they already had tobacco and other wacky shit to use too. Its the way of the world. But i agree that i dont really think that line was to enact any self loathing attributes.
Finally a decent video essay about The Shining! Thank you. I was a child victim of emotional and one point, physical abuse from my father - who acted a great deal like the father in this movie. As I teen, I was terrified after watching this and had to sleep with the light on for a number of days. We all want to believe that such a man is a good man. That there is no way he would commit "redrum". There's a term "shine" that some black performers used to use. It meant to force a smile at the higher ups. Here, Jack "shines" by acting nice to people who can control him, so it's confusing when others outside of the family hear that he's dangerous. I can tell you how this turns out. Wendy will either have to be in court all of her life with restraining orders against Jack, ones that he will break. Or she will continue to live with him, and lose her psyche until she is just an echo of his ideology. If she does confide in someone in the family, they will not believe it and might even mention it to Jack. The little boy will grow up sickly and have to fight his entire life for his health. Statistically, he is 12 times more likely to commit suicide than those in the average population.
Buddy, you did one hell of an analysis, whether I or anyone agrees with all or some of your interpretations. And my opinion is that many interpretations are possible. If you haven't, I recommend watching the the Apollo interpretations again, because there are more apolllo references and KubrickNjcholson references that you have missed or will not acknowledge; not just the sweater.
That is way beyond the capabilities for this girl to understand or for her soul to be brave enough to allow to sink in. Better stay with the world she is familiar with.
@@newlyborncorn There is nothing in the movie about Danny being sexually abused. His emotional trauma comes from his intuition about his father's mental illness which manifests itself as visions. You're reading themes into the story that don't belong there because our society has become obsessed with child sexual abuse.
Great video. I like your perspective. I agree with everything, but I do enjoy hearing other opinions and points of view on this movie. Thanks for taking the time to make it. 💛
Literally the entire video is my opinion, as are almost every analysis you'll see of any piece of media where they try to evaluate the media's meaning.
He meant to say this: "I think you projected your own ideology a little in this analysis" Which is putting it very mildly! You're a trained white man hating mutt to put it brutally honest... o and cringey as all hell with the copy paste jargon and opinions.
this is gorgeous, you have done an incredible job with this analysis drawing a parallel with current events as well... u have shown the main thematic of Kubrick's abusive man to the fullest... not one detail left!! keep up the good work this is truly inspiring! +1 for the critique of anti-interpretation
The more I watch this movie and analysis, the more I think it’s about the cultural phenomena of familicide. And of course the abuse that preceded it. The missing overt display of abuse forces the audience to take on the role of a family acquaintance that never saw it coming. You see the effects of abuse but never too much of the abuse itself until the 3rd act.
It doesn't seem that Jack Torrance thinks talking about cannibalism is okay because Danny saw it on TV first. He rather mocks Danny's statement "It's okay, I saw it on TV."
Topic of abuse and the Shining. What‘s even stranger than the movie is your life while studying this movie... I didn’t even care for this movie so much at first. I was just starting to get an interest in quality films when I was about younger. But nothing could have prepared me for what was to be revealed to me concerning everyone on earth in the year following my first viewing of the Shining. I’m a musician and I’m into (but not limited to) very weird music; Avant-garde Classical ya know like the stuff in 2001: A Space Odyssey whenever the monolith/stargate appear? That’s my jam. And obviously the music in the Shining. Ok well when I first saw the movie the first thing that caught my attention was the music in the opening scene and the scene shortly after where Danny first sees the blood. As I said I first saw the movie when I was about 18 think around 2012? Just before the documentary “Room 237. I was into it just when it was becoming a thing. During my first viewing I happened to have made some secret homemade beer for the viewing occasion. I knew nothing about the Shining or Stephen King. I had liked A Clockwork Orange so much that I had to check out other films by this director. I had no idea that this film was speaking to me on an unconscious level and that I wouldn’t even find out until months after I first saw the film. and the horror that would come with my knowledge. I was naive but intuitive, making a lot of money at the time I could buy movies that I thought would be “keepers”. I knew a lot about the world but I didn’t know about the horror that is literally just on the other side of consciousness. I became convinced that there was something happening in this movie that was awakening something inside me that I couldn’t quite catch. Something that I could feel in my chest, like when you’re experiencing something emotionally jarring. As I said before I’m a musician and a lyricist... I was working on my demo album when I saw The Shining and I had my own set of thoughts and creative references I was making, I was really just making music about the world outside myself instead of making music that would help me and other people as individuals live better lives... blah blah blah! I was a kid with ambition ok? But I wasn’t making music that had the feeling I wanted to communicate. I am still experimenting with new sounds but I now know what I need to create. So this is where things get interesting, I know for certain Stanley Kubrick made movies with an amount of detail that mimicked his own ability to process and utilize an incredibly wide body of knowledge. He was aware of every societal, cultural and socioeconomic issue of our time believe. Which brings me to my next topic, which is one problem with the world today but one problem that claimed me and my life. I think that Stanley was starting to become disappointed that he wasn’t able to tackle issues pertaining to human rights especially after Barry Lyndon I think he also knew he wanted to make an addictive film, filled with so much meaning and detail packed into it that it would “awaken” spectators. A film that would make film fanatics obsess over it trying to decode all the little nuances. A film that would in time create it’s own buzz, it’s own cult following. Good art is made using equal parts focused intent and abstract improvisation. Meaning you can try all you want to create a painting of trees or a song about the ocean. But the universe will always surprise you with it’s own intentions that weave their way into the art we make and the art we consume. But art is mysterious like that, and good art blurs the lines between the artists intentions and the viewers interpretation of said art. I got into hard drugs when I was 19 and during that period I became more and more aware of how fucked up the world was, during this time I had been watching the Shining every so often for probably a year or two... Which like I said it weirded me out because I couldn’t even tell what it was I liked about it except for the music maybe. But anyway this was about the time I found out about the kinds of things happening in this country... human / child trafficking, drugs trafficking, bohemian grove, the elite, and our enslavement to the almighty dollar. And I took to social media to alert others of all the crisis that we face together as a species and I feel it is my duty as a compassionate person to do so. People in this movie do horrible things and just forget what they’ve done. And everyone knows about the hotel’s history. Yet everyone goes on as though nothing is wrong. When we see the blood and the phantoms (the horrors of history) we know we can’t change the past so we must do what’s right for our future and our children’s future. In our lives things happen to us “but we can’t remember” this is a synchronicity. Whether or not Kubrick was intending of it or not, this movie is about human rights among other thing and the role we play in breaking the cycle of abuse, making peace with others and coming together as a species to make war and the mutilation of our hopes and dreams nothing more than a picture in a book. I had just finished my demo album and had set my sights to getting my life together, getting off of hard drugs and getting enrolled in school. I thought I understood the world, I thought I knew myself physically, and then I found out just how bad our country really is and how one of our biggest issues is rarely discussed in public. There’s a secret sexists are hiding from men and women in the USA, and people are brainwashed to perceive themselves as disposable (mainly targeting men) making men feel like it’s their duty to join the military, or making men feel as though their life isn’t complete without total servitude to a career struggling to make ends meet. Men are targets during the most vulnerable moments of their lives, when they’re infants that can’t say “no don’t hurt me” I’m referring to MGM not the movie company or the hotel... I’m talking about the ancient blood ritual designed specifically to cause pain to men and damage their ability to literally feel another human. This barbaric and sexist practice is still adopted by almost half of parents of infant males in the USA. I’m talking about male genital mutilation. Infant male genital mutilation (circumcision) was literally implemented in the United States by a colonial prude that thought that sex caused illnesses. John Harvey Kellogg (cornflake man) was literally obsessed torturing the sexuality out of his victims which he considered his “patients”. He was a pedophile who put yogurt up his adopted children’s anuses and his own. He was pure evil. I kept getting the idea that the Shining film was tapping into this sort of evil. I read the book and there was no mention of sexual abuse if I remember correctly many different areas of thought... You have themes of repetition, people forget horrible things they have done, characters forget what happened to themselves. We as men forget what happened to us and so we allow our own son’s to have their genitals skinned without anesthetic. It’s horrible and once you know about it it’s hard not to fall into an extreme depression. I found out back when I was 18 about all this... but after I had two boys of my own I started getting stronger feelings about what had happened to me and millions of other men in the United Stated. So it turns out that each piece of tissue is sold for $100.000 on average, multiply that by a few million and now you know why they continued harvest the most sensitive part of a mans genitals. And they have to do it when we can’t say no! Because hardly any men would pay to have their dick mutilated... And the whole reason anesthesia isn’t used is because Kellogg promoted not using it so that the victim would associate punishment with their genitals. Makes my heart hurt that my parents stood over me while I was tortured and raped essentially... slowly more and more men are speaking out and now we have quite the following on the internet look up #mendocomplain on Facebook or go to ruclips.net/video/gCSWbTv3hng/видео.html www.bloodstainedmen.com/ laraleestang.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-ricmgm-is-worse-than-rape.html The horrors of history will end, we can make these things become pictures a book. But we have to retrace our steps and look back at what has happened to us as men in order to save our sons from the same fate. To break the abusive cycle of history and escape with our bodies intact.
