Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation ofStephen King’s 1977 novelThe Shiningis arguably the greatest and most iconic horror film ever made. Its lead performances, quotable lines (“Here’s Johnny!"), and unsettling imagery have given the film a ubiquitous status in popular culture attained by few movies. In addition, Kubrick’s incorporation of arthouse filmmaking techniques into the historically low-brow horror genre has influenced many of today’sso-called “elevated horror"filmmakers, including Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, and Jennifer Kent.
However, despite its status,The Shininghad its fair share of critics when it was first released, even controversially earning two Razzie nominations. But its loudest critic is none other than Stephen King himself. The author, who took much inspiration from his own life when he wrote the novel, strongly objected to the film’s changes from the source material and called it “a maddening, perverse, and disappointing film” in his 1981 non-fiction bookDanse Macabre, while frequently accusing Kubrick of being too cold and clinical of a filmmaker. Here’s why King is wrong.
King’s Objections to Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’
The Shining
One of the primary reasons King disliked Kubrick’s adaptation was its depiction of the protagonist/antagonist, Jack Torrance. Like Jack, King was struggling with alcoholism, writer’s block, insomnia, and violent urges when he wroteThe Shining. But, while King’s novel depicts Jack as a flawed everyman who is still capable of kindness and love, even during his downward spiral into violent insanity, Kubrick’s film makes Jack seem menacing and mentally unstable from the opening scene.
Jack’s immediately unnerving presence is largely due to the casting of Jack Nicholson, whomKing toldPlayboyin 1983was “all wrong for the part.” King also criticizedShelley Duvall’s performance as Jack’s wife, Wendy, complaining tothe BBC in 2013that “she’s basically there to just scream and be stupid,” even callingthe film’s treatment of her character"misogynistic.”
The Shining: 10 Differences Between the Horror Movie and Stephen King’s Book
What differences between the movie and the book help make both artistic works of The Shining so successful?
But it wasn’t just the casting that fueled King’s hatred of the movie. Unlike the novel, the film leaves it ambiguous whether the hotel’s ghosts are real or imagined by the characters. King felt this made the film less compelling, tellingPlayboythat “a visceral skeptic such as Kubrick just couldn’t grasp the sheer inhuman evil of the Overlook Hotel. So he looked, instead, for evil in the characters… Because he couldn’t believe, he couldn’t make the film believable to others.”
Is King Right About Kubrick’s Version of ‘The Shining’?
In many ways, King is right about the ways in which Kubrick diverged from the novel. While King understandably saw his fictional avatar as a sympathetic victim of the Overlook’s malevolent influence as well as his own demons, Kubrick just saw Jack as a monster in the same vein as Alex fromA Clockwork Orange(1971) or HAL 9000 from2001: A Space Odyssey(1968). However, King might be missing the point of claiming that these differences lessen the thematic complexity and emotional impact of the film.
Ultimately,Kubrick’sThe Shiningis a cautionary tale about what happens to a family with an alcoholic patriarch who, unlike King and the novel’s Jack Torrance, isnotcapable of changing for the better. As Nathan Rabin ofThe Dissolvewrites, “the film depicts a man who has completely given himself over to his demons, rather than facing the consequences of being sober.” Through this lens,Nicholson’s casting makes perfect sense.
The Best Hotel and Airbnb Horror Movies, Ranked
There’s something extra creepy about a horror movie set at a hotel or Airbnb. These are seven of the best.
King’s assertion that the film’s ambiguity about the hotel’s ghosts makes the movie less compelling is also questionable, as this ambiguity enhances the film’s exploration of alcoholism and domestic abuse. For instance, several of Jack’s interactions with the hotel’s ghosts (who encourage him to drink and kill his family) take place in front of mirrors, suggesting that they might just be literal reflections of his isolated and alcoholic mind.
Jack’s son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), has visions of two little girls, whom the manager explains were murdered by their father, the hotel’s prior caretaker. These visions might be projections of Danny’s fear that his own father will do the same to him. In other words, despite King’s allegations that Kubrick is too distant from the characters, the film entraps us within the minds of both the abuser and the abused, making us fear the former and empathize with the latter.
From Sea to ‘Shining’ Sea
The thematic scope of Kubrick’s version ofThe Shiningextends beyond one family’s struggle with alcoholism and domestic abuse. Indeed, the film can be read as a broader commentary on toxic masculinity among white American men and the oppressive nature of the nuclear family model. One common interpretation of the film (made famous by the 2012 documentary filmRoom 237)is that Kubrick subtly links Jack’s madness and violence with America’s history of racism and colonialism.
As far-fetched as this theory may seem, there is plenty of evidence that this was Kubrick’s intention. For instance, throughout the film, Native American imagery is visible in the background, often in culturally appropriated contexts, such as the artworks adorning the hotel and the caricatured imagery on various food products in the pantry. The hotel manager who hires Jack, Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson), says that the hotel was built on ground considered sacred by Native Americans.
At one point, Jack even refers to his responsibilities as a husband and father as the “white man’s burden” (a term coined by author Rudyard Kipling to describe the perceived need for white Europeans to “civilize” the supposedly “primitive” Indigenous people groups whom Europeans colonized). The film, therefore, suggests that Jack’s abusive nature and descent into madness are not merely individual failings, but a by-product of the culture of white male supremacy and violence that largely defines America’s history.
The Immeasurable Legacy of ‘The Shining’
While Stephen King’s opinions on Kubrick’s adaptation ofThe Shiningcertainly go against the critical consensus for the film, it’s also not hard to see why he feels that way about the film, considering how heavily he identified with the novel’s Jack Torrance. This is why it matters that books and their adaptations be regarded as separate creative works, rather than just carbon copies of each other.
The novel shows King’s artistry at its peak, and the film shows Kubrick’s at its peak. While King has the right to voice his opinions, it doesn’t change the fact that Kubrick’sThe Shiningis still one of the greatest horror films ever made.The Shiningis available to stream onMax.
