{"id":5220,"date":"2012-10-01T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T04:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=5220"},"modified":"2012-10-01T00:01:49","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T04:01:49","slug":"stephen-kings-the-shining-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/01\/stephen-kings-the-shining-1997\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen King's The Shining (1997)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"theshining1997\"<\/a>It’s common knowledge among movie buffs that Stanley Kubrick’s much lauded adaptation of “The Shining” is a film that author Stephen King did not like. At all. He openly expresses his disgust for it and his annoyance at director Kubrick’s insistence on taking the story in his own direction and away from the original novel. So in response to his long publicized criticism of what is arguably a horror classic, director Mick Garris obliged with a two part television mini-series that painted “The Shining” as we saw in the novel. Sadly, while it is very entertaining as a novelty horror film it lacks the oompf and visceral atmosphere of the Kubrick classic.<\/p>\n

Undercutting the inherent menace and lunacy of Jack Nicholson, director Garris casts nice guy funny television actor Stephen Weber as the ex-alcoholic author father Jack Torrance who approaches the hotel with the intent to not only watch it for the winter and work on his novel, but attempt to patch up the relationship with his wife and son, both of whom he hurt throughout their lives. There’s often the implication that Torrance abused his son and most of that is signaled in the weird occurrences in the hotel that leave poor Danny with bruises and blemishes along his body. Rebecca DeMornay is cast to defy the original casting decision of Shelly Duvall playing a character that King originally intended to be a gorgeous young woman whose life was never quite troubled until meeting Jack. As for Courtland Mead, he’s a more golly gosh portrayal of Danny as opposed to the more uneasy performance by Danny Lloyd. This three part mini-series takes its time establishing the hotel as a menacing presence and instead establishes the alcoholism as a source of evil rather than the ghosts and demons locked in the endless corridors of this abyss of a hotel.<\/p>\n

Torrance eventually submits to alcohol after the hotel seemingly unravels his will power and much of the script intimates that Torrance’s own evil and rampage on his family is more empowered by his old vice of booze rather than the demonic entities behind this hotel. The extended screen time given to the characters for this mini-series allow us to see Torrance unfold mentally throughout the narrative and allow us to see what kind of man he was, is trying to be, and will eventually become. The improvements are noticeable from Kubrick’s version and do inspire one to ultimately decide which version they prefer. King bides his time with the film relying on the elements of the hotel to help us decide if this is all in our imaginations or if Jack is somehow influencing the ghostly activity. Rebecca DeMornay is one of the vast improvements as she ends up portraying the character of Wendy with much more power and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Shelly Duvall looked as if she’d shatter in to pieces if she tripped on the curb of a city street, while DeMornay looks like a woman who has endured a lot in her marriage and literally battles with the demons and Torrance’s own crippling addiction to keep her son safe and find an exit out of this labyrinth of evil. Sadly the cons outweigh the pros as King dares to feature some of the more polarizing scenes including lion shaped hedges that nearly maul young Danny to death in the hotel’s courtyard, an effect that looks incredibly hokey and dated, and doesn’t translate to the screen very well. As for the hotel it’s often very bright and luminescent and lacks the character and cold atmosphere from the first film. Director Garris adds an unnecessary gloss and shimmer to the set pieces decreasing in the tension and grit astronomically. As for Stephen Weber’s performance, in spite of his best efforts and incredible talent, he’s simply not Jack Nicholson.<\/p>\n

Though he doesn’t try to be, if I want to be fair here. There’s never any attempt to provide Weber with his own “Here’s Johnny!” moment of madness. He just simply uncoils slowly and explodes like the boiler in the hotel. Weber performs Torrance to the best of his ability and while his performance isn’t anything above competent, it’s a worthwhile endeavor for such a talented character actor. In the end director Garris indulges author King to create the episodic film as he envisioned it in the novel, and while it does have its shocks and occasional moments of tension, it’s really just a mediocre television film at the end of the day. While it does attempt to improve on and alter some of the more blatant caveats to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of “The Shining,” Mick Garris and Stephen King’s collaborative effort to portray a more loyal vision of King’s novel is ultimately just a mediocre horror thriller that doesn’t quite top Kubrick’s vision, in spite of the talent behind it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Buy It Now!<\/a><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s common knowledge among movie buffs that Stanley Kubrick’s much lauded adaptation of “The Shining” is a film that author Stephen King did not like. At all. He openly expresses his disgust for it and his annoyance at director Kubrick’s insistence on taking the story in his own direction and away from the original novel. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[64,302,477,885,982,1008,1013,1087],"class_list":["post-5220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-adaptation","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-s","tag-stephen-king","tag-supernatural","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}