will you do eyes wide shut? would love to see your take on it. other films too would be twin peaks fire walk with me, magnolia, punch drunk love, there will be blood, the master, all that jazz, or lolita (1962).
On my list for consideration are Eyes Wide Shut, Fire Walk With Me, and There Will Be Blood, but I don't have anything written about any of those films yet so I don't expect to make videos about them any time soon.
Spot on about Danny and "Tony". Although controversial, Dissociative Identity Disorder is a real thing to me as an observer. An abuse victim's conscious state develops "personalities" or "alters" which split off to protect the core person. "Tony" is a protective alter personality that takes over for Danny when abuse occurs, or when Danny experiences a post-traumatic trigger. Excellent analysis. Thanks for sharing your story. Be well.
I like this movie and feel more could be done with it. more scenes from the evil spirits in it. the power of the shinning mind conversations between Danny and Mr Howland. a movie mistake I noticed in this was knowing Tony had taken over Danny's body saying that Wendy's son had gone away for good. then later on in the film Wendy is called mom once again which seems as if Danny never lost his body to the spirit of Danny Torrance. so is the explanation that Tony decided to act like the personality of Danny Torrance in order to put Wendy's mind at ease? Or has Danny made a choice to fight to keep control of his own body? and yet another theory which is possible is Tony hid the spirit of Danny Torrance as a way of protecting him from any dangerous things. the why and reasons had not even been discussed by anyone. another thing I've noticed is why didn't Wendy ask what Jack was doing in the bar and who he was talking to? plus Jack knocking down objects in the kitchen would have alerted someone in the hotel. and seeing Red Rum looked at on the door as the word Murder was never questioned.
41:39 Jack Nicholson does the most insane facial expressions in this movie. Also he inspired me to put white clown makeup all over my face when I was 9 years old and dress up like the joker for halloween. He was my favorite Joker.
Jack reacts with fright in room 237 when the woman he’s hugging turns into a rotting old woman. And Danny is not emotionless in the film, quite the opposite. Your analysis is not insightful, most everything you’ve said is obvious to the viewer.
I was thinking when I first heard about Danny being hurt by Jack while drunk that it was a few years ago not 5 months. Danny's arm should still hurt especially in winter with all the storms going through. I've had broken bones they still hurt sometimes. I was 7, 11, and 14 when they happened and I'm over 50 now they still hurt before storms.
I love this movie, largely because it's so rich in meaning. I think your interpretation is spot-on, but it speaks to the richness of meaning in this film that I've seen other interpretations, quite different, that strike me as just as spot-on.
That’s why it’s a masterpiece and subtle, I don’t know how you create a piece of open ended art that could mean so many different things, I really believe Kubrick was high IQ genius
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
I'd entertain the no ghost theory if i got a satisfying answer to who let Jack out of the freezer
You're right, that scene is so important as there is no explanation outside the supernatural. It makes everything that has happened or will happen open to interpretation. Great point
Danny let him out. He is victimized by jack, but he loves his father. Classic signs of abuse, my opinion. Kubrick can’t show it happen, or it would answer the questions you ask, and I don’t think he would dare do that. If you want it to be a ghost, it’s a ghost. If you don’t believe that, it was Danny, maybe?
stonewallbaron09
there is evidence that Jack could have been abusing Danny (dislocated shoulder mentioned to dr at beginning) but if it was Danny who let him out there should be themes of stockholm syndrome or some other kind of allusion to dannys apparant sodomasochism as a clue. I don't think Kubrick would make that a possibility in the film and not allude or give clues (not saying he didn't I'm just not aware of any)
Kanadian Khaos Kween I think that why it’s so good. Kubrick left out just enough for you to draw your own conclusions, and it works in so many ways. And I think the bear costume guy blowing the old man would be a clue for the abuse, also jack saying forever and ever to Danny tells me he the twins saying it isn’t real, and they aren’t real, it’s up to the viewer to decide what the hells going on
@@stonewallbaron09 i disagree. There may indeed be clues (haven't watched in many years) but dog costume and man "ghosts" were only seen (in movie) by Wendy; Danny never saw them so that cannot be considered a clue.
At 7:40 Wendy is carrying a mannequin. Kubrick was protective of the young child actor and did not want him exposed to too much extreme conflict while shooting. The boy actor did not know it was a horror film until he was a teenager.
Danny was 5 years old and I watched him getting interviewed at that age and older. He said he was shocked when he found out the shining was a scary movie
Danny was actually kept at the bottom of a 20 foot well between takes.
I worked in the industry as a well technician.
Basically lowering and bringing people up from wells
@@oldironsides4107 Hahaha
the mannequin looks sooo bad when you know to look for it lol.
How'd you type that original comment, dog? You got thumbs on your paws!? ALIENS!
Danny is traumatized, Jack is an emotional and physical abuser, Wendy is mousy, weak and in denial. AND the hotel is supernaturally haunted and able to influence/possess the occupants into doing violence and feeling fear. The difference this family has is Danny's power. Danny's shining enables them to escape the supernatural forces and their emotional and physical abuser.
So many are making this an either/or situation. It's not. It's obviously both right from the start. It's made clear right off the bat that Jack has been violent and his demeanor screams he has not changed. Wendy is super nervous and weak right off the bat and Danny's supernatural ability is explicitly shown to be real.
Yes they paranormal history s real
Exactly. Kubrick has stated this. He intentionally makes you uncertain what is real and knows you'll believe it's in Jack's head. Then he shows you, with the door unlocking moment, that they are real. It's both. Jack is a disturbed, violent person sent over the edge and the supernatural is involved. You begin to go deeper when you start to understand what the supernatural represents and how it relates to the overall story and themes.
He attributed this insiration to Stephen Crane's short story The Blue Hotel, in which you're made to believe the main character is ultra paranoid that he's being cheated in a card game and in the end its revealed to be true.
He was unhinged already@@iamamaniaint
Wendy wasn't weak at all. When it was a matter of life and death, she didn't cower in the corner. She smacked Jack in the head with a bat, then dragged and locked him in the pantry. She got Danny out the window then cut Jack's hand preventing him from coming in. When looking for Danny, she didn't lose it after seeing Halloran dead and the ghosts and blood pouring out the elevator. She fought it off, found him and drove the snocat to safety. Halloran was supposed to be the knight in shining armor, but in the end it was Wendy who was the real hero.
@@zoots15I totally agree with all you said. That's Wendy's character arch. When it really mattered she found a strength she didn't know was there. And of course she's the hero. In fact I think she found her strength in the best scene of the movie: on the stairs with the bat. So good.
You know Kubrick was a great artist when the themes of his movies are still relevant and discussed today.
@Kris Pistofferson Calm down, pal. Which analysts are you referring to specifically? Also, the reason many people are hesitant to accept the ghosts as real I would imagine has less to do with Kubrick’s (or their own) beliefs and more so to do with the fact that his movies are very multifaceted and the answer of “it was just ghosts the whole time!” doesn’t really fit his style.
