(SPOILER ALERT! Goes without saying for film spoilers, but big novel spoilers as well)
Before you start throwing tomatoes at me, or rocks, or drunkenly break my arm because I messed up your papers, let me assure you: I don't think "The Shining" is a bad movie. It has a lot of things going for it. In fact, I think it has some of the most incredible atmosphere ever for a horror movie. The atmosphere is so good that, when I was first exposed to it briefly as kid in its cameo drive-in theater appearance in "Twister," I had no clue what that movie was but I knew I really really really wanted to see it. It also has one of the best trailers ever made (but that's a subject for another day). So what's my problem with it? It does not live up to its potential given the source material of its novel.
Now don't get me wrong; this is not a cliche "the book was better" whine. Films and books are completely different mediums and changes must always be made in an adaptation. This isn't about that. In fact, I think that in some ways the film improved on the book (at least for it's form as a film). It is definitely creepier, it's efficient where the book sometimes dragged on and took too much time, it introduced some scary ass motha fuckas that weren't at all in the book or improved upon them, and having Hallorann killed as soon as he comes to save the day was fucking brilliant. What it doesn't have that the book has oodles of: character.
In the film, Jack is already on the edge and looks ready to crack form the get-go. Dude just seems crazy underneath the attempting-to-be-calm-and-happy exterior. It's the Jack Nicholson effect. The film-only reveal that all he wrote since the beginning was "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" blatantly shows he was a screw loose the entire film. Hell, he doesn't even seem to really care that much about his family. Wendy is nothing more than a meek victim who cowers in various states of fear the whole film and seems to be waiting for Jack to go off the deep end and murder everyone in sight. If this were original material, there probably wouldn't be anything wrong with this. But it's not. It's based off a novel that has real, believable, honest-to-god characters with interesting arcs!
In the novel, Jack is definitely troubled, but he's not on the edge of a cliff. The whole novel is really about alcoholism. He's a recovering alcoholic who has messed up a few times and accidentally hurt his son, but he truly regrets it, loves his family, and is doing his best to be better. And he is doing better; it takes a lot of damn pages for the hotel to finally dig its claws into him and overwhelm him. When that does it happen, it's all the more tragic because if it weren't for the creepy power of the evil hotel, he might have succeeded in turning things around. Isn't it scarier to see someone make a big progression and leap into madness than someone who already seems mad to begin with?
Moreover, in the novel, Wendy is certainly not a meek victim. She's taken some emotional punches for sure, but she does not roll over and cower in fright on ever fucking page. She stands up to Jack, they argue, they fight, they connect and make love, she challenges him and questions him, she doubts him but still makes efforts to support him, sometimes she hates him and sometimes she loves him...it's complicated, as it should be dealing with a real marriage and alcoholism. So when Jack is finally overtaken by the evil, it's more tragic and heartbreaking for her, and our terror as an audience heightens to full potential as terror finally falls upon her and all hope for her husband destroyed. It's a much bigger sucker-punch.
Lastly, the film completely leaves out the emotional climax and crux of Jack's character arc. In the film, Danny outwits his dad in the maze and Jack freezes to death. It's not inherently bad, because it makes Danny an active protagonist. Yet, once again, because the source material provided actual fucking character, it's a huge misstep. In the novel, much ado is made about the boiler all throughout the story. That's primarily why Jack is there: to maintain the boiler or it will explode. And that's just what happens in the novel. Once Jack descends into madness, the boiler is forgotten. Right before he's about to kill his son, Jack attempts to take his own life for the good of everyone before the demons overtake him and destroy the last of his heart and soul, taking over his body. But Danny smartly reminds him/them that they forgot the boiler. Jack and the demons make haste to fix the boiler but it's too late. Boom! End of Jack and the evil hotel demons. It makes Jack a real fucking character and Danny STILL is an active protagonist who saves his own skin. And it stays true to the boiler premise set up at the beginning of the story. Why the fucking fuck in all fucking bloody fucking hell would you strip that down?
Once again, I will say the film isn't bad. If it was a completely original piece, I'd think much higher of it because it is creepy as hell and very memorable. Some day I may watch it again. However, it fails to mine the source material and reach it's highest potential. Kubrick had a chance to make a creepy and character-driven film, but he just went with creepy. It's a lazy copout; he avoided the challenge. I find that unacceptable and it's a crime to consider this one of the greats of all time in light of that. It could have been so much more!
No comments:
Post a Comment