Why “The Shining” Remains the Greatest Movie Ever Made

Stanley Kubrick’s ultimate masterpiece and the lengths he went to make it, combined with coronavirus lockdowns over this past year turning us all into minor versions of the Torrance family for months on end, is why “The Shining” remains the best movie of all-time

For those that have known me for a while, my favorite film for years was Sean Penn’s Into the Wild. The movie, based on the famous John Krakauer book, came out during the start of my senior year in high school in 2007. At the time, I was looking at colleges and trying to figure out what the next step in my life would be. I identified with a lot of the themes in the story at the time, and while it is still a tremendous film and I consider it to be my second favorite movie, for whatever reason, the older I get, I have become more intoxicated and fascinated with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Based on the famous Stephen King book, it’s a movie that many have seen, and a Halloween re-watch favorite especially. I have some friends that find it to be boring and overrated, while others I know consider to be an all-time great. When I first saw it in high school, I thought it was fine but nothing special. But with each re-watch, it started to draw me in, much like The Overlook Hotel in the story does to Jack Nicholson’s character. He plays a recovering alcoholic and struggling writer named Jack Torrance, looking for a fresh start for his career (looking at the silence and solitude of the hotel and its location as perfect for him completing his “writing project”), and his family.

I feel like I gained even more appreciation for this film when coronavirus shutdown the United States in mid-March 2020 through the beginning of June. Notably, the themes of silence and isolation and the effects it can have on one’s mental health. Being that I’m a writer myself, and seeing people everywhere struggle with being holed up, working remotely from home, as opposed to an office location surrounded by co-workers, on some level you could understand Torrance’s struggle to keep his sanity. Not to the extent of trying to kill your family with an ax, but let’s face it, a lot of us went through stages of absolute boredom and feeling mental strain during that time. I know I did.

There are many interesting aspects about the making of this movie, but to me the number one thing that has always intrigued me was the fact that King famously HATED Kubrick’s interpretation of his story. And I can certainly understand why considering the amount of changes Kubrick made. I won’t reveal them all, but right from the jump of the story, in King’s book, the first interaction between Torrance and the hotel manager who’s interviewing him for the position of caretaker is icy, and both characters detest each other. In Kubrick’s film, the movie opens with this scene, only the hotel manager couldn’t be nicer, and even notes how “highly recommended” Jack came. It’s a total 180 in terms of tone right off the bat, and it’s Kubrick way of setting the stage that he now believes this is his story, and he’s going to make it better than King’s initial version.

Throughout the years, the film has also spawned countless conspiracy theories. There was a documentary made in 2012 called Room 237, an ode to the famous room in the hotel from the movie. The documentary covers multiple theories from film and literature specialists and what they believe the movie is about. Without giving too many away, the most notable ones include that the movie is centered on white guilt regarding our ancestors ripping away the United States from the Native Americans, while another points out clues that it’s actually Kubrick himself admitting that he had a hand in faking the moon landing. Some of the interpretations are flat-out ridiculous and reaching, but others are actually quite fascinating.

Whenever I watch the The Shining, which is around once a month or so, I always catch something new or something I didn’t notice before. To me, that’s huge in determining overall greatness. It’s a testament to Kubrick’s genius and his ability to master the art of subtlety and establishing atmosphere. There are many points in the movie where the dialogue is sparse, and instead Kubrick focuses his camera’s lens on this massive hotel this family of three is in. Jack’s gradual slip into insanity is calculated, and expertly handled by Nicholson, one of the finest and most accomplished actors of all-time. His initial goal of finding redemption, for his career, and more importantly, his alcoholism and how it played into him accidentally injuring his young son Danny, quickly disappears. This adds to the overall dread and how things feel like they are going to ultimately play out.

Speaking of Danny, the young actor who plays him in this movie named Danny Lloyd (now a teacher and out of the acting world), is tremendous. His performance, and character in the movie, are the keys to the entire story working. After all, it’s his power of “The Shining” (a telepathic communication method where he can have conversations with other people who also have this power, even from hundreds of miles away) that this movie is named after. During the filming of the movie, Kubrick went to great lengths to protect Lloyd from knowing everything about the story, framing it as a drama and not a horror story like it really is so that he wouldn’t get scared or intimidated.

A respectable move from Kubrick for sure, which makes his decision for his treatment of Shelley Duval, who plays Danny’s mother and Jack’s wife, super alarming and bi-polar. Kubrick’s goal was to literally drive her to insanity. He berated her on set, going full-Alfred Hitchcock being a complete and utter jerk to her, with the goal being it hopefully resulting in her giving an iconic performance. While Duvall’s turn in this has been the subject to major criticism, it’s clear that Kubrick got what he wanted out of her. Wendy, like her husband, eventually becomes a shell of herself. The famous scene of Wendy swinging the bat at her husband, who is slowly creeping his way up the stairs while talking about “bashing her brains in” – that took 127 takes. And you can tell by the 127th repeat of this scene, that Duvall has lost it, and she’s no longer acting – that’s all her.

The difference in how Kubrick treated Lloyd and Duvall is stunning. It’s like when you watch Gordon Ramsay teaching kids how to cook and he’s being super nice to them when they mess up, then turning around when it comes to adults who are on his cooking shows and forcing them to call themselves “idiot sandwiches” and just being an all-out tyrant towards them.

King later wrote a sequel to The Shining, called Doctor Sleep. I won’t reveal the plot of the story for those that have yet to see The Shining and may still want to at some point. In 2019, King’s story was adapted into a film starring Ewan McGregor and directed by Mike Flanigan – and it’s also terrific. Not as great as The Shining but worth watching.

Ultimately, I feel like this coronavirus pandemic has further strengthened why this movie is an all-time great. We as a modern society had never experienced those levels of isolation until those lockdowns occurred. We all became the Torrance family there for a little while, or for single people like me, I felt like Jack in his office throwing a tennis ball against the wall losing his mind. Mental health has never been a bigger talking point than right now.

To me, it’s the greatest accomplishment in film history. A movie crafted perfectly by the best director of all-time. It’s the most atmospheric and haunting movie ever, and one that I continue to gain more appreciation for as time goes on.