Also - note that Jack’s encounters with ghosts are when he’s facing a mirror? He’s not talking to ghosts - he’s talking to himself!
that’s true, but what about when he’s locked in the pantry/freezer and talks to Grady? i don’t think there’s a mirror anywhere in there
Ok but how come Grady tells him about Danny talking to Hollanren?
@@freezerbr1de The metal door of the pantry/freezer area is somewhat reflective, not exactly a mirror but like. When Jack talks to Grady there are mirrors over the restroom sinks and Jack at least part of the time is looking in that direction.
@@andrewbrendan1579 yup but who let him out
@@sweetbunnybun With the layers and possibilities of "The Shining" I won't make a for-sure statement but my guess is that whatever supernatural force dwelt in the Overlook is what Jack out.
Sir, this is a fascinating, humane, and very insightful analysis of The Shining. Well done.
This is the most socially-conscious commentary on this movie I've ever heard, with a special compassion for Danny.
My only thought is I don't personally think Henry totally gives in to fantasy at the end of Eraserhead. My interpretation of Eraserhead is that the whole thing is a dream Henry is having, and, at the end, he is released from the earthly realm of lust, relational struggles, and loneliness, and he enters a pure state where he finally can be embraced by heaven and be at peace. I should add that I don't see Eraserhead as approving of suicide, only that the film is sympathetic toward the hard aspects of life, and the Lady in the Radiator is a metaphor for everything that gives us hope and the will to keep living. I don't see the baby in Eraserhead as a literal baby, or as symbolic of children. Rather, I see the baby as symbolic of the tough aspects of the human condition. By the way, Stanley Kubrick had everyone who would help him make The Shining join him in watching Eraserhead, so that they could see the mood he was after.
ma’am* 🙁
This ain't bout eraserhead.
Jack Torrence has always been a low level servant whose duties include keeping those lower in the hierarchy in their places.
Jack is also a narcissist, a loafer. He lets others do the heavy lifting. He is not a responsible man. He does not take charge. He rages when someone reminds him of his inadequacies.
right and "taking charge" results in his killing ppl which sort of calls into question whether or not taking charge is a virtue in the first place
@@MalmroseProjects His conversation with Grady in the restroom is a reflection on this and social constructs. Talk of "correcting" and the casual use of the n-word might be a commentary on violence in society through history. And Jack mentions the "White Man's Burden".
"I even love Shelly Duvall in this film "? Why wouldn't you ?
I think there are a lot of people who complained that she was over the top or something.
MacGuffin Yes. I don’t think that’s fair to the actress because a director like Kubrick gets what he wants from the actors. Most people who criticize her have never seen her in other films such as 3 Women. She portrays an entirely opposite persona.
Thematic symbolism of the hedge maze: When you're being abused there seems like no way out. Jack is unable to escape his internal madness and the abuse he's trapped himself into and freezes to death
Kind of relates to earlier in the film Jack is seen looking at a model of the maze while Wendy and danny are walking around the maze, the abuse from him with no way out
I may go as far as to suggest that Jack, in a brief flash of sanity, just decided to sit there in the maze, effectively killing himself to let his family escape. He knew he had to stay in the hotel. It was where he belonged.
@@Mario_N64 They were already going to escape. You are giving Jack too much credit. He got lost because Danny covered his tracks and retraced his steps.
The grand irony is that there is no maze.
@@Mario_N64 nothing like armchair psychiatrists! Oh please.
The ghosts were real, but Kubrick left that up to the viewer to determine that. The one place where Kubrick reveals the true nature of the ghosts is when Jack gets let out of the freezer.
if he had his own shine, he may have done it himself. S many ways to think about this flick.
All 3 members of the family experience the ghosts though
If there’s no ghosts than Danny let him out.
captcorajus yeah but don’t you actually think him being let out of the freezer could be a metaphor for how someone like Wendy keeps making excuses for jack, and going back to jack even though it’s obvious that he will hurt her (and Danny) again.. i dont know I think this video makes some great points and the freezer scene could easily be explained by that metaphor that I just suggested
not if a real person opened it. and it was Danny under Tony's mind control.
Absolutely brilliant. I've watched The Shining for what seems like hundreds of times, and I've checked out a lot of analysis of it, and you've constructed a beautifully reasoned explanation of its many mysteries. Very impressive. Also, as a survivor of trauma, I appreciate your perspective and glad you've survived as well. Thank you.
thanks, it means a lot to see comments like this, it really does
I don’t believe that Jack was the one to abuse Danny in room 237, largely in part because Danny stated it was a woman, and Jack sees a woman in there as well. While he is certainly an abuser, the Overlook is undoubtedly filled with malevolent spirits.
a scene deleted by kubrick showed that ullman had to do with that evil room
NEVER thought about jack rolling the ball to Danny
He was sleeping at the table at the time. It was one those ghosts or the hotel
It was wendy who rolled the ball.she is the one with hallucinations
Check this analysis out
ruclips.net/video/wRr_0W-9hWg/видео.html
ABC D : please warn them about robotic voice. Lol.
Loved the theory.
It was Wendy.
It’s symbolic. Definitely was a ghost or entity of the hotel throwing the ball, but the tennis ball is hard not to notice how convenient it is since Jack was playing with one earlier. And Room 237 is symbolic of many things of I believe to be the case but I’d be reported for exposing to much lol anyway 1. Desire for a new woman who’s more sexy than his wife and doesn’t talk at all and is just a s*x object for Jack when she needs her. His desire for a woman when he only needs her when he conveniently wants her when he’s donee with his work. 2. Represents the s*xual abuse with Danny. Perhaps he fantasizes his son doing acts with him as if he was a young woman, which could explain why Danny is super quiet throughout the movie and the lady strangely doesn’t talk. The choke marks could represent his abusive side in hitting Danny but also viewed in another light with r-victims.
The only kind of person who says analysis is bad, is a person who wants to dumb people down. Stories are supposed to teach moral lessons. That's why reading comprehension is taught and encouraged in school. All art is supposed to be interpreted and analyzed. Otherwise, there would be no reason to bother. It's meant to provoke emotion.
stories always teach even on subconscious level when people think they watch it only for entertainment
Thank you
@@theongreyjoy1947 really? What profound messages do you get from horror movies or porn? Or, sometimes both intermingled? By the way, it’s great listening to a 12 year old on RUclips who probably hasn’t even hit puberty yet discuss the ways of the world and the human psyche!
You're right, but a lot of what is being speculated about here can be resolved by just reading the book, which, from my memory of reading it as a kid, provides far more back story and insight into the characters than the movie was able to do.
@@michellemckillop8935 Thank you for your thoughts. I think he is a bit older than he might sound. I think his voice just sounds that way. As I listened to him I was thinking he is probably late teens, early twenties. If he is 12, he is quite a smart kid because what he said was well reasoned and supported by evidence from the film.
Great analysis. I just realized after watching this film for the thousandth time the symbolism behind the naked woman in the bathtub scene. The scene is symbolic of what Jack thinks of his marriage to Wendy (at least, that's my interpretation). The woman in the tub is at first beautiful and sexual, just as Jack might have viewed Wendy at the beginning of their relationship. By the time they get to the hotel, Jack has gotten to the point where he is no longer sexually attracted to her, hence, the beautiful woman turning into an old corpse woman. That's how he sees Wendy at this point. This movie is so amazing that I'm still realizing some of the symbolism. For example, when Wendy sees the dog costumed dude performing felacio on the tuxedo guy, it's symbolic of Wendy realizing for the first time that Jack sexually abused Wendy (or, rather, the hotel is attacking her for not doing anything about Jack's sexual abuse of Danny). All of the ghosts in the hotel seem to exploit specific psychological weaknesses in the characters. The twins, for example, represent, in part, Danny's lack of a true childhood - that's how they are trying to tempt him - by asking him to come play with them as most normal children would do).
"See, it's okay, he saw it on television" Now this remark from Jack was at least sarkastic. Jack was well edugated man, teacher and a writer. He considered TV as an intertainment of idiots.
Agreed. His analysis doesn’t feel accurate about the scene
He's also a passive aggressive, snarky guy. He is verbally abusive. He thinks he's some unappreciated genius.
