The acting from Grady in the bathroom scene is phenomenal. I love how he manages to shift the tone from a humble servant to becoming some kind of tyrant pulling the strings, so effortlessly and naturally too. Amazing acting
@MagesseT1 Yes, he was part of the cycle of violence. Delbert (hence the British actor) was likely a previous cycle from Charles from 1970. Delbert likely had something to do with the Native American aspect of the setting.
I feel Lloyd refuses Jack's payment twice, not because of a promise of violence, but because Jack's already paid with his soul. He literally say: "I'd give my god damn soul just for a glass of beer." Suddenly, there's Lloyd in a hellish red jacket telling Jack he doesn't have to pay in cash. See, Jack's already just paid with his soul. He's already cashed it in. Money's no good at the bar. Jack drinks for free, like in the deal.
True. I didn’t get why Jack says “White Man’s Burden” during that conversation. They are talking about Wendy and Danny at the time. That phrase refers to the racist thought of Manifest Destiny.. could it be that we tied it to that with the help of him being cool by use of the N word in the next scene or is it a literal reference of him Manifesting his Destiny? Also it was the thought of the Donner Family using Native Americans to guide them to gold on what use to be their lands. They were also the 1st to be eaten and rumor has it that they were selected and not because they died first. Leaving this here for someone with more knowledge of the film to address lol
@@davidlean1060 true! Since my post I read an interview with Kubrick in which he states that it’s reincarnation and that he’s always been in that picture at the end. In my opinion he’s in a never ending loop and each incarnation is doomed to repeat.
According to the actor who played Danny, Jack Nickelson was very nice and supportive to him all throughout filming. Apparently he even still gets a Christmas card from Nickleson every year.
He seems like a relatively regular guy in many ways. The fact he hacked away at acting for years without getting anywhere (Bob Townes speaks about his friend being told at the unemployment office to 'get areal job'!) gave him a sense of perspective you could argue. His success was hard won and he has never forgotten that.
Hasn’t jack been involved in awful things with Polanski… and was with his buddy on a boat when a woman died onboard. He’s from old Hollywood where everything was swept under the rug.
Fun fact: the child actor who played Danny later said he had no idea The Shining was a horror film as a kid, and without all the film atmosphere added later, the whole thing seemed fun, not ominous (riding the big wheel, making funny faces and voices, etc).
I’ve somehow fallen down a rabbit hole of videos dealing with theories to The Shining and it’s amazing at the level of detail and editing that people put into these videos. It doesn’t matter if you agree with them or not, you have to admire the work they put into these videos!
There's a really great one called Room 237 that explores a bunch of interpretations of what Kubrick was actually trying to say when he made The Shining.
@@ralphthomasbarbour847 or take care of our citizens.. and somehow get anything at all done ever besides make it easier for the rich to get richer and richer while the rest of America works 70 hours a week so they don't have to choose between food and electricity.
Literally stood up applauded when danny turned to Jack and said “it’s you, it’s me, it’s the hotel! Don’t you get it? We’re the shinning!” Fantastic ending to the film
That's what scared me, when I first watched the movie; Lloyd never blinks! And his intense gaze at Jack is so haunting and spooky, it leaves you feeling very unsettled.
I know Stephen King didn't like this film and I do love his stories, but this film is an absolute masterpiece. A different story from King's but amazing in its own right.
King just had a deep affection for his characters especially Jack seeing how this was the book he used as his own allegory for his alcoholism so it's probably just very personal to him you can tell he didn't like that Stanley was an atheist either even if he didn't say it
I saw The Shining with my Mom when it came out in 1980. I was 14. It left me cold like all Kubrick movies do for me on their initial viewing. I realize that there is so much to take in that it requires multiple viewings to understand and soak in the details. I love this film and watch it every couple of months especially in the winter. This and The Thing are perfect movies on that snowy winter day. A bag of popcorn , a coke and a warm blanket make these 2 flicks the perfect winter experience. I fall down the rabbit hole on Shining analysis every month and find new info. Ever since Room 237 I'm amazed at the different interpretations there are out there. Loved this and only have a few quibbles. I think to say just America is built on violence is short sighted. Every country and all mankind stand on the violence and sacrifices of their forefathers. Finally, I chuckle any time Leon Vitali who was Kubrick's long time assistant is asked about theories on The Shining he dismisses almost all. I think this is the joke Kubrick plays on all of us. We so over analyze his movies that sometimes a red door is simply a red door. Or is it?
15:08 While your analysis on the song 'Midnight, the Stars and You' could very well be correct, the song that plays during the scene with Torrance and Grady in the red bathroom is actually 'It's All Forgotten Now' which, the way I interpret it, signifies how the hotel consumes people and makes them forget who they really are. We can see this though the character of Grady, who was the caretaker in 1970, now personified as a 1920s butler who goes by the name of "Delbert Grady" not Charles Grady as mentioned by the hotel's manager at the beginning of the film. The character of Grady serves as an almost direct foreshadow of Torrance's fate as we see by the end of the film that Jack too is consumed by the hotel and appears as a gentlemen of the 1920s, forgetting who he was in life, now forever doomed to be whatever the hotel wants him to be.
Perfect. backs up my theory that this is not a hotel but a institution carrying out mind control experiments on the family. We now know that MK ULTRA used drugs like LSD and different techniques to experiment on unsuspecting patients in various institutions across the US and Canada to try to wipe their memory and install new memories. To me the biggest hint is Jungs The Red Book on Ullmans desk at the time of the interview. Why would a hotel manager have a psychologists book on his desk? Only if he is not a hotel manager, but a psychologist or psychiatrist running an institution. And this institution is running mind control experiments to wipe out memory. There are no ghosts, just hallucinations Jack doesn't get a drink of alcohol - he swallows LSD
@@TheEliasNoel You start out with good-points in the video.. But your conclusions are always 'Off' - Missing the mark of what's being presented to the viewers. Nice-try though.
Two things I noticed about the shining that I feel people never really analyze: -Wendy seems immune to the hotel's ploys (until the conclusion) -why the ghosts only show up when no one's around. the hauntings don't happen when the hotel is full, only in the off season.
To answer your second question, I think it’s because evil works best when you’re alone and vulnerable, which is a key theme in It, (strength in numbers).
The Wendy theory is spot on... from the end (well from when she knocks out jack and “locks him in the dry storage locker”) Wendy is having a full on psychological breakdown... it’s not Jack who is crazy it’s Wendy.
@@hollyrodriguez3259 I’m aware of King’s patterns but this is why King (to this day) doesn’t like Kubrick’s film ... and I think it’s because he took creative license with the material to make it more of a psychological horror than a full of Supernatural Horror like King intended.
This is possibly one of the best analyses of this film I’ve seen. I think Kubrick in his films was almost always dealing with “meta” themes such as American imperialism on a larger scale or the fundamentally flawed nature of man. The Native American theme as well as the gold theme, “white man’s burden” etc all speak to his underlying ideas.
The Shining is constantly flashing between different time periods, as evidenced by shuffling and at times absence of pictures on the walls as well as furniture. Dick Hallorann explained at the beginning that many terrible things that happened in the hotel and they left behind a trace of themselves, that not everyone can notice, but people who shine can see, we assume he’s talking to Danny… Dick Halloran was talking to you and me! Some people see the Shining as a movie about a man who goes crazy and tries to murder his family in a hotel, but those who “shine” can see the terrible things that happened at the Overlook hotel IN THE PAST!!
Many people have favorite scenes but such an unsung scene is when Jack talks with Graddy in the bathroom. So much symbolism and is the real turning point
When the Torrence family was on their way to the Overlook Hotel, Wendy brings up the Donner party, which Jack explains to Danny that they were pioneers heading west in covered wagon times. The funny thing about that is they were part of the gold rush. That just struck me as odd when you were talking about the gold room and the symbolism therein around the 11:00 minute mark. I wonder if there's a connection there?
Late reply: But the Donner party were the Mormons coming to settle west in search of religious freedom to practice polygamy(in part). Later in Mormon history, a group of Mormons slaughtered Native Americans to gain territorial dominance. So perhaps it seems, there is a connection to violence as the theory states.
The Gold Rush had not yet begun when the Donner Party got Stranded in the Sierra Nevada. The Donner Party got Stranded in the winter of 1846-1847. The Gold Rush, didn’t start rumors of the discovery of gold at John Sutter’s Mill in 1848 began to spread in 1849. (This is why the San Francisco NFL team is called they ‘49ers). So the Donner pre-dates the gold rush.
@@ralphthomasbarbour847 The "Gold Rush" hadn't begun yet, meaning, the majority of people hadn't yet heard of the fabulous wealth that could be claimed in California, but murmurs of what was to come had started making the rounds. From what I understand they traveled west by invitation to stake their own claim on "free land" waiting out west, hoping for a better, more prosperous life in California. So, you're correct. They weren't part of *the* gold rush, though they did travel west for a chance at prosperity, and a better life.
It’s an interesting analysis, but these topics have been done to death on TH-cam, no matter how accurate they are. It’s questionable to me when I here this narrative that the white man is the sole reason for any atrocities. If you actually look at history, all of humanity have committed atrocities. Even in the 20s, most men were good to their wives and children. Jacks character was meant to show a broken family trying to get by with a patriarchal, unstable man.
One of THE best bits of analysis on this film I’ve watched. There are so many levels to the presentation of this film that go beyond the straightforward story which can be enjoyed in and of itself for those who are uninterested in the analysis. Thanks for the work you put into this! ❤
my boyfriend worked on doctor sleep, he rebuilt the hotel set and to hear him talk about that set is fascinating. rooms had windows that physically shouldn’t have in real life. the sheer size of the great and gold rooms made no since and everything was so specific, the set almost felt real (which they never do. they are usually just little independent units in a sound stage where the gold room took up a soundstage by itself) it was all built like a maze. this was a complete rebuild of the original and you could just tell that every single thing had a purpose.
That is so cool that he worked on the movie. I wish people would stop hating Doctor Sleep so much. Of course it will never be like what Kubrick did, but Flanagan did a lot for the details of the film, like your boyfriend did to recreate the sets
@@g.b569 i really love movies and Kubrick is my favorite director so when they wanted to create a follow up, Doctor Sleep, anyone who knows Kubrick knew going into this film that you can’t compare the two. frankly, the techniques Kubrick used with his directing and for his actors for The Shining would be illegal. it was so bad that Jack Nicholson wanted nothing to do with Doctor Sleep or anything the Shining related, he sued Doctor Sleep so they couldnt even use anyone with too much of a likeness to him. in my opinion, Doctor Sleep was pretty good except that they rushed the ending but when it comes to the writing and the actual shots, it was good. it isn’t a Kubrick film and no one can every recreate what he did and i’m just happy they didn’t even try.
@Sparkling Cyanide The Set of the Overlook was the Ambassador Hotel, which many people actually stayed in Los Angeles. But after a while, they closed it down and tore it down. You can't revisit the original set, even if you tried.
Haunting is the word that describes The Shining. I remember the first time I saw the movie as a 13-ish year old kid, I remember from the very start, -the wailing and sounds during flying over the waters at the start, it scared me so much. I have watched the movie at least once a year since then, and it never stops to captivate- and fascinate me. It is a masterpiece!
