brian hefele's untidy space

This past Friday, I saw The Shining on the big screen for the first time. I've seen it in my own cozy setting myriad times, and once on a nasty digital projector as an assignment for a feminist film theory course. I've watched the film a lot, I've read a lot about the film, and I've written a bit about it as well. This article is bound to contain spoilers, but if you haven't already seen The Shining, you're some sort of spoiled anyhow.

You notice different things in different viewing scenarios. Watching a film on a crusty old CRT is a much different experience from watching the same film in a tiny window on my Mac while I repeatedly mash 'scan backward, pause, play' and attempt to take notes. Both of these are generally better than the theatre, an experience that I usually loathe. But catching a great film like The Shining in a great theatre like the AFI Silver can be quite refreshing.

Upon this viewing, one thing really stood out to me - the scene where Danny and Wendy are first exploring the hedge maze at the Overlook (38 minutes in - begins with Wendy's line "The loser has to keep America clean, how's that?"). We've already been introduced to the hedge maze, and told of its complexity ("I wouldn't want to go in there unless I had an hour to spend to find my way out…"). But in this scene, we actually get to go inside the hedge maze, we get to experience it, we're given the feeling that you're either in or out, with no sense of being 'almost there.' The scene gives a sense of disorientation while remaining playful and fun - while we sense that Jack may have his loose points, we don't really sense threat yet.

It's just playful family fun until we fade back inside the Overlook. After throwing his ball around a bit, Jack intently looks down upon the model of the maze. We watch him watch the model, then cut to his perspective - an overhead view of the maze with Wendy and Danny smack dab in the center. This is a definitive moment - that which asserts Jack's position not as a father or husband, but as a god or a ruler holding complete control of his subjects below. The scene serves as a turning point in the film - whereas before Jack merely seemed a bit off, he now becomes truly antagonistic toward his family. The maze scene is the end of that day, and we cut to Tuesday, where Wendy offers to make Jack a sandwich and Jack in turn rips up part of his 'manuscript' and tells his wife to get the fuck out of the room.

While we already sense that Jack isn't the best husband or father, and we know that he drunkenly injured Danny once, we have not actually seen this angry, abusive side of him yet. From here, his anger only escalates, time speeds up (we've already gone from the span of a month to that of a day), and everything goes to hell. For much of the rest of the movie, Jack plays out his god role, manipulating and abusing his wife and son. Yet ultimately he loses this game. He loses to Wendy who is able to fend him off repeatedly. He loses to Danny who outsmarts him in the hedge maze. But ultimately, he loses to the maze itself, the land he looked down on as if he had complete dominion over it. His death (and I use the term loosely, given the highly ambiguous nature of the film) in the snowy maze closes up the circle nicely, bringing us right back to our place where mother and son can hold hands knowing that they have the true bond of familial love between them. It may also be worth considering that 'all work and no play' leads Jack to his demise - Danny actually has experienced the maze, unlike his father.

One last thing - Wikipedia says: "Stephen King has been quoted as saying that although Kubrick made a film with memorable imagery, it was not a good adaptation of his novel and is the only adaptation of his novels that he could 'remember hating.'" I firmly believe that this provides much insight into the brilliance of the film. That is all.