I took it as also a jab at Wendy for allowing Danny to see something so horrific. Implying she hadn’t been protective enough. That was probably the biggest whiff I saw in this analysis.
You sound pretty edugated too!
@@victoryak86 Thank you
"White Man's Burden" was a poem written about America's entry into colonialism, and was meant to be sarcastic, not racist.
This is 2019, people are offended by every shit now
Re: "America's entry into colonialism," I think the best starting point for that was Jamestown, 1607. The Spanish-American war was just the final nail in that coffin...for the end 19th century, and starter 20th c., at least.
Colonialism and racism go hand in hand
Really? It was written by a British imperialist, Rudyard Kipling.
I’ve never heard anyone call it satire. Most if not all people at the time took it at face value if it was indeed a satire. Mark Twain even wrote a satirical anti imperialism essay in response.
Fab analysis! One thing I would add: No one ever mentions that Grady is British. This adds subtext his statement that Jack "has always been the caretaker" and that he should know because "he's always been there."
Jack was once a boy who shined. Like Danny. Jack is a man who was driven insane by his ability to shine. Danny is horrified by his father in the present and by an understanding that the shine could make him insane when he reaches his father’s age. The hotel is a living thing that shines. The tennis ball is the Overlook Hotel’s way of “playing” with the Father and Son. It serves as a way to stoke rage in Jack and fear in Danny (both of which it feeds on). Jack is an Evil man, so he can’t connect with Danny, even though they both have the ability to shine. Halloran is a good man, so he can connect with Danny. Danny’s horror is knowing he’s in an evil place with an evil man. Jack went to the overlook hotel not to get away, but because that’s where he belonged. Wendy and Danny were the price he had to pay for admission. (Just like Grady before him. And all the others who “reside” there)
wendy also has the shining? how do you explain the bear scene, you're right the ball is some kind of game for jack and danny maybe in the deleted scene the hotel wanted to kill wendy
Wendy dresses like an abused woman. He clothes cover her all the way to her wrists.
Her body language when she’s talking to the Dr. is really telling.
I used to think Shelly Duval was just a bad actor in this. But Wendy is hiding her abuse from the Dr. and the acting is brilliant.
U are blowing my mind! I don't know how I didn't see this before. Great video.
I enjoyed this, love the shining. I didn't agree with everything you were saying but I think that's what so great about Kubrick, no one answer and lots to interpret.
Patrick Ketch he’s a fuckin snowflake half of what he said would piss off hank hill
This was intelligently presented. However, the fact that Danny's behavior/acting is meant to convey that he has deep emotional issues feels so obvious I don't see how it bears any other interpretation. The idea that "shining" is a metaphor for trauma is not accurate. "Shining" is simply a term for psychic ability. There really is nothing mysterious about "what it is." Halloran recounts nurturing, positive experiences of the "shining" with his grandmother, so it is not inherently traumatic. Halloran is explaining that "shining" is inherently neutral. It can be experienced in positive ways. On the other hand, the fact that Danny "shines" means he is picking up the negative emotions and underlying abusive tensions in his family and the residual energies of historical events in the Overlook. Since these experiences are frightening, they are traumatic. The impact of "shining" is situationally determined, not universally traumatic. I do completely agree that abuse and trauma are essential themes of this movie.
When you were talking about him not being a great guy from from the start and how you wouldn't expect it from a nicer guy. I'm currently rereading the shining and I think the nice guy is working more for me. I know what he is going to do and its terrifying to pick up the clues that he is slowing going insane
This essay stands out among a bunch of Shining Analysis vids. I won’t presume to know whether it is the “best” or not but I really benefited from it and find the tone a lot more palatable than the norm in this niche. It is well considered without coming off like a self-congratulatory jerk creating video evidence that he has won a game of chess.
Very interesting analysis, I apreciate the effort you put into this.
One more enemy of the most targeted population.
White men.
I Guess you can relate to her nazi, racist hints???
Move to Africa to your Brothers, where no white baaad racist men exist.. GOD DAMN IT...
IM SCANDINAVIAN. AND VALUE ALL PEOPLE EVEN.
ITS SICKENING TO HEAR A WHITE MAN BE SO POLITICAL CORRECT I GET ANGRY, SO ITS NICE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN DIVIDES US IN THIS MOMENT..
YOUR A RACIST AGAINST THE WHITE MAN, FOOL :@
At 27:11, the ghost or image or spirit or whatever of Jack is seen as the present Jack walks by. He is in the background, same jeans and dark red jacket that Jack wears in the rest of the movie, and he is vigorously cleaning in an almost crazy kind of way.
I disagree with your interpretation of the 237 scene. Rather I think it’s a metaphor for Jack’s relationship with not Wendy but Danny. He’s in the role of his son and the woman is him. When he goes to the woman and starts kissing her it’s meant to represent the typical love between parent and child. Then when she turns ugly that’s supposed to represent the abuse.
The ugliness of sexual abuse
I don't see it..to me the lady in the room was another evil spirit that resides there ..a woman committed suicide in the rooms history..though the Spirit there that Jack encountered was more than likely an evil spirit among the others in the hotel
That could be possible considering when Jack slams the door shut, he takes a few steps backwards in a very similar fashion that Danny did while retracing his steps in the maze in attempt to cover his tracks.
If Delbert Grady's appearance is reflective of him as he may have been in 1921, it's more likely that he would have been Charles Grady's grandfather, maybe even great-grandfather.
11:40 Incorrect. Jack is traumatized by the transformation of the woman in room 237, in a mental reciprocation of the trauma he subjected Danny to in the same room.
I disagree. Jack is the hag. He demonstrates this when he harasses Wendy in the stairwell. He was moving the the hag and she whacked him. Flick all about mirrors...shining.
Correct. Grady is Jack. That's why you can't see his reflection. That's why the 180 degree rule is broken... because there is no distinction between the two.
Kubrick did parody. For example, Dr Strangelove was a parody of Fail Safe. A Clockwork Orange was a parody of I am Curious Yellow. Full Metal Jacket was a parody of the Green Berets. The Shining was a parody of the book, The Shining.
Enjoyed your analysis and commentary. One scene that you did not mention, which adds some credibility to your analysis in Jacks psyche and views on marriage and family, is very quick and many miss it. But I believe body language says a lot. View the scene where the Torrence family without Danny are getting the tour of their living quarters. Jack is the last to enter the room just after the two beautiful girls are descending the stairs behind them. Mr. Ullman and the girls say goodbye. Jack is last to enter the room, yet before he does, he leans back, slows his pace just long enough to get a good eye full of the two pretty girls. Now as a guy, a wandering eye may be normal for most, but men very seldom do so whilst in the presence of their wives for fear of getting "caught". Jack doesn't seem to worry about getting caught. Just an observation and opinion on my part.
Wendy doesn't mind having a playboy in her luggage either
the main theme is indeed domestic violence leading ultimately to r and murder = redrum (with the booze pun thrown in). the worst most ultimate darkest unthinkable taboo- pd file in cest r, the hotel is just an ave family home, proof- the moment jack turns really nasty and basically decides to kill them is directly after he asks wendy in a calm voice- 'you mean leave the hotel?', this represents battered wife leaving a and taking the kid with her, the exact kinda thing would / could trigger an abusive father to totally ott and kill them- 'you cant leave me and the kid, i'll kill ya before i allow that to happen'. he yells at her, walks and goes and meets grady right then. the indain land / gold rush thing is a sub plot, not the main / primary gist.
This is a good analysis (seriously, you're brilliant especially in the second half), but I don't understand why you put down the child actor who plays Danny, as well as calling the character not smart. It never crossed my mind that Danny was not smart, or that the child's performance was lacking somehow. If he was directed by Kubrick, chances are the child was quite aware of his performance.
that's all fair!
The actor who played Danny did a good job.
I've always thought the actor's performance of Danny was convincing - I think his serious, solemn, introverted personality just seems odd in relation to most child stars, who are extroverted and zany 40 year olds.
Danny was clearly exceptionally intelligent. Why would anyone think otherwise? He was also five!