There are a lot of YT's about the shining - this is the best. The deep dive and almost undercover analysis that RBtF does is astounding and breathtaking. I can't state strongly enough how much you should watch this vid. Amazing work!
I applaud your analysis! Thoroughly thought out and then some. You made me contemplate this from another angle. I always took it for granted that the Overlook needed human agency to do its bidding and that the spirits/ghosts were there as its means to accomplish that, to persuade the living who are weak enough to be manipulated. What is astonishing about The Shinning is the amount of layers to peel back and dissect. I’ve never been sold on the theory that none of it is happening, that Jack is writing a book, that this is all coming out of his head and going onto paper as I’ve read before. Too easy. A What I don’t think is discussed nearly enough is that Wendy sees and has interactions with the spirits/ghosts. I would say, that far from being the hysterical, frightened creature she is accused of (Who wouldn’t react the way Wendy does? These are the reactions of a SANE person!), the Overlook realizes she is a far more formidable foe then it gave her credit for and has to send its servants to terrorize her. Perhaps the norms of an early era are coming up against the modern and finding women difficult to control? And the last thing Jack wants is for Lloyd or Grady to think he isn’t a man who can’t control his wife or child. FYI- Jack “always the caretaker.” Did you ever notice that was they arrive at the hotel, as the staff are leaving and closing up, the pass a man in a burgundy jacket with his back to the camera polishing what appears to be a glass cabinet?
Interesting points. The novel emphasized the Overlook Hotel itself was alive as an evil entity of its own with a sentiment mind, animated spiritual power and demonic spirit of its own (The Management/The Caretaker/the Hotel-Creature), due to the Native Americans cursing the building for it being constructed on an Indian burial ground and powered further by the evil spirits it absorbed (former owner Horace Derwent, whose mob ties caused gangland hits at the hotel, and the other deaths.
I've been watching many of these analysis videos on the Shining, and they're all interesting BUT everyone forgets that Jack ALSO HAS SHINING ABILITIES, and is a target of the hotel's manipulation. He is in touch with the Hotel's past evil.
I'm much more interested in people talk about The Shining than I am the movie itself so this theory is half-baked at best, but it seems the hotel is sort of an evil magnet that draws the wicked toward it. Maybe everyone in the picture in the end with Jack got into that picture in the same way he did.
Jack does not shine nor did he have the ability to tell the hotel was evil, he never forseen his future, unlike Danny who had visions of the hotel before they left town. Danny also had visions of his father murdering him. Just because Jack seen the ghost it doesn't mean he shined. Jack had no foresight.
It is categorically untrue that Jack does not shine. This is proven in the follow up novel "Dr. Sleep" when Jack's granddaughter (and Dan's niece) Abra displays even MORE shine than Dan. The common thread is JACK. Abra's mother Lucy is the product of an affair her mother had with Jack before they went to the Overlook (making her Dan's paternal half sister). Again, the common thread is JACK.
Most informative, really like your themes, definitely on par with Rob Ager. The beauty of Kubrick is that his films work on so many different levels and perspectives and every single scene down to the minutiae of seemingly innocuous objects, all have deep and inherent meanings therefore one could explore his work forever and never arrive at a definitive meaning. That is why Kubricks classics will always remain elusive, he will keep you constantly searching.
Rob is good at analyzing movies, but certainly not The Shining. Kubrick was intelligent, and meticulous, but he was the director. Films are made on a budget of time and money, neither of which are the director's. People act like every frame and prop was perfectly placed to create psychological manipulation the world's best intelligence agencies are not capable of. Ambiguity is ambiguity -- look at all the "theories" about this movie. Can't be about Native American genocide, minotaurs, psychic powers, abuse, mental health, etc. at the same time. Nothing about hiding your movie's meaning so thoroughly that it takes society several decades of hard analysis to even begin to understand the film serves the narrative; no director does this. Plug it into TH-cam. First video? Wendy's evil, by Rob Ager. Next video? Oh, theories on how Jack escapes the freezer, next video, native american genocide, next video, it's actually room 237, next video, etc. There is -zero- evidence or solid indication of any kind that any of the "theories" (fanfiction, lol) are anything other than massive reaches. It's all old hat, nonsense, nobody who worked on the film or scripts or sets has ever given any indication that any of this is anything other than silly speculation. That's why no conclusion is ever offered -- just "wow, this makes no sense... but it's Kubrick, so maybe it does? Interesting!"
I used to study films and film making a long time ago but The Shining was not so memorable for me because I thought it was just a tale of good vs evil thinking the evil was Jack Nickelson's character going insane. I think your understanding of Kubrik's message is spot on and the continuation of violence through out each different age is a very compelling point indeed - I thought the USA was messed up for reasons Kubrik touched on and which go even deeper but he certainly achieved a very real explanation for why it is so.
A world of savages, cannibals, slaves, and paupers are upset the white man invested in educating, feeding, and freeing them from their misery. The people of the world will never be able to repay the white man for all that he provided the world.
Interesting point, when Danny asks Halloran if he is "scared of this place?" Halloran never actually answers the question. He says "No, I aint scared of nothing here". Nothing, as in, the things you will see within, because as he explains, they are just like previous echoes of bad things that happened, they themselves are not real. What he doesnt say however, is that the place itself REALLY does scare him because it is the place itself that is evil. He seems genuinely confused by Danny asking if he is afraid of room 237. He is confused because he genuinely isnt scared of that room, but Danny is, because he has already forseen what will happen in that room, well before he goes to the hotel. Halloran gets angry because he KNOWS it is bad because he knows Danny KNOWS its a bad room. It may be the hub of activity in the hotel because it is the only place where Ghosts (supposedly) touch Danny and Jack. Every other interaction is just visual but no contact.
Yes. You get it. The Overlook Hotel itself was alive and self-aware with a sentient mind, animated spiritual power and demonic entity of its own. ("The Management.)" The Manager/Caretaker trapped the spirits of all the late former guests and staff that died in the hotel or were tied to its history, like former owner and management Horace Derwent, whom had mafia ties and allowed many gangland hits to occur within the Overlook Hotel during his ownership and even after. Derwent's ghost was the Hotel's second in command of its imprisoned human spirits, demons and poltergeists. The Manager could replay all memories and echoes of its building's history but with Danny's power the Hotel would've been able to spread its power far beyond the walls and grounds of its building into the world alongside its captured ghosts and demons, possess and absorb more souls, kill more people and become Godlike potentially. Jack was just the Overlook's perfect pawn.
Really stood out what you said about evil not being an entity but like a virus that spreads to commit more evil. I’ve watched alot of videos analyzing The Shining. This is my favorite one yet. liked and subscribed
The spreading evil is the silence behind familial child abuse. The repetition-feeling everywhere in the film is about the cycle of family violence/enablement that never gets broken until recognized. No recognition of child abuse in this movie by the abuser, this is too often reality! This is K's attempt to describe the endless horror of child abuse, as maybe it appeared in his own life. The embracing of the horror-woman by Jack represented his inability to love without destroying. The substitution of Jack for another in the final portrait represents the timelessness of this sort of violence, from one generation to the next its changelessness...
Decent theory. Better than the ones in which it's all in Jack's mind. Those theories take of all of the power, (and thus all of the horror) out of the hotel. Making it a personal evil and therefore limited in it's horror. The music, the mood, the composition and the color tones all cry out for something far grander. An omnipotent evil that has always been there. That's the movie I saw.
What a thought-provoking analysis. I’ve seen plenty of similar videos on The Shining, but this the first that brought in the use of colors and really went into the Native American themes that are much more prevalent in the novel. Well done.
Great review. Did anyone notice how Jack has the EXACT facial expression and posture right after taking his first drink as he did when his body was frozen at the end of the movie? Does anyone know what that is about?
Yes, it is the as above as below symbol of the baphomet. I think this movie has more occult symbolism that we haven’t uncovered yet. I really like that he made the connection with Adam and Eve. It’s almost as if the overlook did the same thing that Satan did to Adam and Eve. I think Kubrick was trying to make a point of the inevitable fate of human nature succumbing to evil. Just as Adam and Eve did in the beginning. And Jack succumbs to this evil in the end because it’s his destiny. That’s why Grady makes a point to tell him that he’s always been the caretaker. It’s the evil personified in human nature that I believe he is referring to. Anyway that’s my 2 cents lol Although I do not agree with this idea at all. But I believe this is the core message of the Shinning. Hence the Native American plot going on, and the whole father murdering the family as well. It has to do with human nature succumbing to an inevitable evil which is represented by Satan.
@@ruthtrevino7755 That is an interesting take. You might also know that it appears Kubrick focused alot with incorporating fairy tales along with Biblical references: For example, Jack even refers to himself as the "big bad wolf" that is blowing down the door of the 3 little pigs. I am thinking that when Jack drank his first sip of liquor it was similar to Adam and Eve being tricked into biting the apple. Also in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, the princess gets pricked by a spindle provided by the witch disguised as an old woman. Princess falls into a deep sleep. I think the philosophical debate is this: Are humans AWOKEN by the tricks of the Devil or put to sleep (ie. UNDER A SPELL). Does the devil make us evil or just show humans that we are inherently evil?
@@wrestledeep Oh Man! Yes I totally see that now! I definitely have to rewatch the movie now to get some new insight! That’s what’s so great about this movie. There is so much to it that you can just rewatch it and every time it’s a new experience.
@@ruthtrevino7755 OP is talking about the corpse in the maze , not the photo. Maybe it's because Jack, his soul, was dead as soon as he took that drink.
I've been binging on these videos analyzing The Shining and this is by far the best! The world deserves to know what your interpretation of the guy in the bear suit is!
Sorry if somebody has already mentioned this, but it's interesting that Jack asks for bourbon, but Lloyd instead serves him Jack Daniel's, which many may mistake for bourbon but is actually Tennessee Whiskey. And "Jack" and "Daniel" are both the first names of the characters AND of the actors. Not sure what this means, but it can't be an accident.
I also feel like the ballroom setting for the final reveal of Jack being in that picture is very important in connection to the phrase "you've always been the caretaker, I should know, I've always been here." Now we know Jack couldn't possibly have been there in the 20s - but when these 'caretakers' make that deal with the hotel that they rewrite history, by repeating the history of violence. We know Grady used to be the caretaker, and when he sealed his deal, he rewrote history and became an eternal part of the hotel and then Jack did the same. That's how it's possible for him to be in that picture.
For me, Jack never looks directly at Grady in this scene 18:40 Seems like he has a conversation with himself and stuff like this always happens when a mirror is in his sight. Correct me if Im wrong
I agree with the mirror thing, but if he's only seeing these ghosts when he's looking in the mirror at himself then how do we explain all of the people in the gold room and that party?
@@vitazissel3671 what about when windy say the gay couple? And the room full of skeletons or the dead party guest with his head split? Numerous examples of ghost being seen without reflection, also just the impossible lay out of the hotel windows that lead to the outside in impossible places, how you can enter a room one way and exit it in a whole nother and not even notice how the hotel has shifted around you, lead me to believe the hotel is defiantly actually 100 percent haunted by something
Notice in the gold room in the second scene mentioned at 14:01 the woman who walks by in the gold dress clearly has a bloody hand print on her buttocks. The furniture leading in are red couches but the white table dining area is roped off with a red rope, Jacks jacket looks very red in this lighting similar to the bartender's red uniform. Also track back to when Jack is speaking to the bartender, along the walls very high up are multiple streamers bunched together ,one side is predominantly gold the other side is red and they give off a feeling of hung corpses dripping in blood...
