← Back to Reviews
in
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Inspired by The Phantom Carriage
To tell you the truth, I never understand why people think that The Shining is so good. I do believe that it's a good film, but when the word "best" raises its head, I become incredulous. My brother and I drove an hour to Hollywood to get in a line for another hour and watch a sneak preview of The Shining. The opening credits almost made us giddy, and there were many other impressive scenes. However, since we both loved the novel, we knew that many of the highlights were changed around and that Nicholson gave one of his earliest "over-the-top" performances. People were laughing when something ominous was happening and it cut to 4:05 PM. It's just too long in my opinion and doesn't really have to be, but Kubrick has a way of making long movies sometimes. Therefore, we were both disappointed. Kubrick eventually cut about three minutes, mostly at the end (which didn't really seem to be nearly as important as things like how Scatman Crothers has the "shining" and knows that something bad will happen, yet he has no idea it will happen to him!! Now I can accept it for the pleasures found along the way [mostly visual but some good audio/music too], and I can forgive Nicholson because he's so funny
Inspired by The Phantom Carriage
To tell you the truth, I never understand why people think that The Shining is so good. I do believe that it's a good film, but when the word "best" raises its head, I become incredulous. My brother and I drove an hour to Hollywood to get in a line for another hour and watch a sneak preview of The Shining. The opening credits almost made us giddy, and there were many other impressive scenes. However, since we both loved the novel, we knew that many of the highlights were changed around and that Nicholson gave one of his earliest "over-the-top" performances. People were laughing when something ominous was happening and it cut to 4:05 PM. It's just too long in my opinion and doesn't really have to be, but Kubrick has a way of making long movies sometimes. Therefore, we were both disappointed. Kubrick eventually cut about three minutes, mostly at the end (which didn't really seem to be nearly as important as things like how Scatman Crothers has the "shining" and knows that something bad will happen, yet he has no idea it will happen to him!! Now I can accept it for the pleasures found along the way [mostly visual but some good audio/music too], and I can forgive Nicholson because he's so funny