No one should ever say it’s bad cause it’s not like the book cause that’s the point of an adaptation to be different but still well made and with a theme
Jack was mocking TV, in real life Nicholason feels the same.
Carl Jung and the concept of the shadow is a huge influence on the storytelling. I believe The Shining represents the collective psychic shadow. Things people would rather not see about themselves and their societies. Danny is smarter and less repressed, so in the end he can recognize and accept his shadow side and utilize it to escape the hotel.
I think this is what the cannibalism conversation hints at. Danny is already aware of the horors of the world. He has the advantage of the TV. His generation is more aware of the darkness of humanity. In this sene, one can look at shining as a sense of awareness. Intelligence.
The hotel can be seen as the shadow side of America itself.
That's an excellent way of looking at the movie.
You read my subconscious- because that's how I'd assimilated the movie into my psyche- and your comment made it obvious to me.
The Overlook IS America. Huge. Room for a legion of ghosts and a multitude of horrors.
Pandemonium revisited.
@@dionmcgee5610 thanks! I'm glad I've shined some light on the film for you (pun intended) I've seen this film more times than I can count.
Kubrick's films grow with you. They run deep, as you may know. Revisiting them is always rewarding.
Hi Malmrose, I've read the book and seen the movie, and while I enjoy both, I've really tried to understand King's criticism of the film, which has been pretty vicious.
I compare the book and the movie a lot, and I think maybe Kubrick saw a lot of themes you brought up that could be used to criticize these larger issues, where King put them in there because one of his strongest influences were the series from pre-CCA horror comic publisher "EC Comics," especially the "Tales from the Crypt" series, which I'd bet dimes to dollars would have contained those themes uncritically. I think King's books do have criticism of American culture, especially small town America (see "It" and "Salem's Lot"), but that wasn't really the purpose he brought to the Shining. Those themes were incidental to the primary story. The "built over an Indian burial ground" bit was probably there to give a feeling that the hotel was creepy, haunted, or built under nefarious circumstances.
King wrote the Shining during his alcoholism to introspect and face his own negative emotions towards his family. It's pretty well known King hated Kubrick's version of the Shining, even describing Wendy's portrayal as misogynistic, and I think because Jack Torrance is essentially a critical author insert. King does a very literal critical author insert in the last book of the Dark Tower series, where the characters actually meet him and find him an underwhelming, selfish idiot, so this wouldn't be the last time he did something like that. King writes that he was worried that he might get drunk and strike his children (if such ever happened, it's not been made public)
I think the core of King's criticism would probably stem from Jack Torrance being irredeemable, whereas King used the book to struggle with his own internalized toxicity. In the end of the book, Jack finally throws off the hotel's influence and literally blows it up. Jack Torrance becoming irredeemable makes it as though King himself is irredeemable.
You mentioned that framing abusers as sympathetic can frame abuse as sympathetic, but this wasn't King's purpose in the novel--the abuse was unsympathetic and awful, and a nefarious influence (which King stated came from alcohol as much as the Hotel), it was rather an abusive person succumbing but ultimately overcoming their abusive tendencies. And this would've been a highly personal journey for King, since he poured his own concerns that sometimes he felt his relationship with his children and wife was adversarial into the book.
While I disagree with King's criticisms, this analysis really made me think about them hard and understand them a little better--those criticisms were stemming from a personal place. Kubrick's rewrite, to King, said King himself was irredeemable. I've only seen a couple thinkpieces on this criticism and why King despised the movie so much, and the only one that gave King any leeway was saying "Kubrick is an aesthete, whereas King is a character writer," which I thought was unfair to Kubrick, because he, too, carefully depicted his characters. (Most just slam King for disliking a good movie.)
It is implied that the hotel itself is trying to feed on people's shining. However, it can only do so in minuscule amounts and can never get very far on its own. It can only get the jackpot if people with shining die in its presence. That's why it uses its ghosts to get physical humans to do its bidding. If you listen to dialogue between Jack and the hotel's ghosts, you hear them make references to a third, more powerful party, e.g "Orders from the house", "I and others", etc.
Of course, you may ask why hasn't it killed Halloran already if it wants his shining so badly. Answer: It can't. Halloran is implied to possess too little shining for the hotel to feed off. What little it got from him is only enough for it to affect Danny and more importantly, Jack. It's stated that the shining is hereditary, and while Danny got a lion's share of the gift, Jack had a little. Little enough that the hotel can barely consider touching, but enough for Jack to perceive the hotel hauntings. Wendy on the other hand was a complete rube. (Dr Sleep reference)
You can see all this in action throughout the movie. When Danny moved in with his family, the hotel began feeding on him at once. But yet again, never in large amounts that the hotel would like. Danny would have to die for the hotel to feed properly. When Danny resisted the hotel's attempts, (the twins, Room 237) the hotel began working on Jack instead. After all, it had obtained enough shining to show itself at last except to Wendy who was by all accounts, normal. Once Halloran was killed by Jack however, the hotel was able to feed on all the shining he had. Notice on how Wendy began seeing the ghosts and hauntings only after Halloran was killed. The hotel had succeeded in turning Jack, but the movie played out as it did. The hotel got Halloran, but Wendy and Danny through determination and resourcefulness escaped Jack and the hotel's clutches. As the hotel wasn't destroyed in the film unlike the novel, all it could do was wait. Wait until another victim approached it's grounds once more...
But that's a Doctor Sleep story :P
I always though it was a little weird that Jack never actually laid a finger on Wendy considering he tried to kill her
Interesting that one of the earliest conversations in the film revolves around television (more or less), and the most famous line is taken from the Johnny Carson Show.
I read an analysis somewhere saying the most important scene was when the chef and Danny sat down to eat ice cream.
He tells Danny he has an ability called “the shining.”
He can communicate telepathically and there’s a theory they Danny is the one who created hallucinations or at least has the special capability to summoned the spirits.
He’s been abused by his father, who he wants dead.
The kid had been abused so badly he has to talk to his finger, a little person he made up to cope with the abuse.
The bear references: the bear by his side when he was being examined by the doctor. The guy in the bear costume. The bear picture above the boy’s bed.
It's an interesting theory but the pso is related to Wendy
I have watched quite a few videos analyzing this film, and read many articles as well. Your analysis is the best because you link it to the events in the film. Very well done and reasoned. The depth you and Rob Ager bring to the analysis of this film is on a different level from others I have seen. Most Sincerely, Chris Howley, Wollaston, Massachusetts
couldn't the film be a representation of jack's fantasy life that he wants and the perfect murder location of his family
No. Its about white supremacy.. because everything is. Lol
perhaps, but there is nothing in the movie to indicate that it only happens in Jack's head.
I believe that the film is subjectively open to interpretations based on the deliberate continuity errors and misleading set design of the hotel’s interior and exterior by Kubrick to trick the audience. If you observe the scenes throughout carefully it has various elements of a dysfunctional family related to trauma,alcoholism,abuse,lust,denial and violence projected by the visuals created within the characters minds. In addition another fascinating factor about the direction is the foreshadowing of scenes through symbolisms and props as if they are setting the tone for the upcoming events like jack playing with the ball in the lobby and colorado lounge as axe swinging and murder of Dick Hallorann. My interpretation is the chain of violence throughout history shown in the film.
I find it very telling, especially in light of this analysis, that even Jack Nicholson said Kubrick with a completely different director with him than he was Duvall. It has been said he was basically abusive to her during the filming, so much so that her hair started to fall out.
Yeah, it's interesting that both men were abusive to her, the director AND Jack himself mocked her, too.
I think it was a fucked up method to make her acting more believable. I think it worked honestly she looks like she’s falling apart.
Terrific, intellectually honest work. Fantastic content. There are little bits along the way that I disagree with, but with the utmost respect.
This is the best analysis of The Shining that I have ever heard. The Shining is one of my favorite films of all time, and I have spent many viewings trying to find the true meaning of the movie. Your video has a clarity and logic that I have never achieved in all these years.