@@TheEliasNoel I know it is weird I have seen the Shining more times than I can count over a span of 25 years and it was only once I started to review TH-cam videos on the subject that I remembered that I had noticed this many different years ago and had forgotten about it's possible significance. Thank you for acknowledging my comment! I appreciate it very much😁
Maybe just a coincidence but in the movie version of Stephen King's "Carrie" there is also a bloody handprint on the white pants of the gym teacher who helps Carrie when Carrie first started her monthly cycle in the locker room shower and didn't know what's going on.---Just a guess on my part but I'm wondering if the handprint on the lady's evening gown in "The Shining" represents a decadent, casual attitude toward violence. We see something very wrong while things go on as usual, without comment. If the lady is aware of the stain, she doesn't care, and by the time she had gotten to the Gold Room someone should have stopped her and said something about her dress.
It could be that, it could also be Kubrick's sense of humour. The room is gold coloured, so the hand pattern may mean these people think the sun shines out of their arses, or it could simply mean Kubrick thinks they are 'arseholes'.
The overlook is basically powered by blood splatter. When violence happens and a death occurs it is like a white towel soaking up blood. The gold room represents greed. Jack wants money, he wants recognition for his writing, he wants to be famous so jack is familiar with themes of greed. The entire hotel represent different sins. The overly stocked Kitchen represent gluttony. The VIP rooms that are overly comfortable represents Sloth. This hotel lives off the Sins of those who stay there. Jack has also been reincarnated. Jack serves the hotel. Jack goes into the world and has a son. But returns with his son and daughter to hand them over to the hotel. However when Jack fails he must remain in the hotel until his wife and son die. Upon their death the hotel can claim their souls. Once claimed Jack returns into the world to collect more souls. As the number of souls increase the hotels power increases.
The unsettling thing is the way that things are missing from the furniture from one scene to the next. It's like real life ghosts who move things around our homes.
In the early scenes when they're touring the hotel it's almost uncanny how much furniture is being moved around by people almost pointlessly. And it still keeps rearranging throughout for no reason, like Jack decided he wanted to move a 500 pound 18-foot table across the Colorado Lounge because he wanted the typewriter _over there._ In reality it was a movie set they could rearrange at will. I'm curious if Kubrick even used a continuity person. So many times in the movie you go "what room is this now? Oh, now there's a new hallway and it's painted a different color..."
@@hanonondricek411 During the filming of The Shining, one set completely burned down and they had to create a new one. That's a better explanation for why there are so many continuity errors within the set pieces themselves.
If Grady is the hotel made manifest, then it's clear by the way he talks about Halloran that he's pissed off at him, probably because Halloran is able to resist his influence.
Grady was the former caretaker but merely another evil spirit the Hotel corrupted, possessed and absorbed. As well as the reincarnation of the butler of the Overlook Hotel in the twenties and thirties, as Jack was a reincarnation of a former groundskeeper. The Hotel was sentiment with a mind and will of its own due to the curse on the land and the evil supernatural energy from the hotel's history. The ghost of Horace Derwent was the Hotel's second in command. Grady, Derwent, Lloyd, Mrs. Massey, were all ghosts but also they were all manifestations of the Manager. Which was the Hotel itself.
Love it. Very well thought out and assembled. Fascinating ideas. The definition of 'evil' that I came up with was - "Doing something to someone else - that you'd never in a Million years - want done to yourself."
This was a really fascinating watch and I thought you did a great job of explaining your points, particularly as it related to the technical aspects of film making and how those helped to convey the themes. The Shining has always been one of my favorite films to revisit, but I have struggled to understand the subtext because I've heard so many interpretations that it's hard for me to feel like I know what Kubrick's intentions were as a result of all the noise, but your logic was consistent throughout the piece and I appreciated that. So whether Kubrick's intention or not, your take on the film is a solid one that holds up as its own. Great video.
I encourage anyone who is interested about the lore of The Shining to read the book. I think of them as somewhat separate stories at this point simply because there are many differences (not a bad thing!). Anyhow the book changed my perspective for sure and definitely about the overlook as it’s own evil entity as well.
Every time I get a critique of this film, it's entirely different. I love that. Kubrick did not want a 'truth' to the meaning. It's part of his genius.
Very nice analysis of the Citizen Kane of horror films.I first watched it upon its opening back in 1980.It remains my favorite horror film of all time. Thanks again,peace!
Thanks for the video, it's really well done! I like your emphasis on the theme of the contract, to me it evokes the Faustian pact and the nature of the power dynamics at play within the hotel. There's so much to this film, so many intricacies and so much depth from which to draw interpretation, inspiration, and possible explanation. One thing I'd never noticed till seeing your video today is the way Jack's facial expression from when he is dead and frozen in the maze is mirrored/foreshadowed by the face he makes after taking his first drink. You can see it in this video from 9:38 to 9:42, his eyes are rolled very far back into his head and his top lip is curled upwards, brandishing his upper teeth. He makes a similar expression several times during the conversation with Grady in the bathroom. Though it's a little less exactly like the times after the drink and after his death, during the conversation Jack moves back and forth between looking at Grady straight on with a complex expression that, to me, shows a mixture of bewilderment and incredulousness and fear, to looking at Grady with his head angled downward so that his eyes are rolling up into his head and his maniacal grin displays his teeth. Like was mentioned in this video, as soon as Jack has taken that first drink he looks like someone who's just been given a truth serum; to me his expression is that of someone in a trance state who has been hypnotized. I think we're saying the same thing, that he has the look of someone not in control of their faculties, someone at the mercy of a power not their own. It's interesting that he has that look after taking a drink when the alcohol is taking over (he makes a toast to falling off the wagon, telling us that he is an alcoholic whose life before getting sober was dominated by drinking and that he is enthusiastic about once again relinquishing his willpower and submitting to the influence of the bottle) and it's during this same scene that Lloyd makes Jack (and the audience) aware that Jack is indebted to The House i.e. The House has power over Jack. Next, during the bathroom scene, we have the broken 180° rule and power exchange between Jack and Mr. Grady wherein Jack is reminded of his commitment to duty, and now it is an abstraction that is exerting power over Jack and compelling him to abandon his familial commitments to the health and safety of his wife and child. Finally, we see the expression on Jack's face as he is sitting in the hedge maze, frozen and dead; this time it is the crazed fervor to murder Danny which drove him to exhaustion and death by exposure after losing his way (literally and figuratively) in the maze. I might be way off base and maybe there's no significance to my observations, I don't know. Thanks again for the video, I look forward to seeing more of your analyses and interpretations! [Edited because I had the timestamp wrong]
The historical and social commentary was a nice addition to the video. Your explanation of the camera work helped me to see the full scope of the film's vision. Thanks for the video.
Good call. And the Gold Room is certainly no speakeasy, perhaps indicating that The House (as Lloyd refers to it) encourages, facilitates, and maybe even revels in the indulgence of forbidden pleasures. Thanks for adding a little more context to the scene, I'd never made the connection that Prohibition was the law of the land at the time.
In the beginning when Jack is told about Grady in the interview, Ulman tells him "Charles Grady" killed his daughters....in the bathroom he's Delbert Grady... hmmm.
That's because Wendy wasn't told Grady's christian name and is hallucinating some scenes, so has to make it up. th-cam.com/video/wRr_0W-9hWg/w-d-xo.html
They're two different (though possibly related) Gradys. Ullman clearly said that Charles Grady killed himself about 10 years before. Delbert Grady is in this scene from the 20's.
@@DrWrapperband The Wendy Theory is utter bullshit and fits in no where with all the themes outlined in this video, which I think is clearly backed up by the actual movie.
If you read his writings you'll see that this analysis isn't what Kubric intended. It's what the reviewer reads into it...and that's what Kubric intended: to expose the soul of the interpreter.
Kubric didn’t intend a lot of this explanation. His interview is here on TH-cam, search for it as posting links is considered bad form. In simplest terms he wanted each viewer to interpret it for themself. Quoted from FarOutMagazine in the UK: _As Stanley Kubrick explains, “It’s supposed to suggest a kind of evil reincarnation cycle, where he [Jack] is part of the hotel’s history, just as in the men’s room, he’s talking to the former caretaker [Grady], the ghost of the former caretaker, who says to him, ‘you are the caretaker; you’ve always been the caretaker, I should know I’ve always been here._ _Continuing, the filmmaker adds, “One is merely suggesting some kind of endless cycle of this evil reincarnation”. Somewhat reserved about revealing the explanation, Kubrick also notes, “it’s the sort of thing that I think is better left unexplained,” before later adding, “I think the best thing is when an audience looks at a film and wonders whether something that they have seen is an accident or if the director or writer meant them to know it, I think subtlety and allowing the audience to discover for themselves what it is the most important thing”._ _Suggesting toward an innate evil that resides in the walls of the hotel itself rather than in Jack Torrance’s tormented mind, Stanley Kubrick’s vision provides a fascinating insight into Stephen King’s story that continues to inspire and terrify._
Elias, this is an utterly FANTASTIC deep dive into the mythos of the film; very interesting to hear Stephen King speak about that conversation with Kubrick; super-wonderful nugget of info that I'd never heard of before, and you bring it to your audience splendidly. Keep up the great work! You have a new subscriber, Elias. ;)
@@TheEliasNoel you should have added that the shining hotel was built on native American burial ground. I know that's obvious but just an extra thing to back up that point about imperialism. Around the time you mentioned the red cans of native Americans. just an extra bit to back up your point to viewers. Sure you knew about it but think it would have added just A tiby bit. I think so anyway. Seriously brilliant analysis and also talking about camera shots which ager doesn't do as much Edit- also the fact that it was Kubrick that added that to the story. It wasn't in Kings book
@@TheEliasNoel I believe that's one of Agers stronger videos. His stuff on native American genocide is good. Some of his stuff is reaching but it's mostly good. When you started talking about gold I assumed you'd just say what he said about kubricks gold but you came up with your own interesting take on it. His other strong video is the spatial anomalies in the hotel and the weird layout. May be reaching but that ones his strongest I think Anyway good work. Deserves more views. Have a nice day
This is one of the best analysis of "The Shining" out there! While I do not think that there is one specific analysis that explains the movie, your analysis really covers the main point: that people are not necessarily evil. Something in their environment brings out the evil in a person. In the movie, the evil force is the Overlook Hotel. The movie is about the descent of Jack Nicholson's character into insanity and evil within the confines of the hotel. The hotel burning down would have been the logical ending for the movie.
Great video! I found your insights and analysis really intriguing. I’ve noticed another thing, unrelated to the actual hotel and you or someone else may have pointed it out already but here goes... At around 7:20 Jack Torrance was saying he had “two twenties and two tens” in his wallet. I think that this too is intentional. 2x20 + 2x10 = 60 and when you break down 60 as a product of its primes you get 2x2x3x5 which can kind of lead to the infamous 237 if you put the 2 and 3 next to each other, then add the remaining 5 and 2 together for 7. So together you get 237 Yes it’s a bit of a shoehorned way of getting there and I’m probably reading into it too much but I thought it was interesting.
