acoolsha
Stanley Kubrick
Retrospective and exhibition in the Deutsches Filmmuseum and the Deutsches Architektur Museum from 31 March to 4 July 2004, Frankfurt, Germany.
www.stanleykubrick.de
The Shining 21 June 04
Section: kubrick
Categories: Film / in-a-cinema
”All work and no play makes Jack adult boy.”
”And we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.” from Instant Karma by John Lennon.
Excerpts below from a 1980 letter written by Nicholas Maravell:
About The Shining: in a newspaper review it said ’there were no moral questions made.’(!)
I believe Kubrick has blatantly displayed the moral depravity of our white male American ruling class. Nicholson’s mankind is the one that has made this country what it is today. In this light it is clearer to understand his relationship to power, violence, minorities, women, the family, his art and towards himself.
Supporting the existence of actual ’Nicholsons’ in our past are strong references to this country’s shameful record of dealing with the American Indians.
The hotel, built on a burial ground stolen from the Indians, represents our entire society built on the sacred lands of others. This is not a ’haunted house’ story — the reason being… we do not live in homes. Instead, we temporarily live in a hotel-like structure belonging to an entire American system that employs white male caretakers to look over our existence. These caretakers were once British but were overthrown during the American Revolutionary war — This, I feel, explains the film’s ghostly people who were celebrating the 4th of July … and also explains why the previous caretaker, Grady, was British.
Within this film there is still another American view — another type of American, one of unquestioning beliefs. Shelly Duvall’s Windy and her son are clearly adorned in the Red White & Blue in the film’s first half (when they are together). They clearly have faith in their position and role of life — there is plenty to eat etc.
[…]
When aware of the terror & violence Nicholson’s America is capable of, Duvall wears colors of the land. Her patriotic colors of tunics, pants, boots are now in greens, blues and browns. She also even wore a yellow tunic with an Indian prong on it. This combined with her jet-black hair makes her resemblance to an American Indian unmistakable. When she was making the transition of US American life to natural American life she spoke of how hard the hotel’s surroundings were to her but how they had become pleasing to her.
[…]
Duvall told Scatman her name was Winifried… Scatman asked if she was called Winnie or Freddie — she said ’Windy.’ Not ’Wendy’ as found in the book. Windy sounds more like an Indian name.
[…]
The Son has personality traits of each parent. He has a side which is tender to Mom — and one which is very much aware of the potential of his Father. He is the new US American youth who doesn’t ’knee jerk’ reaction to patriotism. ’Fortunately’ Kubrick feels he will survive the US American struggle and exposé.
But Nicholson isn’t clearly dead at the end — only frozen — And the hotel didn’t blow up (like in the book) . Thus there is a potential that when he thaws out he will continue to be a threat.
Never dead. And even if he was dead — well that hotel was full of very dead active people capable of physical action…
Title: The Shining
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel
Written by: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson
Based on the novel by: Stephen King
Cinematography: John Alcott
Original Music by: Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind
Non-original music by: Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki
Editing: Ray Lovejoy
Cinema: Filmmuseum Frankfurt
- Title: The Shining
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