This film (based off a novel by Steven King) is the story of a man named Jack Torrence who moves his wife and son out into the isolated Overlook hotel to after he gets the job as the winter caretaker. His goal in isolating himself is to find peace and thus the ability to overcome his writer’s block, but as the film progresses he is pushed more and more over the edge of his sanity by not only the isolation but apparitions from the hotel’s dark history.
This
film is a narrative structured to parallel past events in the hotel. Jack
Torrence’s character gradually “snaps” much like the father in the story he is
told about in the beginning of the film who murdered his wife and two
daughters. In a way, it could be said that the images of the two girls, the
partiers, Delbert Grady (the past caretaker/murderous father) are in a manner
flash-backs. In many ways this is a film about Karma. The characters have to
keep reliving a horrible past event until they get the outcome right. Like
Delbert Grady, Jack Torrence looses it and goes after his wife and son. Though
Jack Torrence doesn’t have two daughters as Grady did, the twosome could be
said to be represented as two-in-one in the son Danny and his imaginary friend:
Tony. The first ‘flashbacks’ that the characters have (mainly Danny) are all of
deceased characters, but as the film progresses the images become more symbolic
metaphors for the relationship between Jack and his wife. When Jack first
encounters the ghost bartender Lloyd (whose name means grey-haired which
alludes to wisdom and someone deserving of respect) he confides in the
apparition that he is not sexually gratified, this later plays out in the scene
where he encounters a nude woman in the bathroom of the room where Grady left
his murdered family. The nude woman transforms into that of a rotting old hag,
which may represent his decaying relationship with his wife and the horror of
it. Another scene which expresses this is the short clip where the wife (Wendy
Torrence) happens upon a person in a bear costume with an old man on the bed.
Again the wife is represented by a figure that is old, but this time, what can
be assumed is a representation of Jack Torrence, is not himself but a costume
of an animal that is dangerous and savage. The non-diegetic music does a lot to
build suspense in this film and even sometimes worked with the diegetic sounds
to create an ominous atmosphere. For example: when the camera is following
Danny (whose name may be a reference to the biblical character Daniel who was
imprisoned in a lion’s den) on his tricycle through the hotel, the sounds of
his wheels rumbling on the tile and then dully thrumming on the carpet was
punctuated with music that made the diegetic sounds almost like drum-rolls.
Also, the music that played in the Gold Ballroom from the roaring twenties tied
the ghosts and Jack Torrence back to the past.
As the film progresses and we’ve determined
that Jack Torrence is dissatisfied with his life on various levels, we discover
that he actually seems to be enjoying his madness. As he becomes more and more
derailed mentally the ghosts become more and more prominent, and at one point
(close to the final moments) the ghost of Grady who now has the top of his head
blown off asks the wife “if she is enjoying the party”. It seems at the
beginning that the son is the only other person besides Jack who can see these
characters. Jack is of course becoming more and more unstable and Danny has a
special ability which is brought to his attention by Dick Holloran, the hotel
chef. Danny has “the shining”, a psychic ability. Dick says that he has this
ability as well, and that it allows Danny to hear what others are thinking.
Danny is also referred to by this character as “Doc,” which is a reference to
Bugs Bunny who calls Elmer Fudd (Bugs’ arch enemy who is intent on hunting down
and killing him). Danny may be being paralleled here to the rabbit and
therefore Jack Torrence would be the hunter. When Danny is being hunted by his
father he is able to use his “shining” to call Dick to come and check on them,
this doesn’t end well as Dick becomes a victim of Jack, but this gives Danny
the chance to get ahead of Jack (his pursuer) and make it to the hedge maze
which is just akin to the Overlook hotel. This maze bears an important
significance as it is like a trap, once in it it’s difficult to find your way
out. In many ways the hotel parallels the maze, as it too is presented as a
large winding structure full of hallways and empty rooms. These mazes represent
Jack’s own psychosis and feelings and finally Wendy and Danny’s when they are
attempting to escape Jack. The colors in the hotel also seem to become more and
more garish as the film progresses which represent the rising intensity of
Jack’s lunacy. These colors make the feeling of entrapment more intense as the
walls become more and more red, giving a strong sense of danger. All the
strange color combinations also show imbalance.
Jack,
enjoying his hunt is finally trapped himself in the very snow that isolates the
hotel. He joins his ghostly illusions and makes the viewer wonder if the ghosts
have adopted him into their circle (which enjoys reveling in their bloody past)
or whether he was the reincarnation of Grady and his past victims needed to
escape him.