Brilliant example of how many concepts make up this film. Kubrick was great at packing each scene with content and imagery . You did a great job on this my friend. I have seen different views on this film , and they are all great. The nasa apollo eleven video , the Wendy is crazy video , the elite dark occultist symbolic version , the haunted evil hotel version. I like them all and it's a testiment to how deep stephen kings story was and kubricks screenplay and cinematography was.
Very enjoyable video. I was hoping you would delve deeper into the bathroom scene with Jack and Grady. By that I mean the way Jack is standing. I find his posture in that scene unsettling, and I wouldn't mind hearing your take on that.
Jack starts out with a confident posture, when he thinks he has the upper hand on the entity, as Grady starts lecturing him Jack's posture becomes more uncertain or submissive, and Grady's becomes more assertive.
One thing always puzzled me. How did the girls become part of the hotel but not the mom? It's quite clear from Grady's description that they hated the hotel & one tried to burn it down. Yet somehow they become ghosts there as well. We can assume one of two things: Either the ghosts are those who have committed murder and died there or, they all died there and had the shining. Which could explain why the girls didn't like it and tried to burn it down. But then why didn't Hallorann try to warn/communicate with them like he did with Danny? I just can't figure out an explanation that makes any sense.
I think it has to do with who the hotel is communicating with. Think of the ghosts like puppets and the hotel like the puppet master. The hotel wants Danny and Jack, So it revels itself to them using certain “masks” it doesn’t really reveal anything to Wendy until the end and at that point probably no reason to use the wife but it is a good point
Great analysis and video! I've attempted to analyze this film, but I knew I wasn't getting all the finer points. You could spend a lifetime studying his movies!
19:12 Grady is not playing dumb. He is a ghost trapped for now within a greater evil that conditions his mind along with the rest of his existence. Other words, he is delusional.
I agree. Grady is a vessel now; a tool for the Overlook in which the evil of the hotel can manipulate it's newest victims. He doesn't retain his former personality, because he doesn't need to. That's why I like Jack's scene in Doctor Sleep. Once the Overlook takes you, it owns everything about you.
The 180 rule applies when shooting football games (or other games on rectangular fields). You can't "cross the line." If you do, it will look to viewers that the ball is suddenly going in the opposite direction down the field. It's a disorienting effect. You don't necessarily notice it, but it subconsciously bugs you. Kubrick also does this when the Marines are marching at the end of Full Metal Jacket.
Excellent analysis, finally someone gets me! See beneath the circumstances that led to this ill-fated events. RIP Stanley Kubrick, his camera positions and direction method are educational tools to learn from, he created a classic horror. Bravo.
I believe the Manager, the demonic spirit that possessed the Overlook Hotel, was a demon that came into our world through a Thinny (a supernatural portal described in the Dark Tower books where living people or spiritual entities can cross into different dimensions and worlds), possessed the hotel and merged as one with the building itself, causing all of the murders and suicides, etc., alongside its former owner and management when alive, Horace Derwent, who was a corrupt entrepreneur, billionaire playboy with mob ties. Derwent was the face of the Hotel and the demon's second in command of the Hotel's spirits.
A Shining analysis vid that I watched before this one, I wrote, "What a load of cobblers!" in the comments. This one, on the other hand, has to be the best one I've seen! Bravo, man! The only thing I think you missed out on mentioning, which would have contextualized and legitimized your take even more is that together with the genocide, The Overlook was also built on a native American burial ground.
Another explanation why props are missing or placed is because the movie IS us THE AUDIENCE viewing the novel jack is writting based on the story Ullman told him. His movie begans where he gets the idea (staring at the maze). There are points when the novel and reality take turns on screen. Another variation of this theory is that danny and wendy legit go crazy there because of isolation of wendy and danny shinning. Jack is aware of shinning powers from reading on the subject so he adds it to dannys character inspired by danny having toni imaginary friend. Jack changed carles to Grady in his novel to protect the privacy of the guy.
The movie is metaphorical: a guy who had alcoholic problems and violence, that finds himself with no idea for writing a book and losing his time in throwing a ball on a wall… his wife who was kindly asking a question on how is writing was progressing like his conscience but falling more and more in accusing everyone for being responsible of his problems which he is responsible and sinking in alcoholism to evade and fabulate. A great movie about conscience and the dangers of alcoholism and drugs.
Well in doctor sleep he says he has to "wake it up" which makes sense because no one's been in it for 40 years. So I would say that it also makes sense he could turn on the boiler without it noticing if it was the first thing he did. Because it wasn't active, there was no reason for it to be. The hotel at this point doesn't care about being subtile or building up it's creepiness it just wants food. That would also explain why it possesses Dan so fast. It couldn't care less about building it up so slowly, it needs a host and it needs it now.
I have a fan theory that the sentient demonic entity of the Overlook Hotel, the demon that possessed the Overlook Hotel's building, the Management, was a demon that originated from a Thinny, a portal described in the Dark Tower series as a portal in which living beings and creatures or spirits can cross over into other dimensions. I believe the Overlook Hotel was built on a Thinny and that's where the Manager demon came from and possessed the Overlook Hotel. As a ghost after dying later in life, former owner Horace Derwent, who was responsible for the Hotel's macabre history, was the Management's second in command of the Hotel's imprisoned human spirits, demons and poltergeists.
@@robertbusek30 To me my theory always made sense. The same Manta-Ray shaped demon Dick Hallorann saw as the true spiritual form of the Management when the Overlook Hotel burned down was identical to the demon that raped Suzannah in the Dark Tower series.
@@robertbusek30 The Management absorbed the human souls of its dead former guests and staff that inhabited the Overlook Hotel and some who died within its building, the Overlook Hotel itself was a spiritual portal to Hell, allowing several demons to cross over into the world of the living onto the Hotel's grounds as well as poltergeists created by the negative and evil spirit energy of the Hotel's dead former inhabitants. Former owner Horace Derwent was the Hotel's second in command of its imprisoned human ghosts, demons and poltergeists. Derwent himself being a corrupt billionaire playboy, entrepreneur and accountant with mafia connections that allowed gangland hits to happen in the Overlook Hotel under his ownership and management. In the book Danny saw the composite of the Hotel's imprisoned evil human ghosts that possessed Jack aside from the Manager/Caretaker after the Hotel smashed Jack's face with the Roque mallet to fully possess Jack's body to kill Danny, including the woman in Room 217/237 aka Mrs. Massey, the undead child Danny encountered in the cement tunnel on the playground, and I also believe Danny saw the ghosts of Derwent, Delbert Grady, Lloyd the bartender, Derwent's slain mafia associates including Vito the Chopper and his bodyguards that were shot on the third floor and the ghosts of several of Derwent's 1940's/1920's party guests.
@@robertbusek30 In the Shining novel the Overlook Hotel exploded due to the Manager's foolishness and overconfidence, in Stanley Kubrick's film adaption the Overlook never blew up and was left standing and abandoned to rot. After the Hotel exploded in the book, the Management lingered within the ruins of the Overlook Hotel's grounds, remained dormant and possessed the summer campground that replaced the Overlook Hotel.
I think it’s clever that, on the Gold Room sign, the G is written in such a way that it could also be read as the Cold Room. This alludes to Jack freezing in the elements at the end of the film
2:39 if we accept the idea from Doctor Sleep that the people killed by the hotel become its ghostly staff (Charles Grady becomes Delbert Grady the butler, Jack Torrence becomes Lloyd the Bartender), maybe that's why the hotel wanted Danny so badly. Someone with his Shining ability, if turned, could allow the hotel to exert more of an influence than it already has over a much wider area.
@@fenian123 no, it doesn't - its amazingly bad media literacy and requires throwing out WAY too much stuff, and it is also inconsistent - it chooses to ignore any thing that doesn't fit the narrative in one scene, and then use that exact sort of thing in another scene as the basis for what happening there. Either chairs moving between shots always matters or it doesn't.
@OP its not wise to look at the book or other movies to say anything about a film that was more than happy to make MANY changes. In virtually every case, Kurbick who argue against using the novels for a source of anything, such as with 2001
The acting from Grady in the bathroom scene is phenomenal. I love how he manages to shift the tone from a humble servant to becoming some kind of tyrant pulling the strings, so effortlessly and naturally too. Amazing acting
Ullmann told Jack in the interview that Grady's first name was "Charles," not "Delbert"...
Yes, absolutely chilling…
Yes
@MagesseT1 Yes, he was part of the cycle of violence. Delbert (hence the British actor) was likely a previous cycle from Charles from 1970. Delbert likely had something to do with the Native American aspect of the setting.
Even more impressive when you see him as Alex’s father in A Clockwork Orange
I feel Lloyd refuses Jack's payment twice, not because of a promise of violence, but because Jack's already paid with his soul. He literally say: "I'd give my god damn soul just for a glass of beer." Suddenly, there's Lloyd in a hellish red jacket telling Jack he doesn't have to pay in cash. See, Jack's already just paid with his soul. He's already cashed it in. Money's no good at the bar. Jack drinks for free, like in the deal.
True. I didn’t get why Jack says “White Man’s Burden” during that conversation. They are talking about Wendy and Danny at the time. That phrase refers to the racist thought of Manifest Destiny.. could it be that we tied it to that with the help of him being cool by use of the N word in the next scene or is it a literal reference of him Manifesting his Destiny? Also it was the thought of the Donner Family using Native Americans to guide them to gold on what use to be their lands. They were also the 1st to be eaten and rumor has it that they were selected and not because they died first. Leaving this here for someone with more knowledge of the film to address lol
There is no Lloyd anyway. Whenever jack sees one of his apparitions, he is always facing a mirror. Each and every 'ghost' he sees is his reflection.
@@davidlean1060 true! Since my post I read an interview with Kubrick in which he states that it’s reincarnation and that he’s always been in that picture at the end. In my opinion he’s in a never ending loop and each incarnation is doomed to repeat.
@@ateam404 Ah, but that is not true. Jack was in a loop, but Danny stops the cycle. That's why we see Jack frozen in the middle of a maze at the end.
@@davidlean1060 Because he died outside of the hotel?
According to the actor who played Danny, Jack Nickelson was very nice and supportive to him all throughout filming. Apparently he even still gets a Christmas card from Nickleson every year.
He seems like a relatively regular guy in many ways. The fact he hacked away at acting for years without getting anywhere (Bob Townes speaks about his friend being told at the unemployment office to 'get areal job'!) gave him a sense of perspective you could argue. His success was hard won and he has never forgotten that.
I’ve heard that from a lot of horror movies! It’s nice to see horror movies having such sweet behind the scenes
I hope this is true
Hasn’t jack been involved in awful things with Polanski… and was with his buddy on a boat when a woman died onboard. He’s from old Hollywood where everything was swept under the rug.
I believe you’re thinking of Natalie Wood and the person on the boat with them was Christopher Walken. When was Jack on a boat with a woman who died?
Fun fact: the child actor who played Danny later said he had no idea The Shining was a horror film as a kid, and without all the film atmosphere added later, the whole thing seemed fun, not ominous (riding the big wheel, making funny faces and voices, etc).