Do you really think Kubrick would be interested in making a movie about the crap topics this girl comes up with? Dive into the man, this girl is lost in her issues she only sees herself everywhere. It's pathetic. Take off with Jay Weidner in the Apollo II and you might get somewhere.
the shining being a metaphor for abuse is spot on-it’s exactly what I thought when I first watched it. I think dick had been abused as well, and was trying to reach out. Wendy doesn’t see the shining because she’s so committed to denying her husband is abusive or hurts danny. When she finally sees the ghosts, that shows she finally confronts her husband being an abuser and dangerous.
Again, this analysis was blocked worldwide off of a copyright claim, but considering that this is fair use and I've had to contest these claims with each video at this point, I'm hoping that the claim will get dropped. Until then, watch it while it's still available!
Тhis mооооviе is nоw аvаilаble tо wаtсh hеrе => twitter.com/2975662cec9375388/status/795841829614686208 Тhееее Shining ААnаlуsis
no it was blocked because it was so incredibly retarded.
Malmrose Projects hi, i'm doing a research on this movie but i have little time and i'm trying to find as much footage as possible. I would like to watch the whole video but since i'm near exams i din't have the time, so i'd be glad if you could tell me if in this video there's a color analysis of the film (that's the research i'm doing).. thank you!! also if you have any article or whatever about the colors in this movie i'd be glad, cause i couldn't find a whole lot
+ Chance - I think its the name of a childrens school?
Malmrose Projects it was.
Notice there is a weird looking shadow behind Danny's head at 0:22 seconds, looks kind of like a clown profile to me, and it is gone when the camera switches back to him at 1:09.
It's Ullman. You can see his profile when he is giving the Torrance's a tour of their apartment.
I just watched the European, TV version of Eyes Wide Shut, And that same shadow was in one of the scenes, I believe.
It is very interesting to see commentary on The Shining from different perspectives in time. I've noticed each generation applies their political and social views to the movie, regardless of it's time period of production. Older generations cite pedophilia, spousal abuse and demonic influence, young generations cite racial and gender privilege. This is what keeps the movie relevant. It is a mirror to see whatever you want to see.
What do you see??? beautiful
I would just like to thank the creator and narrator of this analysis. It is so well thought out, well articulated, balanced and humble. The shining is also among my top four films; the others being Fight Club, Barton Fink and There will be Blood.
I must say, at this very moment, I am experiencing what I believe is a fairly severe, yet survivable infection of either covid or a bad case of the flu. Over the past few days I have been doped up on NyQuil most of the time and drifting in and out of consciousness. So I decided the best use of my time would be to put RUclips on in the background and play a healthy dose of shining analysis and just let my mind wander. I came up for air with this analysis playing and it really got a hook in me and I'm going to play it again. Keep up the good work.!
the tennis ball rolls up on danny, next thing hes traumatised, and jack goes from previosuly wearing green to wearing the red jacket when he has his nightmare, your room 237 analysis is just way off / wrong. he Rs in the room.
Truly excellent analysis!!! I learned so much. Thanks for your explanation of the date on the final photo!
Interesting....ive seen a few of these shining analyses by now....generally i think people read WAAAAY too much into this movie but still, interesting.
Then you have no idea who Kubrick was. And then you have no idea what is going on right now.
The main symbolism you missed was that the twins represent when Rome joined forces with the Jewish temple to destroy Jesus and construct the false religion known as the Roman Catholic Church which is also known as The Whore of Babylon which was symbolizes in the movie by the naked beautiful woman who in reality was a rotting corpse. The church gives the appearance of good and beauty but in reality is insanely addicted to the accumulation of wealth and power.
These ghosts still haunt us today.
Church and State which are supposed to be separate are actually working hand and hand to control and milk the masses of their labor and wealth. These “twins” continue to play their games which indoctrinate each generation into their cult of materialism. The maze symbolizes the proverbial rabbit hole of the mind when attempting to figure out what is real and what is artificial.
Jack is the satanic corrupted side of humanity when they get their hands on power.
The hotel is our mind filled with a picture of reality constructed from the many ghosts of our past. Each room made up of the many false beliefs fed to us by the many organizations that set out to enslave us for their own evil greed.
In a way this hotel parallels the factory in Willy Wonka‘s chocolate factory. Each room representing a part of our psyche. But unlike Charlie and the chocolate factory that was dealing with human motivations, mainly symbolized by chocolate and other candy, this movie is dealing with the many ghosts that haunt our psyche from all the trauma our ancestors have suffered at the hands of those who wanted to control us.
Very intelligent commentary about the abuse, the victims, and Tony. The political views are overpainted however off the mark. Yes Jack is a Racist and misogynist, yes these things exist, yes white man's burden is utilized as Jack's drive and meaning for existence....However this widespread over generalization that society is evil in these ways is ridiculous. This movie simply takes hold of these themes and utilizes them as fodder for the machine in this movie that is EVIL. Evil ghosts, evil minds, evil people, evil behavior and actions with grave and horrific mental and physical consequences. Kubrick was a genius. Thx for the video and analysis.
The whole room 237 scene is never explained. Was it Danny’s dream, Halloran’s shine or Jack’s encounter with a ghost? Jack said there was nothing there. Which means either Jack lied or it was Danny’s dream.
A wonderful and well-thought out piece. Thanks for sharing your efforts. This analysis has made me reassess the film, making it feel like even more of a remarkable achievement. I want to watch it again right now. Glad I stumbled across your channel. Very impressive work.
I didn't find that Room 237 discouraged all film analysis, but saw it as an example of how people can overreach with their interpretations, but your criticisms of it were solid enough to send me back to reassess that as well.
no, the cannibal being seen on TV was a comment on the way the world and importance of media is going in the modern times
There are many RUclips videos on The Shining, but I think this one is the most original & insightful.
A film is art and you can see whatever metaphors you like, some were probably intended Kubrick and some weren’t.
From all accounts, Kubrick wanted his films to be somewhat open to interpretation & mean different things to different people.
With all that said,
The Ghosts were real.
The “Shining” was real.
Kubrick & his script writing partner Diane Johnson have spoken about all of this.
There were many drafts of the script, that were whittled down, many things from the book people praise or criticize Kubrick for not including were in the original draft.
They were part of the story & were removed in order to tell the best story in the time allotted.
Many of these things weren’t “changed”, they just weren’t shone on screen.
Example: Jack finds the Overlook scrapbook & is researching the history of the overlook, that happens in the narrative of the film, but isn’t shone, the prop is still in the movie and open on Jack’s desk, next to the typewriter.
Kubrick’s co-writer was very involved in the script writing and editing process.
Her insights to the story she helped create are gospel.
You may see other themes or “messages” in the film, & these can also be valid, but they don’t change the fact that the Shining is a story with supernatural elements.
Your Kubrick analyses are inspired! I especially enjoyed this one because it shone light on some completely new themes and meanings in the film. I must say I agree with almost everything you said (not only on that my top 10 starts of the same way as yours with 2001 followed by the rest of Kubrick's). Keep up the great work!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Something your video just made me realize, which I don’t think has ever been mentioned: when the female doctor tells Wendy not to worry @16:26, her tone is nearly identical to the HAL-9000 in 2001 when he tells Frank: “Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that.” The words are close and the voice and tone are almost perfect. There’s an old expression that one shouldn’t believe in coincidences. Certainly there are no coincidences in Kubrick films... maybe Stanley was just having a bit of fun with us.
and what does that mean?
The devil hates being called the devil.
Very insightful analysis and thanks for sharing!
Very glad you added that little bit about Room 237 at the end. I watched it and probably every Shining fan has. I started off okay but then got kookier and kookier (I borrow your word here because there is no better). Analysis is good and, yes, we all do it when we watch movies, TV, read books, listen to music, view art, etc.
Jack reacted positively to the supernatural because it aligned with his social aspirations
If Jack's encounter with the female in room 237 is a metaphor for Jack's marriage with Wendy, then why does Halloran warns Danny up front to stay away from room 237?
The being in room 237 most certainly taps into the needs of Jack and pretends to offer an affair, only to trick and spook him for fun, but I don't see any metaphor.
More a set up for a killing spree ensnaring Jack to become a part of the hotel's entourage, using Wendy and Danny as necessary sacrifices. (as in real life so often is the case.)
