igofast
12-16-2004, 01:42 PM
Feb/99
It would be nearly impossible to not recognize filmmaker Stanley Kubrick as an auteur. Even though his relatively small filmography spans several different genres and subjects, his films have many stylistic and thematic tropes in common. In addition, aside from Sparticus, he demanded large, if not complete control over every aspect of the film making process. In 1980 Kubrick made an adaptation of Steven King's The Shining. With a little amount of help from Diane Johnson, Kubrick wrote the screenplay and changed some of King's emphases in order to explore some of his own thematic ideas that are seen throughout his career. As King wrote the story, the main character, Jack Torrance, is an innocent man that is influenced by an evil entity in the form of a hotel. Kubrick's version is more interested in exploring the humans in the story, and the complex duality that exists within them, a theme that is at least touched on in all of his films. His movies are steeped with visual and thematic metaphors in order to explore his ideas.
Throughout his career, Kubrick brought up an issue that Thomas Allen Nelson refers to as a "doppelganger motif" in his book, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze. In order to explain this further, Nelson uses a quote from an essay by Robin Wood, who explains it as a motif "where normality and the Monster are two aspects of the same person." This theme can most obviously be seen in films like Lolita and A Clockwork Orange. In his same book, Nelson writes a theory that in Lolita, the character of Claire Quilty is the alter ego of Humbert Humbert. While Humbert and Quilty can hardly be separated into categories of normal and monster, there is certainly an aspect of Humbert's repressed side that can be found in Quilty. In A Clockwork Orange, the audience is asked to identify with and sympathize with a young man that finds no remorse in raping, beating, and killing.
Nelson calls this two-sided nature of man doubling. Doubling involves creating visual and textual metaphors that build the characters as two-sided (good/evil; normal/monster). One important icon Kubrick used in The Shining that is not specific to any one character is a mirror. Even early in the film, the use of the reverse image in a mirror is implemented to lay the groundwork for Jack Torrance's doubling. When Wendy Torrance brings her husband breakfast in bed, Kubrick establishes the shot in the mirror, then uses a reverse zoom, until the viewer can finally see the mirror and realizes that it is a reflection being shown. The camera then zooms back into the mirror, showing Jack screen left. Kubrick then uses a jump cut to the 'real' image where Jack is screen right. Already the viewer begins to feel that there are two sides to Jack.
Doubling can also be seen in the other characters, such as Grady, the old caretaker. The hotel manager informed Jack that Charles Grady had been a former caretaker of the hotel and had murdered his family. Later, Jack meets Delbert Grady, a butler at the 1921 banquet. Jack recognizes his face as the man who murdered his family, but this is not Charles. Danny Torrance is doubled by Tony, the boy that lives in his mouth. It is Tony that talks to Danny and shows him the horrors of the Overlook hotel before they happen. Not just an imaginary friend, Tony takes over Danny’s body after Danny sees the first images of ‘Redrum.’ The doubling is also more prominent in Jack as his ‘monster’ side begins to emerge. When Jack speaks to Delbert Grady in the restroom, Grady says that Jack has always been there. This comment is later backed up by the final shot in the film, a shot of Jack hanging on the wall from a 1921 party. There are now literally two Jacks, the present day that is frozen in the hedge maze, and the past jack, frozen in time in the photo.
In The Shining, the character of Jack Torrance is focused on as the doppelganger, but the film does not show much of the juxtaposition of the good and bad sides of Torrance. The film takes on a more ‘horror story’ approach where Jack’s bad side slowly emerges and overcomes his good. Even in the beginning when Jack is a relatively normal man, there is foreshadowing of his breakdown. On the drive up, the Torrance family discusses the Donner party and how they resorted to cannibalism. Later, when Hallorann gives Wendy a tour of the kitchen, he shows that there are ample provisions for the winter. Thomas Allen Nelson points out that this, “anticipates the film’s thematic concern for psychological/spiritual cannibalism and survival through Jack’s eventual breakdown into madness.”
