I don’t care what Stephen King says. Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining is great.
One of King’s big complaints about the film is that Jack is obviously unhinged from the start. King is right that Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance as being someone who has a few screws loose even before he starts to work as the caretaker. But it works for the film, as can be seen in this scene in which Stuart Ullman tells Jack about what happened to previous caretaker.
Incidentally, Barry Nelson’s performance as Ullman is seriously underrated. Ullman is a far more interesting character in the movie than he was in King’s book. For that matter, the same can be said of just about every character in the movie as opposed to the way King envisioned them in his novel. Maybe that’s the main reason King doesn’t like this movie. Kubrick understood King’s story better than King himself did.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.
Today, we take a look at a very important year: 1980
8 Shots From 8 Horror Films: 1980
Inferno (1980, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Romana Albano)
Without Warning (1980, dir by Greydon Clark, DP: Dean Cundey)
Friday the 13th (1980, dir by Sean S. Cunningham, DP: Barry Abrams)
Maniac (1980, dir. William Lusting, DP: Robert Lindsay)
City of the Living Dead (1980, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)
Dressed To Kill (1980, dir by Brian De Palma, DP: Ralf D. Bode)
Night of the Hunted (1980, dir by Jean Rollin)
The Shining (1980, directed by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
On this date, 94 years ago, Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City. The rest, as they say, is history.
In honor of one of the world’s greatest directors, here are….
6 Shots From 6 Stanley Kubrick Films
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick, DP: Gilbert Taylor)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)
Barry Lyndon (1975, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
The Shining (1980, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
Full Metal Jacket (1987, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Douglas Milsome)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999. dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Larry Smith)
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 49th birthday to Danny Lloyd, the child actor who — at the age of 6 — brought Danny Torrance to life in Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining. After appearing in one made-for-TV movie after The Shining, Lloyd retired from acting. (He did make a cameo appearance in Doctor Sleep.) He went on to become a teacher. Somewhat sweetly, it’s been reported that, during the filming of The Shining, Kubrick went out of his way to keep Lloyd from knowing that he was appearing in a movie about killer ghosts and a father attempting to kill his family.
In honor of Danny’s birthday, here’s a scene that I love from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining!
As I’ve stated many times on this site, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is one of my favorite horror films and it’s also one of the few horror films that can still scare me even after I’ve seen it hundreds of time. Those two little “Come and play with us” girls still freak me out and I still think about the blood pouring out of that elevator at least once a month.
That said, one of my favorite scenes from The Shining comes early on in the film. It’s the scene where Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson, of course) is driving his family to the Overlook Hotel for the first time. He’s already visited for his job interview but this is the first time that his family is going to see their new home. And, as you can tell in this scene, he already appears to be kind of sick of them.
Seriously, when someone is driving and has that expression on his face, don’t ask him about the Donner Party.
What I love about this scene is Nicholson’s obvious exasperation. You can just tell that he’s thinking, “I’m going to be stuck in a hotel with these two for months.” I especially love the way that he delivers the line about Danny learning about cannibalism from the television. (Of course, I think one reason why Jack is upset is because Wendy’s the one who brought up the Donner Party, in the first place. If you don’t want your child to know about cannibalism, don’t randomly start talking about a famous example of it. That’s parenting 101, I’d think.)
Seriously, if I was a passenger in that car, that is exactly when I would say, “Pull over and let me out. This is not going to end well.”
Stanley Kubrick would have been 92 years old today!
In honor of this visionary and his career, here is a wonderfully creepy scene from his final film, 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut. Like so many of Kubrick’s films, it took a while for people to really appreciate Eyes Wide Shut. It’s an odd and, at times, frustrating film but still a film touched by genius.
In this scene, Tom Cruise discovers that it’s not quite as easy to crash a super secret party as he thought it would be.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today is Jack Nicholson’s 83rd birthday!
It’s been ten years since Jack Nicholson last appeared in a movie, the forgettable How Do You Know. Rumor has it that he’s basically retired from acting, though it’s said that Nicholson himself has denied it. However, whether he’s working or not, he remains a screen icon with a filmography that is a cinema lover’s dream. He’s worked with everyone from Roger Corman to Stanley Kubrick to Milos Forman to Martin Scorsese and, along the way, he’s become a symbol of a very American-type of rebel. Though often associated with the counter-culture, his style has always been too aggressive and idiosyncratic for him to be a believable hippie. Instead, he’s one of the last of the beats, an outsider searching for meaning in Americana.
Over the course of his career, Nicholson has won three Oscars and been nominated for a total of 12. He’s the only actor to have been nominated in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. If he ever writes his autobiography, you know that we’ll all run out and buy a copy. When the day comes that Jack Nicholson is no longer with us, it will truly be the end of an era.
Happy birthday, Jack Nicholson. May you have many happy returns!
It seems rather appropriate that, while we spend this year celebrating TSL’s 10th birthday, we’ve taken the time to recognize the birthdays of so many of our favorite directors and actors. Earlier today, Jeff already paid tribute to Andy Kaufman and Donald Cammell.
Well, today is also James Earl Jones’s birthday and there’s no way we’re going to let that go unacknowledged. James Earl Jones is 89 years old today and he’s still working. Everyone, of course, knows Jones’s voice and the story of how, when he was a child, he suffered from a stutter so severe that he refused to speak. (Jones has described the years before he entered high school as being his “mute years.”) What’s often overlooked is just how good of an actor James Earl Jones is. Jones has played everyone from villains to mentors to heroes. He’s appeared in every possible genre and his presence has never not been welcome.
James Earl Jones made his film debut with a small role in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satire, Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Jones played Lt. Luther Zogg, one of the men aboard the B-52 bombardier that eventually causes the end of the world.
Jones has often said that he didn’t really care for either the role or the film. Lt. Zogg is a small role and it is true that, if not for the fact that he’s played by James Earl Jones, you probably wouldn’t remember much about him. For the most part, Jones spends the majority of the movie listening as Maj. Kong (Slim Pickens) talks about following orders and doing their patriotic duty.
And yet, I think Jones is a bit too dismissive of the role. It’s a small role but the undeniable authority of Jones’s voice provides a nice contrast to the country drawl of Maj. Kong. Without Lt. Zogg calmly following orders, it would be too easy for the audience to dismiss Maj. Kong as an outlier as opposed to a representative of what the film viewed as being the military’s blase attitude towards the possibility of nuclear war.
Add to that, Jones’s delivery of “Hey, what about Maj. Kong?” is absolutely perfect.
So, with that in mind, here’s James Earl Jones in two scenes from Dr. Strangelove!
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Well, the big day is finally here and that means that it’s time for a special Halloween edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse Trailers! Below you’ll find the trailers for some of my favorite horror films! Let’s take a look!
That I picked this trailer to start off this special edition should come as a surprise to no one. While I don’t think the trailer really does the film justice, Suspiria is still one of my favorite movies of all time. Don’t talk to me about the remake and we’ll get along just fine.
Some people, undoubtedly, will say, “Martin but no Night of the Living Dead?” Well, we’ll be featuring Night of the Living Dead later today. Martin is one of George Romero’s best films and it’s still criminally unknown. Check out the trailer but definitely be sure to track down the film as well.
Stephen King might not like it but Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining remains one of the best horror films ever made. It’s one of the few films that continues to scare me after multiple viewings. (It’s those two little girls in the hallway. They freak me out every time!)
Through the Shattered Lens 