Well that's sweet to know the film crew did their best to make sure the kid on set wasn't aware of what horrifying movie they were acting in.
He can't have been on set when Kubrick was torturing Shelly Duvall.
Seems weird he wouldn't know. He holds a knife next to his mom saying redrum in a weird voice and having to look scared throughout the whole movie.
He became a college professor and threatened to fail anyone of his students who even mentioned it
@@stevepalpatine2828they usually don't bring kids on to sets except for the scenes that they are in.
I’ve somehow fallen down a rabbit hole of videos dealing with theories to The Shining and it’s amazing at the level of detail and editing that people put into these videos. It doesn’t matter if you agree with them or not, you have to admire the work they put into these videos!
I like being deep inside this profound cinematic hole...
I feel the same! Just purchased a DVD from a local shop for $12 last night. Love reading all of the scene titles and scrolling the old school menu :)
There's a really great one called Room 237 that explores a bunch of interpretations of what Kubrick was actually trying to say when he made The Shining.
Imagine if we put this much work into things that matter. If we did, we'd probably be able to compete with China.
@@ralphthomasbarbour847 or take care of our citizens.. and somehow get anything at all done ever besides make it easier for the rich to get richer and richer while the rest of America works 70 hours a week so they don't have to choose between food and electricity.
i literally applauded u when u said "that was the evil that was 'Overlooked'"
That joke has been around since the first guy wrote the first article saying that the movie had a secret meaning.
Then Horatio put his sunglasses on and 'Baba O' Riley' started blaring.
Literally stood up applauded when danny turned to Jack and said “it’s you, it’s me, it’s the hotel! Don’t you get it? We’re the shinning!” Fantastic ending to the film
Indeed!
i bet you clap when you see fireworks
Just noticed that Lloyd never blinks when we see him-I feel like this adds a subtle evil, unnerving quality to the character. Nicely done analysis!
That's what scared me, when I first watched the movie; Lloyd never blinks! And his intense gaze at Jack is so haunting and spooky, it leaves you feeling very unsettled.
Ghosts do not blink...
@@gregoryoakley4441 I have never seen in movies that ghost blink...
Interestingly, Anthony Hopkins decided that Hannibal Lecter wouldn't blink either
When in dream state, you don't see any detail in thing's, that you see when you are awake.
I know Stephen King didn't like this film and I do love his stories, but this film is an absolute masterpiece. A different story from King's but amazing in its own right.
It is a strange duck: a poor adaptation of a novel that is a brilliant film in its own right.
King eats my hair but doesnt understand that either
King just had a deep affection for his characters especially Jack seeing how this was the book he used as his own allegory for his alcoholism so it's probably just very personal to him you can tell he didn't like that Stanley was an atheist either even if he didn't say it
I saw The Shining with my Mom when it came out in 1980. I was 14. It left me cold like all Kubrick movies do for me on their initial viewing. I realize that there is so much to take in that it requires multiple viewings to understand and soak in the details. I love this film and watch it every couple of months especially in the winter. This and The Thing are perfect movies on that snowy winter day. A bag of popcorn , a coke and a warm blanket make these 2 flicks the perfect winter experience. I fall down the rabbit hole on Shining analysis every month and find new info. Ever since Room 237 I'm amazed at the different interpretations there are out there. Loved this and only have a few quibbles. I think to say just America is built on violence is short sighted. Every country and all mankind stand on the violence and sacrifices of their forefathers. Finally, I chuckle any time Leon Vitali who was Kubrick's long time assistant is asked about theories on The Shining he dismisses almost all. I think this is the joke Kubrick plays on all of us. We so over analyze his movies that sometimes a red door is simply a red door. Or is it?
Symbols and colors are everything.
15:08 While your analysis on the song 'Midnight, the Stars and You' could very well be correct, the song that plays during the scene with Torrance and Grady in the red bathroom is actually 'It's All Forgotten Now' which, the way I interpret it, signifies how the hotel consumes people and makes them forget who they really are.
We can see this though the character of Grady, who was the caretaker in 1970, now personified as a 1920s butler who goes by the name of "Delbert Grady" not Charles Grady as mentioned by the hotel's manager at the beginning of the film. The character of Grady serves as an almost direct foreshadow of Torrance's fate as we see by the end of the film that Jack too is consumed by the hotel and appears as a gentlemen of the 1920s, forgetting who he was in life, now forever doomed to be whatever the hotel wants him to be.
Spot on
Perfect. backs up my theory that this is not a hotel but a institution carrying out mind control experiments on the family. We now know that MK ULTRA used drugs like LSD and different techniques to experiment on unsuspecting patients in various institutions across the US and Canada to try to wipe their memory and install new memories. To me the biggest hint is Jungs The Red Book on Ullmans desk at the time of the interview. Why would a hotel manager have a psychologists book on his desk? Only if he is not a hotel manager, but a psychologist or psychiatrist running an institution. And this institution is running mind control experiments to wipe out memory. There are no ghosts, just hallucinations Jack doesn't get a drink of alcohol - he swallows LSD
Another theory is that this is an older Grady. The job may have stayed in the family, along with the violence.
@@TheEliasNoel You start out with good-points in the video.. But your conclusions are always 'Off' - Missing the mark of what's being presented to the viewers. Nice-try though.
@@TheEliasNoel Also it wasnt a ''Genocide.''
Two things I noticed about the shining that I feel people never really analyze:
-Wendy seems immune to the hotel's ploys (until the conclusion)
-why the ghosts only show up when no one's around. the hauntings don't happen when the hotel is full, only in the off season.
To answer your second question, I think it’s because evil works best when you’re alone and vulnerable, which is a key theme in It, (strength in numbers).
The Wendy theory is spot on... from the end (well from when she knocks out jack and “locks him in the dry storage locker”) Wendy is having a full on psychological breakdown... it’s not Jack who is crazy it’s Wendy.
@@hollyrodriguez3259 I’m aware of King’s patterns but this is why King (to this day) doesn’t like Kubrick’s film ... and I think it’s because he took creative license with the material to make it more of a psychological horror than a full of Supernatural Horror like King intended.
@@hollyrodriguez3259 It's not Stephen Kings universe, it's Stanley Kubricks. Might be why he hated the movie?
She only sees what's around them when she has been sufficiently abused to develop the shining.
This is possibly one of the best analyses of this film I’ve seen. I think Kubrick in his films was almost always dealing with “meta” themes such as American imperialism on a larger scale or the fundamentally flawed nature of man. The Native American theme as well as the gold theme, “white man’s burden” etc all speak to his underlying ideas.
When Danny ask..its something bad here?..the expresion of mr Halloran is the most shocking moment
The Shining is constantly flashing between different time periods, as evidenced by shuffling and at times absence of pictures on the walls as well as furniture.
Dick Hallorann explained at the beginning that many terrible things that happened in the hotel and they left behind a trace of themselves, that not everyone can notice, but people who shine can see, we assume he’s talking to Danny…
Dick Halloran was talking to you and me! Some people see the Shining as a movie about a man who goes crazy and tries to murder his family in a hotel, but those who “shine” can see the terrible things that happened at the Overlook hotel IN THE PAST!!
Many people have favorite scenes but such an unsung scene is when Jack talks with Graddy in the bathroom. So much symbolism and is the real turning point
When the Torrence family was on their way to the Overlook Hotel, Wendy brings up the Donner party, which Jack explains to Danny that they were pioneers heading west in covered wagon times. The funny thing about that is they were part of the gold rush. That just struck me as odd when you were talking about the gold room and the symbolism therein around the 11:00 minute mark. I wonder if there's a connection there?
Late reply: But the Donner party were the Mormons coming to settle west in search of religious freedom to practice polygamy(in part). Later in Mormon history, a group of Mormons slaughtered Native Americans to gain territorial dominance. So perhaps it seems, there is a connection to violence as the theory states.
The Gold Rush had not yet begun when the Donner Party got Stranded in the Sierra Nevada. The Donner Party got Stranded in the winter of 1846-1847. The Gold Rush, didn’t start rumors of the discovery of gold at John Sutter’s Mill in 1848 began to spread in 1849. (This is why the San Francisco NFL team is called they ‘49ers). So the Donner pre-dates the gold rush.
@@ralphthomasbarbour847 The "Gold Rush" hadn't begun yet, meaning, the majority of people hadn't yet heard of the fabulous wealth that could be claimed in California, but murmurs of what was to come had started making the rounds. From what I understand they traveled west by invitation to stake their own claim on "free land" waiting out west, hoping for a better, more prosperous life in California. So, you're correct. They weren't part of *the* gold rush, though they did travel west for a chance at prosperity, and a better life.
This might be a reach but is the ceiling of the gold room curved to mimic the inside of a covered wagon?
The Donner Party wasn’t part of the Gold Rush…
Really incredible analysis. Love how you go into topics I haven’t heard discussed on TH-cam before. Please do more!!!!
It’s an interesting analysis, but these topics have been done to death on TH-cam, no matter how accurate they are. It’s questionable to me when I here this narrative that the white man is the sole reason for any atrocities. If you actually look at history, all of humanity have committed atrocities. Even in the 20s, most men were good to their wives and children. Jacks character was meant to show a broken family trying to get by with a patriarchal, unstable man.
One of THE best bits of analysis on this film I’ve watched. There are so many levels to the presentation of this film that go beyond the straightforward story which can be enjoyed in and of itself for those who are uninterested in the analysis. Thanks for the work you put into this! ❤
my boyfriend worked on doctor sleep, he rebuilt the hotel set and to hear him talk about that set is fascinating. rooms had windows that physically shouldn’t have in real life. the sheer size of the great and gold rooms made no since and everything was so specific, the set almost felt real (which they never do. they are usually just little independent units in a sound stage where the gold room took up a soundstage by itself) it was all built like a maze. this was a complete rebuild of the original and you could just tell that every single thing had a purpose.
Rob Ager of (Correlative Learning) did a video about moving furniture.. it goes deep into the disorganised spacial irregularities.
That is so cool that he worked on the movie. I wish people would stop hating Doctor Sleep so much. Of course it will never be like what Kubrick did, but Flanagan did a lot for the details of the film, like your boyfriend did to recreate the sets
@@g.b569 i really love movies and Kubrick is my favorite director so when they wanted to create a follow up, Doctor Sleep, anyone who knows Kubrick knew going into this film that you can’t compare the two. frankly, the techniques Kubrick used with his directing and for his actors for The Shining would be illegal. it was so bad that Jack Nicholson wanted nothing to do with Doctor Sleep or anything the Shining related, he sued Doctor Sleep so they couldnt even use anyone with too much of a likeness to him. in my opinion, Doctor Sleep was pretty good except that they rushed the ending but when it comes to the writing and the actual shots, it was good. it isn’t a Kubrick film and no one can every recreate what he did and i’m just happy they didn’t even try.
@thickock45 it was super cool and definitely the best Flanagan flim but it’ll never compare to Kubrick lol
@Sparkling Cyanide The Set of the Overlook was the Ambassador Hotel, which many people actually stayed in Los Angeles. But after a while, they closed it down and tore it down. You can't revisit the original set, even if you tried.