Kubrick also explores mazes, another topic found in most of his films, although often metaphorically. According to Nelson, Kubrick likens exploring the human psyche to a maze. He sees Jack’s “subconscious as a labyrinth in which the conscious gets lost.” This is explored in the film in a scene where Jack looks down on a model of the hedge maze and can see Wendy and Danny playing in it as they play in the real version outside. Both Wendy and Danny spend a good amount of time exploring the hotel and grounds, while Jack’s exploration turns inward. This is what eventually leads to the salvation of Wendy and Danny and the ultimate demise of Jack. Even for the audience, the map of the hotel is very hard to conceptualize, but Danny shows confident knowledge as he rides his hot wheels around the hotel, and Wendy delivers food from the kitchen and checks boilers in the basement. Because of their familiarity with their physical surroundings, Wendy and especially Danny are able to escape from Jack. Jack on the other hand has turned inward, getting trapped inside his own maze.
There also seems to be a sort of critique of American culture and it’s effect on other cultures and people. While being shown around the hotel, the manager recalls the story that the hotel was built on a Native American Burial Site, and the builders even had to repel a couple attacks in order to build the hotel. It’s ironic that the hotel’s construction was dependent upon destroying the Native Americans in the area, and then the builders saw fit to pay ‘homage’ to their victims by decorating heavily in Native American motifs. Later, as Hallorann (a black man) shows Wendy the kitchen, a can of Calumet (a calumet is a peace pipe) baking powder is clearly situated next to Hallorann’s head, with his profile matching that of the Native American on the can. This foreshadows Hallorann’s fate, one similar to the Native Americans that inhabited the area when the hotel was built. To further the analogy, in the interview that Ullman gives Jack in the beginning, Ullman’s pencil holder contains an American flag, as well as an axe. The axe serves a double purpose here, relating American culture with violence, but it is also a visual clue to the past of the murderer Grady and the future of Jack Torrance.
Kubrick’s films seem to have so many visual cues, metaphors, themes and meanings that one might begin to wonder if they were all intentional. While it is unlikely that Kubrick planned every meaning ahead of time, his track record in filmmaking has proven his success. Not just The Shining, but all of his films can be examined and found to be full of criticism, comment, and exploration of difficult topics, that whether or not the viewer agrees with him, are well supported and represented.
It would be nearly impossible to not recognize filmmaker Stanley Kubrick as an auteur. Even though his relatively small filmography spans several different genres and subjects, his films have many stylistic and thematic tropes in common. In addition, aside from Sparticus, he demanded large, if not complete control over every aspect of the film making process. In 1980 Kubrick made an adaptation of Steven King's The Shining. With a little amount of help from Diane Johnson, Kubrick wrote the screenplay and changed some of King's emphases in order to explore some of his own thematic ideas that are seen throughout his career. As King wrote the story, the main character, Jack Torrance, is an innocent man that is influenced by an evil entity in the form of a hotel. Kubrick's version is more interested in exploring the humans in the story, and the complex duality that exists within them, a theme that is at least touched on in all of his films. His movies are steeped with visual and thematic metaphors in order to explore his ideas.
Throughout his career, Kubrick brought up an issue that Thomas Allen Nelson refers to as a "doppelganger motif" in his book, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze. In order to explain this further, Nelson uses a quote from an essay by Robin Wood, who explains it as a motif "where normality and the Monster are two aspects of the same person." This theme can most obviously be seen in films like Lolita and A Clockwork Orange. In his same book, Nelson writes a theory that in Lolita, the character of Claire Quilty is the alter ego of Humbert Humbert. While Humbert and Quilty can hardly be separated into categories of normal and monster, there is certainly an aspect of Humbert's repressed side that can be found in Quilty. In A Clockwork Orange, the audience is asked to identify with and sympathize with a young man that finds no remorse in raping, beating, and killing.
Nelson calls this two-sided nature of man doubling. Doubling involves creating visual and textual metaphors that build the characters as two-sided (good/evil; normal/monster). One important icon Kubrick used in The Shining that is not specific to any one character is a mirror. Even early in the film, the use of the reverse image in a mirror is implemented to lay the groundwork for Jack Torrance's doubling. When Wendy Torrance brings her husband breakfast in bed, Kubrick establishes the shot in the mirror, then uses a reverse zoom, until the viewer can finally see the mirror and realizes that it is a reflection being shown. The camera then zooms back into the mirror, showing Jack screen left. Kubrick then uses a jump cut to the 'real' image where Jack is screen right. Already the viewer begins to feel that there are two sides to Jack.