Delbert Grady IS the hotel personified. He's the hotel's power. He's the one that unlocks the freezer to free Jack, I believe.
The hotel is hell, a prison forever and ever and ever. But not for Danny and Wendy.
This is really good. Pair it with the sexual abuse theme, and we have complete analysis of the movie’s horror.
I wanna beinf up a point made by someone in another video the unusual fact of Danny not wanting to talk about Tony with that doctor an yet he is telling Mr Hollowin about Tony when they are eating some ice cream .
now in theory Tony might have been working through Danny to keep from the doctor knowing about Tony a lot but what do you think about this ?
Lost me at the 28:30 mark with the "White Man Bad" trope.
Yea it’s super weird.
I'm not even white and I didn't know what the fuck he was getting at.
Or just maybe the hotel is haunted and it influences the Torrences. When Jack accepts the drink at the bar, in the gold room, thats when the hotel completely puts jack under it spells and he's no longer Mr.Torrence but is under the hotels spell.
This reading is rock-solid. So much of the latent meaning which always fascinated me in this film has been elucidated. Too bad the web, and this comments section, is overrun by reactionaries who think it's their duty to be dismissive, their loss.
Fully agree
But isn't it telling that right wingers love Kubrick?
How the hell did Danny’s tricycle fit in the VW bug?
They said that when the overlook was built on a Indian burial ground and that they had to rid some spirits. Wouldn’t that suggest that the presence of spirits is possible?
I actually noticed that the mural shown in the room which he writes, even mindlessly throwing a ball, is not just a series of crops.
If you look carefully, you see its 2 blue stalks of crop, surrounded by 4 people seemingly holding crops, though also giving the slight appearance of champagne glasses.
The most interesting though, if you notice the people in this design actually all have a head. But one head is all the way on the left, with one blue line and one red line connecting all the way across to the rest of the body.
The blue line is actually the same color as the crops, as well as the text in the opening sequence. I believe this blue line represents the land which the native americans worked to sustain and nourish, and right below that is the blood of the same native americans from which we reaped the benefit.
The only reason it seems important to look further into the mural is not only how prominent it is, but the nonchalance of Jack throwing the ball against our bloody history, thus essentially neglecting it.
This is also the same room is one of the red elevators, seen behind Jack in a few scenes.
Also, side note, I believe the chair which is viewed as a “continuity error” in many peoples eyes, is actually present in the flashback of Danny seeing the Grady Twins’ bloodied corpses.
I think this represents the first potential clue that the hotel has the ability to control time and/or reality in some capacity. It is very possible this scene was to happen simultaneously with the scene of Danny seeing the twins, though I’m unsure of the timeline.
Someone tell me I’m not crazy!
Kind of lost me at the end with the race stuff that had nothing to do with the movie at all.
White Man’s Burden may have a double meaning here. Yes, it may trace back to that Rudyard Kipling thing, but I think what Jack is saying here is an old alcoholic thing to say. White Man’s Burden is also referred to when speaking about alcohol. The scenario I always think of is like the natives seeing the white man struggle with his own alcohol. Like if the white man didn’t consume alcohol, he wouldn’t have a burden. Or, in another way, the native people also have struggled with alcoholism. It could be like the burden that the white man placed on them.
ya except i dont think whites ought to be blamed for natives boozing it up. Booze is all over this world in all cultures. Sure europeans introduced booze to indains but they already had tobacco and other wacky shit to use too. Its the way of the world. But i agree that i dont really think that line was to enact any self loathing attributes.
Finally a decent video essay about The Shining! Thank you. I was a child victim of emotional and one point, physical abuse from my father - who acted a great deal like the father in this movie. As I teen, I was terrified after watching this and had to sleep with the light on for a number of days. We all want to believe that such a man is a good man. That there is no way he would commit "redrum". There's a term "shine" that some black performers used to use. It meant to force a smile at the higher ups. Here, Jack "shines" by acting nice to people who can control him, so it's confusing when others outside of the family hear that he's dangerous. I can tell you how this turns out. Wendy will either have to be in court all of her life with restraining orders against Jack, ones that he will break. Or she will continue to live with him, and lose her psyche until she is just an echo of his ideology. If she does confide in someone in the family, they will not believe it and might even mention it to Jack. The little boy will grow up sickly and have to fight his entire life for his health. Statistically, he is 12 times more likely to commit suicide than those in the average population.
Buddy, you did one hell of an analysis, whether I or anyone agrees with all or some of your interpretations. And my opinion is that many interpretations are possible. If you haven't, I recommend watching the the Apollo interpretations again, because there are more apolllo references and KubrickNjcholson references that you have missed or will not acknowledge; not just the sweater.
That is way beyond the capabilities for this girl to understand or for her soul to be brave enough to allow to sink in. Better stay with the world she is familiar with.
Danny is traumatized cause he's seen the murders that occurred at the hotel.
Danny is traumatized because he senses that his family is under stress and he has premonitions that his father will become psychotic.
Danny was abused physically, emotionally and sexually. That's why he's traumatized. Not from some scary vision he got.
@@newlyborncorn There is nothing in the movie about Danny being sexually abused. His emotional trauma comes from his intuition about his father's mental illness which manifests itself as visions. You're reading themes into the story that don't belong there because our society has become obsessed with child sexual abuse.
@@moseshoward7072 You're wrong. Check this out: m.ruclips.net/video/dW2GrG7Zk0U/видео.html
Be VERY careful with your feeble little assumption making, there, mosey.
Great video. I like your perspective. I agree with everything, but I do enjoy hearing other opinions and points of view on this movie. Thanks for taking the time to make it. 💛
I think you projected your own opinions a little in this analysis
Literally the entire video is my opinion, as are almost every analysis you'll see of any piece of media where they try to evaluate the media's meaning.
He meant to say this:
"I think you projected your own ideology a little in this analysis"
Which is putting it very mildly!
You're a trained white man hating mutt to put it brutally honest...
o and cringey as all hell with the copy paste jargon and opinions.
Beliar you’re a delight.
Beliar - 1. You r a tool. 2. Kubrick was also a trained white man...
@Felix Ray Pretty sure the fella speaking in this video was a guy.
Best Shining analysis I’ve seen. (Im a behaviour analyst and btw your psychological insights are very accurate)
this is gorgeous, you have done an incredible job with this analysis drawing a parallel with current events as well... u have shown the main thematic of Kubrick's abusive man to the fullest... not one detail left!! keep up the good work this is truly inspiring! +1 for the critique of anti-interpretation
The more I watch this movie and analysis, the more I think it’s about the cultural phenomena of familicide. And of course the abuse that preceded it. The missing overt display of abuse forces the audience to take on the role of a family acquaintance that never saw it coming. You see the effects of abuse but never too much of the abuse itself until the 3rd act.
It doesn't seem that Jack Torrance thinks talking about cannibalism is okay because Danny saw it on TV first. He rather mocks Danny's statement "It's okay, I saw it on TV."
Topic of abuse and the Shining.
What‘s even stranger than the movie is your life while studying this movie... I didn’t even care for this movie so much at first. I was just starting to get an interest in quality films when I was about younger. But nothing could have prepared me for what was to be revealed to me concerning everyone on earth in the year following my first viewing of the Shining. I’m a musician and I’m into (but not limited to) very weird music; Avant-garde Classical ya know like the stuff in 2001: A Space Odyssey whenever the monolith/stargate appear? That’s my jam. And obviously the music in the Shining. Ok well when I first saw the movie the first thing that caught my attention was the music in the opening scene and the scene shortly after where Danny first sees the blood. As I said I first saw the movie when I was about 18 think around 2012? Just before the documentary “Room 237. I was into it just when it was becoming a thing. During my first viewing I happened to have made some secret homemade beer for the viewing occasion. I knew nothing about the Shining or Stephen King. I had liked A Clockwork Orange so much that I had to check out other films by this director. I had no idea that this film was speaking to me on an unconscious level and that I wouldn’t even find out until months after I first saw the film. and the horror that would come with my knowledge. I was naive but intuitive, making a lot of money at the time I could buy movies that I thought would be “keepers”. I knew a lot about the world but I didn’t know about the horror that is literally just on the other side of consciousness. I became convinced that there was something happening in this movie that was awakening something inside me that I couldn’t quite catch. Something that I could feel in my chest, like when you’re experiencing something emotionally jarring.