Haunting is the word that describes The Shining. I remember the first time I saw the movie as a 13-ish year old kid, I remember from the very start, -the wailing and sounds during flying over the waters at the start, it scared me so much. I have watched the movie at least once a year since then, and it never stops to captivate- and fascinate me. It is a masterpiece!
There are a lot of YT's about the shining - this is the best. The deep dive and almost undercover analysis that RBtF does is astounding and breathtaking. I can't state strongly enough how much you should watch this vid. Amazing work!
So far this is the BEST analysis of The Shining I've ever seen. Thank you, RBTF.
I applaud your analysis! Thoroughly thought out and then some. You made me contemplate this from another angle.
I always took it for granted that the Overlook needed human agency to do its bidding and that the spirits/ghosts were there as its means to accomplish that, to persuade the living who are weak enough to be manipulated.
What is astonishing about The Shinning is the amount of layers to peel back and dissect. I’ve never been sold on the theory that none of it is happening, that Jack is writing a book, that this is all coming out of his head and going onto paper as I’ve read before. Too easy. A
What I don’t think is discussed nearly enough is that Wendy sees and has interactions with the spirits/ghosts. I would say, that far from being the hysterical, frightened creature she is accused of (Who wouldn’t react the way Wendy does? These are the reactions of a SANE person!), the Overlook realizes she is a far more formidable foe then it gave her credit for and has to send its servants to terrorize her. Perhaps the norms of an early era are coming up against the modern and finding women difficult to control? And the last thing Jack wants is for Lloyd or Grady to think he isn’t a man who can’t control his wife or child.
FYI- Jack “always the caretaker.” Did you ever notice that was they arrive at the hotel, as the staff are leaving and closing up, the pass a man in a burgundy jacket with his back to the camera polishing what appears to be a glass cabinet?
I didn't notice the man in the burgundy jacket but will check this time.
Interesting points. The novel emphasized the Overlook Hotel itself was alive as an evil entity of its own with a sentiment mind, animated spiritual power and demonic spirit of its own (The Management/The Caretaker/the Hotel-Creature), due to the Native Americans cursing the building for it being constructed on an Indian burial ground and powered further by the evil spirits it absorbed (former owner Horace Derwent, whose mob ties caused gangland hits at the hotel, and the other deaths.
I've been watching many of these analysis videos on the Shining, and they're all interesting BUT everyone forgets that Jack ALSO HAS SHINING ABILITIES, and is a target of the hotel's manipulation. He is in touch with the Hotel's past evil.
I'm much more interested in people talk about The Shining than I am the movie itself so this theory is half-baked at best, but it seems the hotel is sort of an evil magnet that draws the wicked toward it. Maybe everyone in the picture in the end with Jack got into that picture in the same way he did.
Jack doesn’t shine.
Jack does not shine nor did he have the ability to tell the hotel was evil, he never forseen his future, unlike Danny who had visions of the hotel before they left town. Danny also had visions of his father murdering him. Just because Jack seen the ghost it doesn't mean he shined. Jack had no foresight.
It is categorically untrue that Jack does not shine. This is proven in the follow up novel "Dr. Sleep" when Jack's granddaughter (and Dan's niece) Abra displays even MORE shine than Dan. The common thread is JACK. Abra's mother Lucy is the product of an affair her mother had with Jack before they went to the Overlook (making her Dan's paternal half sister). Again, the common thread is JACK.
I was thinking the same thing.
Most informative, really like your themes, definitely on par with Rob Ager. The beauty of Kubrick is that his films work on so many different levels and perspectives and every single scene down to the minutiae of seemingly innocuous objects, all have deep and inherent meanings therefore one could explore his work forever and never arrive at a definitive meaning. That is why Kubricks classics will always remain elusive, he will keep you constantly searching.
Rob is good at analyzing movies, but certainly not The Shining. Kubrick was intelligent, and meticulous, but he was the director. Films are made on a budget of time and money, neither of which are the director's. People act like every frame and prop was perfectly placed to create psychological manipulation the world's best intelligence agencies are not capable of.
Ambiguity is ambiguity -- look at all the "theories" about this movie. Can't be about Native American genocide, minotaurs, psychic powers, abuse, mental health, etc. at the same time. Nothing about hiding your movie's meaning so thoroughly that it takes society several decades of hard analysis to even begin to understand the film serves the narrative; no director does this. Plug it into TH-cam. First video? Wendy's evil, by Rob Ager. Next video? Oh, theories on how Jack escapes the freezer, next video, native american genocide, next video, it's actually room 237, next video, etc.
There is -zero- evidence or solid indication of any kind that any of the "theories" (fanfiction, lol) are anything other than massive reaches. It's all old hat, nonsense, nobody who worked on the film or scripts or sets has ever given any indication that any of this is anything other than silly speculation. That's why no conclusion is ever offered -- just "wow, this makes no sense... but it's Kubrick, so maybe it does? Interesting!"
@@davemccombs Yes,this is becoming too much...how on earth must any person realise all these hidden meanings while watching?
@@davemccombsMeuh.
I read The Shining many years ago and there's one line that has stuck with me to this day: "A man always kills the thing he loves."
I used to study films and film making a long time ago but The Shining was not so memorable for me because I thought it was just a tale of good vs evil thinking the evil was Jack Nickelson's character going insane. I think your understanding of Kubrik's message is spot on and the continuation of violence through out each different age is a very compelling point indeed - I thought the USA was messed up for reasons Kubrik touched on and which go even deeper but he certainly achieved a very real explanation for why it is so.
Yes plus the hotel was built on a Native American graveyard, if I recall correctly. So it has been an affront to decency since its inception.
A world of savages, cannibals, slaves, and paupers are upset the white man invested in educating, feeding, and freeing them from their misery. The people of the world will never be able to repay the white man for all that he provided the world.
Interesting point, when Danny asks Halloran if he is "scared of this place?" Halloran never actually answers the question. He says "No, I aint scared of nothing here". Nothing, as in, the things you will see within, because as he explains, they are just like previous echoes of bad things that happened, they themselves are not real. What he doesnt say however, is that the place itself REALLY does scare him because it is the place itself that is evil. He seems genuinely confused by Danny asking if he is afraid of room 237. He is confused because he genuinely isnt scared of that room, but Danny is, because he has already forseen what will happen in that room, well before he goes to the hotel. Halloran gets angry because he KNOWS it is bad because he knows Danny KNOWS its a bad room. It may be the hub of activity in the hotel because it is the only place where Ghosts (supposedly) touch Danny and Jack. Every other interaction is just visual but no contact.
Yes. You get it. The Overlook Hotel itself was alive and self-aware with a sentient mind, animated spiritual power and demonic entity of its own. ("The Management.)" The Manager/Caretaker trapped the spirits of all the late former guests and staff that died in the hotel or were tied to its history, like former owner and management Horace Derwent, whom had mafia ties and allowed many gangland hits to occur within the Overlook Hotel during his ownership and even after. Derwent's ghost was the Hotel's second in command of its imprisoned human spirits, demons and poltergeists. The Manager could replay all memories and echoes of its building's history but with Danny's power the Hotel would've been able to spread its power far beyond the walls and grounds of its building into the world alongside its captured ghosts and demons, possess and absorb more souls, kill more people and become Godlike potentially. Jack was just the Overlook's perfect pawn.
you are reaching, and it looks like you are taking things from outside the film to interpret it (like the novel or other Thining movies, etc.)
Really stood out what you said about evil not being an entity but like a virus that spreads to commit more evil. I’ve watched alot of videos analyzing The Shining. This is my favorite one yet. liked and subscribed
The spreading evil is the silence behind familial child abuse. The repetition-feeling everywhere in the film is about the cycle of family violence/enablement that never gets broken until recognized. No recognition of child abuse in this movie by the abuser, this is too often reality! This is K's attempt to describe the endless horror of child abuse, as maybe it appeared in his own life. The embracing of the horror-woman by Jack represented his inability to love without destroying. The substitution of Jack for another in the final portrait represents the timelessness of this sort of violence, from one generation to the next its changelessness...
Decent theory. Better than the ones in which it's all in Jack's mind. Those theories take of all of the power, (and thus all of the horror) out of the hotel. Making it a personal evil and therefore limited in it's horror. The music, the mood, the composition and the color tones all cry out for something far grander. An omnipotent evil that has always been there. That's the movie I saw.
I agree. I see it that same way. Well said.😊
What a thought-provoking analysis. I’ve seen plenty of similar videos on The Shining, but this the first that brought in the use of colors and really went into the Native American themes that are much more prevalent in the novel. Well done.
Thank you more coming soon!
I've been binge watching analysis videos of "the shining" and this is one of the most insightful I've seen so far. thank you
Great review. Did anyone notice how Jack has the EXACT facial expression and posture right after taking his first drink as he did when his body was frozen at the end of the movie? Does anyone know what that is about?
Yes, it is the as above as below symbol of the baphomet. I think this movie has more occult symbolism that we haven’t uncovered yet. I really like that he made the connection with Adam and Eve. It’s almost as if the overlook did the same thing that Satan did to Adam and Eve.
I think Kubrick was trying to make a point of the inevitable fate of human nature succumbing to evil. Just as Adam and Eve did in the beginning. And Jack succumbs to this evil in the end because it’s his destiny. That’s why Grady makes a point to tell him that he’s always been the caretaker. It’s the evil personified in human nature that I believe he is referring to.
Anyway that’s my 2 cents lol
Although I do not agree with this idea at all. But I believe this is the core message of the Shinning. Hence the Native American plot going on, and the whole father murdering the family as well. It has to do with human nature succumbing to an inevitable evil which is represented by Satan.
@@ruthtrevino7755 That is an interesting take. You might also know that it appears Kubrick focused alot with incorporating fairy tales along with Biblical references: For example, Jack even refers to himself as the "big bad wolf" that is blowing down the door of the 3 little pigs. I am thinking that when Jack drank his first sip of liquor it was similar to Adam and Eve being tricked into biting the apple. Also in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, the princess gets pricked by a spindle provided by the witch disguised as an old woman. Princess falls into a deep sleep. I think the philosophical debate is this: Are humans AWOKEN by the tricks of the Devil or put to sleep (ie. UNDER A SPELL). Does the devil make us evil or just show humans that we are inherently evil?
@@wrestledeep Oh Man! Yes I totally see that now! I definitely have to rewatch the movie now to get some new insight! That’s what’s so great about this movie. There is so much to it that you can just rewatch it and every time it’s a new experience.
@@ruthtrevino7755 OP is talking about the corpse in the maze , not the photo. Maybe it's because Jack, his soul, was dead as soon as he took that drink.
I've been binging on these videos analyzing The Shining and this is by far the best! The world deserves to know what your interpretation of the guy in the bear suit is!
Sorry if somebody has already mentioned this, but it's interesting that Jack asks for bourbon, but Lloyd instead serves him Jack Daniel's, which many may mistake for bourbon but is actually Tennessee Whiskey. And "Jack" and "Daniel" are both the first names of the characters AND of the actors.
Not sure what this means, but it can't be an accident.
Brilliant!!
In doctor sleep Danny explains that jack daniels was his dad's favourite brand
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼😊
Among other things, this essay really brings into focus how great a bartender Lloyd really was - so _attentive!_
The score of the movie is haunting and foreboding. The sounds, music and silence are so freaking creepy.
