The Shining

Assassinate? No. He was merely attempting to correct her for preventing him from doing his duty.

The Shining is one of the best films of the 1970s, and one of my favorite thrillers of all time. It also happens to be one of the most studied and picked-apart films ever made, as well. There are hundreds of websites, books, blogs and the like dedicated to discussing, analyzing, and interpreting the symbolism and themes in the films. The film deals with themes of genocide, guilt, mythology, and the burden of history on humanity. Even thte set design contains oddities that people obsess over, like the Impossible Window. There are more, shall we say, fringe theories dealing with the faking of the Apollo 11 moon landings and other tenuous at best claims, but man, the more you read about and study this film, the more questions and mysteries emerge. It's just such an interesting film...

And that's just the subtext of all this. On the surface, you have brilliant set design, stellar cinematography, and fantastic acting across the board. Shelly Duvall was the only actress on the planet fit to play this role, so said Kubrick and about a million other people. She has the perfect nervous system for the role, and she knocked it out of the park.

The Shining is complex film. If you disagree, you are questioning the work of a master who was much, much smarter than any of us having this discussion, unless your IQ is up around 200, like ol' Stanley's was.

Dig into it a bit more, and you can learn about the subtleties of symbolic film making from one of the best masters of the craft, ever.

Kubrick was THE MAN. If you discard and ignore his work, it is surely your loss.

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great post tough to declare, but i believe the Shining is a perfect movie. in a way i'm sorta glad i put off watching it for the first time until just about a month or so ago

some of the conspiracy theories surrounding it are pretty goofy, but even so i think it's awesome for the movie's sake that some have read that much into it

prior to viewing this, i hadn't gotten cuckoo about Kubrick yet... as the movie unfolded i morphed into a Kubrick fan, couldn't help it. it just happened

i still haven't seen most of his filmography either... Paths of Glory, Barry Lyndon, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut, Lolita. these have pretty much risen to the top of my 'to watch' list

I was watching Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse last night, and Dr. Mabuse was being kept in an asylum in Room 237, but he "escaped" and was mind-controlling others to do his bidding. Apparently his grip eventually spread to Kubrick and Jack Torrance. They should have interviewed me for that "documentary".

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King didn't seem to understand that Kubrick never did conventional adaptations. He merely adopted previous source material (in this case, The Shining) as a springboard to develop and tell his own story. It wasn't about illuminating King's vision, but taking the basics of his narrative and turning it into some completely different.

Eyes Wide Shut is a perfect example of this.

Sedai nailed it with his Post. There was much more going on than just a great movie. Kubrick was telling many different stories with this movie. Kubrick always had deeper meanings to all of his movies. The man is a genius! Simple as that. Read up, and watch the documentaries about him then re-watch his movies. If you know anything about Alchemy or the Cosmos, well your in for a real treat, borderline life changing! Don't even get me started on 2001.

It's a shame The Shining has become a basis for so many ludicrous conspiracy theories, however. According to some, Kubrick filmed the fake moon landing on the set of 2001, felt horribly guilty about it and then decided to drench a film twelve years later in subtle, almost incomprehensible symbolism that apparently can be seen as Kubrick's confession the world. Furthermore, Eyes Wide Shut is also, according to some, Kubrick's personal journey of discovering and exposing the 'illuminati', a satanic secret society that controls the world.

Got to give these people one for creativity.

That was one weird movie. I always wondered about that scene and didn't know it was based on a real satanic cult. Cool.

Well, it's not really, but conspiracy theorists think this is a depiction of a satanic secret society that controls the world.

Congratulations on seeing it for the first time. You must have really enjoyed it. I saw it when it was first released on home video. It had a completely different cover.

The scene was no doubt made to look satanic with the man in red and the shaking of incence; and then there was the backwards music and the orgy which followed.

My reaction after I saw it for the first time: Really good horror flick with stunning camerawork. Second time (after almost a year): Kubrick at the top of his game, filmmaking at its finest.

The reason I think Kubrick films are prone to numerous conspiracies and whatnot is because of how layered and complex his films are. They're ripe for discussion, and that's a big part of what makes them so great. 2001,The Shining,Eyes Wide Shut,etc continue to be analyzed to this very day.

The Shining is an easy +. It's the work of an absolute master, its in my 20 favorite films ever made.

Of course. It just gets looney when people think that such a satanic cult which runs the world actually exists, and the protagonists' journey is a depiction of Kubrick's personal experiences with this supposed illuminati group.

Eyes Wide Shut is a very mysterious film, and while I'm not sure it's about Kubrick trying to expose some secret society or cult,it's still a possibility. Let me explain. Eyes Wide Shut on the surface is a film about marriage,infidelity, and desire. It's brilliant, and a perfect deconstruction of modern relationships. I do believe that cults like this movie portrays do exist,I'm not saying its the Illuminati or some Satanic society...but its a possibility.I agree tin-foil hate conspiracies like those seen in the documentary Room 237 are extremely far fetched, but maybe there is more to some of his films than meets the eye.You never know.

And I thought Kubrick was Jewish.

Anytime an element of satanism or the spirit world is depicted in a movie, there will always be people who see too much into it. There was, or used to be, a website forum devoted to the Amityvile Horror house and people believe the house is still haunted even to this day. They will post pictures on the site and point to shadows which they believe are ghosts. It's amusing but sad.

Yep, exactly right. Though I must admit that it's fun to imagine that some of these theories are true.

The whole "aboriginal revenge" theme counts as a theory for the Shining, right? I enjoy that one a lot, there are just so many good examples of it throughout this fantastic film.

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What about the burning monolith in Full Metal Jacket?





We all know what the monoliths represent in 2001, evolution etc. In FMJ, it symbolizes the opposite.

The greatest horror film ever made. Even better than Hitchcock's classics.

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I agree with you, mate. Cults like this do exist, and they are certainly more common than what we think. They've been exposed a few times before. I can subscribe to the notion that Eyes Wide Shut is a story about 'discovering' a hidden cult, sure. But to argue the film is about Kubrick's personal experiences with discovering the 'illuminati' after he agreed to shoot the fake moon landings on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey is a bit too far-fetched and implausible for my liking. For starters, the moon landing was not a hoax. And secondly, I am pretty sure there is no such thing of a group called the illuminati that controls every facet of the word, idolises Satan, and incorporates hidden symbols in film, architecture, and infrastructure.

But yes, you're certainly right nonetheless.