Doubling can also be seen in the other characters, such as Grady, the old caretaker. The hotel manager informed Jack that Charles Grady had been a former caretaker of the hotel and had murdered his family. Later, Jack meets Delbert Grady, a butler at the 1921 banquet. Jack recognizes his face as the man who murdered his family, but this is not Charles. Danny Torrance is doubled by Tony, the boy that lives in his mouth. It is Tony that talks to Danny and shows him the horrors of the Overlook hotel before they happen. Not just an imaginary friend, Tony takes over Danny’s body after Danny sees the first images of ‘Redrum.’ The doubling is also more prominent in Jack as his ‘monster’ side begins to emerge. When Jack speaks to Delbert Grady in the restroom, Grady says that Jack has always been there. This comment is later backed up by the final shot in the film, a shot of Jack hanging on the wall from a 1921 party. There are now literally two Jacks, the present day that is frozen in the hedge maze, and the past jack, frozen in time in the photo.
In The Shining, the character of Jack Torrance is focused on as the doppelganger, but the film does not show much of the juxtaposition of the good and bad sides of Torrance. The film takes on a more ‘horror story’ approach where Jack’s bad side slowly emerges and overcomes his good. Even in the beginning when Jack is a relatively normal man, there is foreshadowing of his breakdown. On the drive up, the Torrance family discusses the Donner party and how they resorted to cannibalism. Later, when Hallorann gives Wendy a tour of the kitchen, he shows that there are ample provisions for the winter. Thomas Allen Nelson points out that this, “anticipates the film’s thematic concern for psychological/spiritual cannibalism and survival through Jack’s eventual breakdown into madness.”
Kubrick also explores mazes, another topic found in most of his films, although often metaphorically. According to Nelson, Kubrick likens exploring the human psyche to a maze. He sees Jack’s “subconscious as a labyrinth in which the conscious gets lost.” This is explored in the film in a scene where Jack looks down on a model of the hedge maze and can see Wendy and Danny playing in it as they play in the real version outside. Both Wendy and Danny spend a good amount of time exploring the hotel and grounds, while Jack’s exploration turns inward. This is what eventually leads to the salvation of Wendy and Danny and the ultimate demise of Jack. Even for the audience, the map of the hotel is very hard to conceptualize, but Danny shows confident knowledge as he rides his hot wheels around the hotel, and Wendy delivers food from the kitchen and checks boilers in the basement. Because of their familiarity with their physical surroundings, Wendy and especially Danny are able to escape from Jack. Jack on the other hand has turned inward, getting trapped inside his own maze.
There also seems to be a sort of critique of American culture and it’s effect on other cultures and people. While being shown around the hotel, the manager recalls the story that the hotel was built on a Native American Burial Site, and the builders even had to repel a couple attacks in order to build the hotel. It’s ironic that the hotel’s construction was dependent upon destroying the Native Americans in the area, and then the builders saw fit to pay ‘homage’ to their victims by decorating heavily in Native American motifs. Later, as Hallorann (a black man) shows Wendy the kitchen, a can of Calumet (a calumet is a peace pipe) baking powder is clearly situated next to Hallorann’s head, with his profile matching that of the Native American on the can. This foreshadows Hallorann’s fate, one similar to the Native Americans that inhabited the area when the hotel was built. To further the analogy, in the interview that Ullman gives Jack in the beginning, Ullman’s pencil holder contains an American flag, as well as an axe. The axe serves a double purpose here, relating American culture with violence, but it is also a visual clue to the past of the murderer Grady and the future of Jack Torrance.
Kubrick’s films seem to have so many visual cues, metaphors, themes and meanings that one might begin to wonder if they were all intentional. While it is unlikely that Kubrick planned every meaning ahead of time, his track record in filmmaking has proven his success. Not just The Shining, but all of his films can be examined and found to be full of criticism, comment, and exploration of difficult topics, that whether or not the viewer agrees with him, are well supported and represented.