I also feel like the ballroom setting for the final reveal of Jack being in that picture is very important in connection to the phrase "you've always been the caretaker, I should know, I've always been here."
Now we know Jack couldn't possibly have been there in the 20s - but when these 'caretakers' make that deal with the hotel that they rewrite history, by repeating the history of violence. We know Grady used to be the caretaker, and when he sealed his deal, he rewrote history and became an eternal part of the hotel and then Jack did the same. That's how it's possible for him to be in that picture.
For me, Jack never looks directly at Grady in this scene 18:40
Seems like he has a conversation with himself and stuff like this always happens when a mirror is in his sight. Correct me if Im wrong
I agree with the mirror thing, but if he's only seeing these ghosts when he's looking in the mirror at himself then how do we explain all of the people in the gold room and that party?
yes the naked lady in the bath even turns jack slightly just before she kisses him,so that he is looking in the mirror behind!
@@andrewrau7516 the first instance of the bar appearing is when Jack looks at the mirror behind the *empty bar
@@vitazissel3671 what about when windy say the gay couple? And the room full of skeletons or the dead party guest with his head split? Numerous examples of ghost being seen without reflection, also just the impossible lay out of the hotel windows that lead to the outside in impossible places, how you can enter a room one way and exit it in a whole nother and not even notice how the hotel has shifted around you, lead me to believe the hotel is defiantly actually 100 percent haunted by something
@@andrewrau7516 Jack never talks to any of those people in the Gold Room.
Notice in the gold room in the second scene mentioned at 14:01 the woman who walks by in the gold dress clearly has a bloody hand print on her buttocks. The furniture leading in are red couches but the white table dining area is roped off with a red rope, Jacks jacket looks very red in this lighting similar to the bartender's red uniform. Also track back to when Jack is speaking to the bartender, along the walls very high up are multiple streamers bunched together ,one side is predominantly gold the other side is red and they give off a feeling of hung corpses dripping in blood...
Wow I never noticed the bloody hand on the woman with the gold dress! Great spotting it and great points!
@@TheEliasNoel I know it is weird
I have seen the Shining more times than I can count over a span of 25 years and it was only once I started to review TH-cam videos on the subject that I remembered that I had noticed this many different years ago and had forgotten about it's possible significance.
Thank you for acknowledging my comment! I appreciate it very much😁
@@TheEliasNoel ☝😅 Oh. So it wasn't just a trick of the light! 😬
Maybe just a coincidence but in the movie version of Stephen King's "Carrie" there is also a bloody handprint on the white pants of the gym teacher who helps Carrie when Carrie first started her monthly cycle in the locker room shower and didn't know what's going on.---Just a guess on my part but I'm wondering if the handprint on the lady's evening gown in "The Shining" represents a decadent, casual attitude toward violence. We see something very wrong while things go on as usual, without comment. If the lady is aware of the stain, she doesn't care, and by the time she had gotten to the Gold Room someone should have stopped her and said something about her dress.
It could be that, it could also be Kubrick's sense of humour. The room is gold coloured, so the hand pattern may mean these people think the sun shines out of their arses, or it could simply mean Kubrick thinks they are 'arseholes'.
The overlook is basically powered by blood splatter.
When violence happens and a death occurs
it is like a white towel soaking up blood.
The gold room represents greed.
Jack wants money, he wants recognition for his writing, he wants to be famous
so jack is familiar with themes of greed.
The entire hotel represent different sins.
The overly stocked Kitchen represent gluttony.
The VIP rooms that are overly comfortable represents Sloth.
This hotel lives off the Sins of those who stay there.
Jack has also been reincarnated.
Jack serves the hotel.
Jack goes into the world and has a son.
But returns with his son and daughter to hand them over to the hotel.
However when Jack fails he must remain in the hotel until
his wife and son die. Upon their death the hotel can claim
their souls. Once claimed Jack returns into the world
to collect more souls. As the number of souls
increase the hotels power increases.
The Overlook represents America, the hotel is built on Native American land.
The unsettling thing is the way that things are missing from the furniture from one scene to the next. It's like real life ghosts who move things around our homes.
The ghosts in my house help me cook and clean my toilet
In the early scenes when they're touring the hotel it's almost uncanny how much furniture is being moved around by people almost pointlessly. And it still keeps rearranging throughout for no reason, like Jack decided he wanted to move a 500 pound 18-foot table across the Colorado Lounge because he wanted the typewriter _over there._ In reality it was a movie set they could rearrange at will. I'm curious if Kubrick even used a continuity person. So many times in the movie you go "what room is this now? Oh, now there's a new hallway and it's painted a different color..."
@@hanonondricek411 During the filming of The Shining, one set completely burned down and they had to create a new one. That's a better explanation for why there are so many continuity errors within the set pieces themselves.
If Grady is the hotel made manifest, then it's clear by the way he talks about Halloran that he's pissed off at him, probably because Halloran is able to resist his influence.
Grady was the former caretaker but merely another evil spirit the Hotel corrupted, possessed and absorbed. As well as the reincarnation of the butler of the Overlook Hotel in the twenties and thirties, as Jack was a reincarnation of a former groundskeeper. The Hotel was sentiment with a mind and will of its own due to the curse on the land and the evil supernatural energy from the hotel's history. The ghost of Horace Derwent was the Hotel's second in command. Grady, Derwent, Lloyd, Mrs. Massey, were all ghosts but also they were all manifestations of the Manager. Which was the Hotel itself.
That’s an interesting point. Though if Halloran understood the depths of the evil lurking there, he would never return year after year.
Very nice breakdown here. One of the best I’ve listened too.
This is one of the best Shining analogy and explanation I have seen. Very well done.
Love it. Very well thought out and assembled. Fascinating ideas.
The definition of 'evil' that I came up with was - "Doing something to someone else - that you'd never in a Million years - want done to yourself."
This was a really fascinating watch and I thought you did a great job of explaining your points, particularly as it related to the technical aspects of film making and how those helped to convey the themes. The Shining has always been one of my favorite films to revisit, but I have struggled to understand the subtext because I've heard so many interpretations that it's hard for me to feel like I know what Kubrick's intentions were as a result of all the noise, but your logic was consistent throughout the piece and I appreciated that. So whether Kubrick's intention or not, your take on the film is a solid one that holds up as its own. Great video.
Really appreciate that!
Damn, this may not answer every question, but from a supernatural perspective this is perfect!
well done! your analysis of the bar exchange and the reversal in the bathroom scene I think is spot on.
Very well done. It’s difficult to find new things to expand upon in a movie that has already been so thoroughly analyzed. Good work!👍
This is one of the best of many many many videos I've seen on The Shining. Bravo!!!!
This one one of the clearest most accurate explanations of The Shining I’ve ever seen! Well done!!
Best explanation of the shining I’ve ever seen👍🏼
I encourage anyone who is interested about the lore of The Shining to read the book. I think of them as somewhat separate stories at this point simply because there are many differences (not a bad thing!). Anyhow the book changed my perspective for sure and definitely about the overlook as it’s own evil entity as well.
Every time I get a critique of this film,
it's entirely different. I love that.
Kubrick did not want a 'truth' to the
meaning. It's part of his genius.
"THAT'S BEEN OVERLOOKED..."😍
The way someone analyses and interprets The Shining is a direct representation of their own psyche.
Fantastic video! The more I learn about this film, the more it fascinates me. Thank you for the content and the awesome editing.
Very nice analysis of the Citizen Kane of horror films.I first watched it upon its opening back in 1980.It remains my favorite horror film of all time.
Thanks again,peace!
You've put into words so many points I've never been able to find words for. Excellent. Thanks.
Just like you, I never felt this movie was scary. More creepy than anything else.
Thanks for the video, it's really well done! I like your emphasis on the theme of the contract, to me it evokes the Faustian pact and the nature of the power dynamics at play within the hotel.
There's so much to this film, so many intricacies and so much depth from which to draw interpretation, inspiration, and possible explanation.
One thing I'd never noticed till seeing your video today is the way Jack's facial expression from when he is dead and frozen in the maze is mirrored/foreshadowed by the face he makes after taking his first drink. You can see it in this video from 9:38 to 9:42, his eyes are rolled very far back into his head and his top lip is curled upwards, brandishing his upper teeth. He makes a similar expression several times during the conversation with Grady in the bathroom. Though it's a little less exactly like the times after the drink and after his death, during the conversation Jack moves back and forth between looking at Grady straight on with a complex expression that, to me, shows a mixture of bewilderment and incredulousness and fear, to looking at Grady with his head angled downward so that his eyes are rolling up into his head and his maniacal grin displays his teeth. Like was mentioned in this video, as soon as Jack has taken that first drink he looks like someone who's just been given a truth serum; to me his expression is that of someone in a trance state who has been hypnotized. I think we're saying the same thing, that he has the look of someone not in control of their faculties, someone at the mercy of a power not their own.
It's interesting that he has that look after taking a drink when the alcohol is taking over (he makes a toast to falling off the wagon, telling us that he is an alcoholic whose life before getting sober was dominated by drinking and that he is enthusiastic about once again relinquishing his willpower and submitting to the influence of the bottle) and it's during this same scene that Lloyd makes Jack (and the audience) aware that Jack is indebted to The House i.e. The House has power over Jack. Next, during the bathroom scene, we have the broken 180° rule and power exchange between Jack and Mr. Grady wherein Jack is reminded of his commitment to duty, and now it is an abstraction that is exerting power over Jack and compelling him to abandon his familial commitments to the health and safety of his wife and child. Finally, we see the expression on Jack's face as he is sitting in the hedge maze, frozen and dead; this time it is the crazed fervor to murder Danny which drove him to exhaustion and death by exposure after losing his way (literally and figuratively) in the maze.
I might be way off base and maybe there's no significance to my observations, I don't know. Thanks again for the video, I look forward to seeing more of your analyses and interpretations!
[Edited because I had the timestamp wrong]
I have watched a ton of these videos. This one was the best and it also made the most sense.
The historical and social commentary was a nice addition to the video. Your explanation of the camera work helped me to see the full scope of the film's vision. Thanks for the video.
Funny how there was Prohibition from 1920 to 1933.
Good call. And the Gold Room is certainly no speakeasy, perhaps indicating that The House (as Lloyd refers to it) encourages, facilitates, and maybe even revels in the indulgence of forbidden pleasures. Thanks for adding a little more context to the scene, I'd never made the connection that Prohibition was the law of the land at the time.
I lived in a house that had a hidden room for drinking.
I’ve listened/watched many breakdowns of the Shining. This is easily one of the best
In the beginning when Jack is told about Grady in the interview, Ulman tells him "Charles Grady" killed his daughters....in the bathroom he's Delbert Grady... hmmm.
That's because Wendy wasn't told Grady's christian name and is hallucinating some scenes, so has to make it up. th-cam.com/video/wRr_0W-9hWg/w-d-xo.html
@@DrWrapperband Or the hotel just changed his name to fit his new role. I really don't buy into the Wendy theory but tbf I don't buy into most lol.
They're two different (though possibly related) Gradys. Ullman clearly said that Charles Grady killed himself about 10 years before. Delbert Grady is in this scene from the 20's.