As I said before I’m a musician and a lyricist... I was working on my demo album when I saw The Shining and I had my own set of thoughts and creative references I was making, I was really just making music about the world outside myself instead of making music that would help me and other people as individuals live better lives... blah blah blah! I was a kid with ambition ok? But I wasn’t making music that had the feeling I wanted to communicate. I am still experimenting with new sounds but I now know what I need to create. So this is where things get interesting, I know for certain Stanley Kubrick made movies with an amount of detail that mimicked his own ability to process and utilize an incredibly wide body of knowledge. He was aware of every societal, cultural and socioeconomic issue of our time believe. Which brings me to my next topic, which is one problem with the world today but one problem that claimed me and my life. I think that Stanley was starting to become disappointed that he wasn’t able to tackle issues pertaining to human rights especially after Barry Lyndon I think he also knew he wanted to make an addictive film, filled with so much meaning and detail packed into it that it would “awaken” spectators. A film that would make film fanatics obsess over it trying to decode all the little nuances. A film that would in time create it’s own buzz, it’s own cult following. Good art is made using equal parts focused intent and abstract improvisation. Meaning you can try all you want to create a painting of trees or a song about the ocean. But the universe will always surprise you with it’s own intentions that weave their way into the art we make and the art we consume. But art is mysterious like that, and good art blurs the lines between the artists intentions and the viewers interpretation of said art.
I got into hard drugs when I was 19 and during that period I became more and more aware of how fucked up the world was, during this time I had been watching the Shining every so often for probably a year or two... Which like I said it weirded me out because I couldn’t even tell what it was I liked about it except for the music maybe. But anyway this was about the time I found out about the kinds of things happening in this country... human / child trafficking, drugs trafficking, bohemian grove, the elite, and our enslavement to the almighty dollar. And I took to social media to alert others of all the crisis that we face together as a species and I feel it is my duty as a compassionate person to do so. People in this movie do horrible things and just forget what they’ve done. And everyone knows about the hotel’s history. Yet everyone goes on as though nothing is wrong. When we see the blood and the phantoms (the horrors of history) we know we can’t change the past so we must do what’s right for our future and our children’s future. In our lives things happen to us “but we can’t remember” this is a synchronicity. Whether or not Kubrick was intending of it or not, this movie is about human rights among other thing and the role we play in breaking the cycle of abuse, making peace with others and coming together as a species to make war and the mutilation of our hopes and dreams nothing more than a picture in a book.
I had just finished my demo album and had set my sights to getting my life together, getting off of hard drugs and getting enrolled in school. I thought I understood the world, I thought I knew myself physically, and then I found out just how bad our country really is and how one of our biggest issues is rarely discussed in public. There’s a secret sexists are hiding from men and women in the USA, and people are brainwashed to perceive themselves as disposable (mainly targeting men) making men feel like it’s their duty to join the military, or making men feel as though their life isn’t complete without total servitude to a career struggling to make ends meet. Men are targets during the most vulnerable moments of their lives, when they’re infants that can’t say “no don’t hurt me” I’m referring to MGM not the movie company or the hotel... I’m talking about the ancient blood ritual designed specifically to cause pain to men and damage their ability to literally feel another human. This barbaric and sexist practice is still adopted by almost half of parents of infant males in the USA. I’m talking about male genital mutilation. Infant male genital mutilation (circumcision) was literally implemented in the United States by a colonial prude that thought that sex caused illnesses. John Harvey Kellogg (cornflake man) was literally obsessed torturing the sexuality out of his victims which he considered his “patients”. He was a pedophile who put yogurt up his adopted children’s anuses and his own. He was pure evil.
I kept getting the idea that the Shining film was tapping into this sort of evil. I read the book and there was no mention of sexual abuse if I remember correctly many different areas of thought... You have themes of repetition, people forget horrible things they have done, characters forget what happened to themselves. We as men forget what happened to us and so we allow our own son’s to have their genitals skinned without anesthetic. It’s horrible and once you know about it it’s hard not to fall into an extreme depression. I found out back when I was 18 about all this... but after I had two boys of my own I started getting stronger feelings about what had happened to me and millions of other men in the United Stated. So it turns out that each piece of tissue is sold for $100.000 on average, multiply that by a few million and now you know why they continued harvest the most sensitive part of a mans genitals. And they have to do it when we can’t say no! Because hardly any men would pay to have their dick mutilated... And the whole reason anesthesia isn’t used is because Kellogg promoted not using it so that the victim would associate punishment with their genitals. Makes my heart hurt that my parents stood over me while I was tortured and raped essentially... slowly more and more men are speaking out and now we have quite the following on the internet look up #mendocomplain on Facebook or go to
ruclips.net/video/gCSWbTv3hng/видео.html
www.bloodstainedmen.com/
laraleestang.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-ricmgm-is-worse-than-rape.html
The horrors of history will end, we can make these things become pictures a book. But we have to retrace our steps and look back at what has happened to us as men in order to save our sons from the same fate. To break the abusive cycle of history and escape with our bodies intact.
I've listened to a lot of different theories of this movie but yours was the most thoroughly done and explained. Awesome job kid
will you do eyes wide shut? would love to see your take on it. other films too would be twin peaks fire walk with me, magnolia, punch drunk love, there will be blood, the master, all that jazz, or lolita (1962).
On my list for consideration are Eyes Wide Shut, Fire Walk With Me, and There Will Be Blood, but I don't have anything written about any of those films yet so I don't expect to make videos about them any time soon.
Spot on about Danny and "Tony". Although controversial, Dissociative Identity Disorder is a real thing to me as an observer. An abuse victim's conscious state develops "personalities" or "alters" which split off to protect the core person. "Tony" is a protective alter personality that takes over for Danny when abuse occurs, or when Danny experiences a post-traumatic trigger. Excellent analysis. Thanks for sharing your story. Be well.
There were supernatural forces because Wendy saw them.
Shining and visions caused by Danny's influence.
I like this movie and feel more could be done with it. more scenes from the evil spirits in it. the power of the shinning mind conversations between Danny and Mr Howland. a movie mistake I noticed in this was knowing Tony had taken over Danny's body saying that Wendy's son had gone away for good. then later on in the film Wendy is called mom once again which seems as if Danny never lost his body to the spirit of Danny Torrance. so is the explanation that Tony decided to act like the personality of Danny Torrance in order to put Wendy's mind at ease? Or has Danny made a choice to fight to keep control of his own body? and yet another theory which is possible is Tony hid the spirit of Danny Torrance as a way of protecting him from any dangerous things. the why and reasons had not even been discussed by anyone. another thing I've noticed is why didn't Wendy ask what Jack was doing in the bar and who he was talking to? plus Jack knocking down objects in the kitchen would have alerted someone in the hotel. and seeing Red Rum looked at on the door as the word Murder was never questioned.
41:39 Jack Nicholson does the most insane facial expressions in this movie. Also he inspired me to put white clown makeup all over my face when I was 9 years old and dress up like the joker for halloween. He was my favorite Joker.
Idk 42:09 is pretty disturbing
Jack reacts with fright in room 237 when the woman he’s hugging turns into a rotting old woman. And Danny is not emotionless in the film, quite the opposite. Your analysis is not insightful, most everything you’ve said is obvious to the viewer.
I was thinking when I first heard about Danny being hurt by Jack while drunk that it was a few years ago not 5 months. Danny's arm should still hurt especially in winter with all the storms going through. I've had broken bones they still hurt sometimes. I was 7, 11, and 14 when they happened and I'm over 50 now they still hurt before storms.
I love this movie, largely because it's so rich in meaning. I think your interpretation is spot-on, but it speaks to the richness of meaning in this film that I've seen other interpretations, quite different, that strike me as just as spot-on.
That’s why it’s a masterpiece and subtle, I don’t know how you create a piece of open ended art that could mean so many different things, I really believe Kubrick was high IQ genius