@@DrWrapperband The Wendy Theory is utter bullshit and fits in no where with all the themes outlined in this video, which I think is clearly backed up by the actual movie.
@@victoire614 Swearing is the utter lowest form of argument.
One of the best analyzation videos I've seen on The Shining. I've seen at least 40 of them.
Thanks you. Please subscribe if you can i have more on the way!
@@TheEliasNoel I already have subscribed and I'll be looking forward to seeing more vids from you. Thank you!
If you read his writings you'll see that this analysis isn't what Kubric intended. It's what the reviewer reads into it...and that's what Kubric intended: to expose the soul of the interpreter.
Thank you John😊
Source?
When did Kubrick say that?
Kubric didn’t intend a lot of this explanation. His interview is here on TH-cam, search for it as posting links is considered bad form. In simplest terms he wanted each viewer to interpret it for themself. Quoted from FarOutMagazine in the UK:
_As Stanley Kubrick explains, “It’s supposed to suggest a kind of evil reincarnation cycle, where he [Jack] is part of the hotel’s history, just as in the men’s room, he’s talking to the former caretaker [Grady], the ghost of the former caretaker, who says to him, ‘you are the caretaker; you’ve always been the caretaker, I should know I’ve always been here._
_Continuing, the filmmaker adds, “One is merely suggesting some kind of endless cycle of this evil reincarnation”. Somewhat reserved about revealing the explanation, Kubrick also notes, “it’s the sort of thing that I think is better left unexplained,” before later adding, “I think the best thing is when an audience looks at a film and wonders whether something that they have seen is an accident or if the director or writer meant them to know it, I think subtlety and allowing the audience to discover for themselves what it is the most important thing”._
_Suggesting toward an innate evil that resides in the walls of the hotel itself rather than in Jack Torrance’s tormented mind, Stanley Kubrick’s vision provides a fascinating insight into Stephen King’s story that continues to inspire and terrify._
Kudos - from the bathroom scene alone - best analysis of the story I've seen on youtube
I can’t get over how accurate you are with your hypothesis
Elias, this is an utterly FANTASTIC deep dive into the mythos of the film; very interesting to hear Stephen King speak about that conversation with Kubrick; super-wonderful nugget of info that I'd never heard of before, and you bring it to your audience splendidly. Keep up the great work! You have a new subscriber, Elias. ;)
@@JonathanMalec-f4o thank you for the subscription and the kind words!
Great in-depth analysis! Loved learning about the rule of 2 and the 180 rule. Can’t wait for future videos!
Thank you. Working on getting some out soon!
IT is fascinating learning of all the different takes on The Shining, it is a movie which just keeps on giving!
Damn this analysis is probably even better than Rob agers
That’s a compliment thank you!
@@TheEliasNoel you should have added that the shining hotel was built on native American burial ground. I know that's obvious but just an extra thing to back up that point about imperialism. Around the time you mentioned the red cans of native Americans. just an extra bit to back up your point to viewers. Sure you knew about it but think it would have added just A tiby bit. I think so anyway.
Seriously brilliant analysis and also talking about camera shots which ager doesn't do as much
Edit- also the fact that it was Kubrick that added that to the story. It wasn't in Kings book
Martha Stubbs great points!
@@TheEliasNoel I believe that's one of Agers stronger videos. His stuff on native American genocide is good. Some of his stuff is reaching but it's mostly good.
When you started talking about gold I assumed you'd just say what he said about kubricks gold but you came up with your own interesting take on it.
His other strong video is the spatial anomalies in the hotel and the weird layout. May be reaching but that ones his strongest I think
Anyway good work. Deserves more views. Have a nice day
Martha Stubbs thank you again! I’m familiar with Ager’s arguments but I try to make my videos offer something new.
This is one of the best analysis of "The Shining" out there!
While I do not think that there is one specific analysis that explains the movie, your analysis really covers the main point:
that people are not necessarily evil. Something in their environment brings out the evil in a person.
In the movie, the evil force is the Overlook Hotel.
The movie is about the descent of Jack Nicholson's character into insanity and evil within the confines of the hotel.
The hotel burning down would have been the logical ending for the movie.
Great video! I found your insights and analysis really intriguing.
I’ve noticed another thing, unrelated to the actual hotel and you or someone else may have pointed it out already but here goes... At around 7:20 Jack Torrance was saying he had “two twenties and two tens” in his wallet. I think that this too is intentional. 2x20 + 2x10 = 60 and when you break down 60 as a product of its primes you get 2x2x3x5 which can kind of lead to the infamous 237 if you put the 2 and 3 next to each other, then add the remaining 5 and 2 together for 7. So together you get 237
Yes it’s a bit of a shoehorned way of getting there and I’m probably reading into it too much but I thought it was interesting.
Brilliant example of how many concepts make up this film.
Kubrick was great at packing each scene with content and imagery . You did a great job on this my friend. I have seen different views on this film , and they are all great. The nasa apollo eleven video , the Wendy is crazy video , the elite dark occultist symbolic version , the haunted evil hotel version.
I like them all and it's a testiment to how deep stephen kings story was and kubricks screenplay and cinematography was.
At the end of the movie it hinted strongly that Jack was with that crowd (the ghosts) in a past life. Probably why he was so influenced by them
This is very good , some good new theories you speak about here , it doesnt stop giving this film , great vid
Very enjoyable video. I was hoping you would delve deeper into the bathroom scene with Jack and Grady. By that I mean the way Jack is standing. I find his posture in that scene unsettling, and I wouldn't mind hearing your take on that.
Jack starts out with a confident posture, when he thinks he has the upper hand on the entity, as Grady starts lecturing him Jack's posture becomes more uncertain or submissive, and Grady's becomes more assertive.
Awesome overview and ideals of definitely one of my top 3 favorite films of all time!! Keep up the great work man!!
One thing always puzzled me. How did the girls become part of the hotel but not the mom? It's quite clear from Grady's description that they hated the hotel & one tried to burn it down. Yet somehow they become ghosts there as well. We can assume one of two things: Either the ghosts are those who have committed murder and died there or, they all died there and had the shining. Which could explain why the girls didn't like it and tried to burn it down. But then why didn't Hallorann try to warn/communicate with them like he did with Danny? I just can't figure out an explanation that makes any sense.
I think it has to do with who the hotel is communicating with. Think of the ghosts like puppets and the hotel like the puppet master. The hotel wants Danny and Jack, So it revels itself to them using certain “masks” it doesn’t really reveal anything to Wendy until the end and at that point probably no reason to use the wife but it is a good point
I figured that the woman in room 237 was the wife, like she was killed, maybe drowned, and then left to rot.
Great analysis and video! I've attempted to analyze this film, but I knew I wasn't getting all the finer points. You could spend a lifetime studying his movies!
19:12
Grady is not playing dumb. He is a ghost trapped for now within a greater evil that conditions his mind along with the rest of his existence. Other words, he is delusional.
I agree. Grady is a vessel now; a tool for the Overlook in which the evil of the hotel can manipulate it's newest victims. He doesn't retain his former personality, because he doesn't need to. That's why I like Jack's scene in Doctor Sleep. Once the Overlook takes you, it owns everything about you.
very well done essay guy. I just can't watch this movie enough. I never realized the importance of the colours.
The 180 rule applies when shooting football games (or other games on rectangular fields). You can't "cross the line." If you do, it will look to viewers that the ball is suddenly going in the opposite direction down the field. It's a disorienting effect. You don't necessarily notice it, but it subconsciously bugs you. Kubrick also does this when the Marines are marching at the end of Full Metal Jacket.
Great analysis! By far one of the best I've watched so far on TH-cam on The Shining and I've watched quite a few.
Excellent analysis, finally someone gets me! See beneath the circumstances that led to this ill-fated events. RIP Stanley Kubrick, his camera positions and direction method are educational tools to learn from, he created a classic horror. Bravo.
You are so right about The Shining being haunting instead of frightening
This is a great breakdown. I like your interpretation of the Hotel having persuasion over the ghosts, and using humans to do their evil.
I believe the Manager, the demonic spirit that possessed the Overlook Hotel, was a demon that came into our world through a Thinny (a supernatural portal described in the Dark Tower books where living people or spiritual entities can cross into different dimensions and worlds), possessed the hotel and merged as one with the building itself, causing all of the murders and suicides, etc., alongside its former owner and management when alive, Horace Derwent, who was a corrupt entrepreneur, billionaire playboy with mob ties. Derwent was the face of the Hotel and the demon's second in command of the Hotel's spirits.
A Shining analysis vid that I watched before this one, I wrote, "What a load of cobblers!" in the comments.
This one, on the other hand, has to be the best one I've seen! Bravo, man!
The only thing I think you missed out on mentioning, which would have contextualized and legitimized your take even more is that together with the genocide, The Overlook was also built on a native American burial ground.
Another explanation why props are missing or placed is because the movie IS us THE AUDIENCE viewing the novel jack is writting based on the story Ullman told him. His movie begans where he gets the idea (staring at the maze). There are points when the novel and reality take turns on screen. Another variation of this theory is that danny and wendy legit go crazy there because of isolation of wendy and danny shinning. Jack is aware of shinning powers from reading on the subject so he adds it to dannys character inspired by danny having toni imaginary friend. Jack changed carles to Grady in his novel to protect the privacy of the guy.
The movie is metaphorical: a guy who had alcoholic problems and violence, that finds himself with no idea for writing a book and losing his time in throwing a ball on a wall… his wife who was kindly asking a question on how is writing was progressing like his conscience but falling more and more in accusing everyone for being responsible of his problems which he is responsible and sinking in alcoholism to evade and fabulate. A great movie about conscience and the dangers of alcoholism and drugs.
Well in doctor sleep he says he has to "wake it up" which makes sense because no one's been in it for 40 years. So I would say that it also makes sense he could turn on the boiler without it noticing if it was the first thing he did. Because it wasn't active, there was no reason for it to be. The hotel at this point doesn't care about being subtile or building up it's creepiness it just wants food. That would also explain why it possesses Dan so fast. It couldn't care less about building it up so slowly, it needs a host and it needs it now.
I have a fan theory that the sentient demonic entity of the Overlook Hotel, the demon that possessed the Overlook Hotel's building, the Management, was a demon that originated from a Thinny, a portal described in the Dark Tower series as a portal in which living beings and creatures or spirits can cross over into other dimensions. I believe the Overlook Hotel was built on a Thinny and that's where the Manager demon came from and possessed the Overlook Hotel. As a ghost after dying later in life, former owner Horace Derwent, who was responsible for the Hotel's macabre history, was the Management's second in command of the Hotel's imprisoned human spirits, demons and poltergeists.
@@castortroy7704 I like the direction you’re going. It parallels well with what we see of the Overlook site in the novels Dr. Sleep and Billy Summers.
@@robertbusek30 To me my theory always made sense. The same Manta-Ray shaped demon Dick Hallorann saw as the true spiritual form of the Management when the Overlook Hotel burned down was identical to the demon that raped Suzannah in the Dark Tower series.
@@robertbusek30 The Management absorbed the human souls of its dead former guests and staff that inhabited the Overlook Hotel and some who died within its building, the Overlook Hotel itself was a spiritual portal to Hell, allowing several demons to cross over into the world of the living onto the Hotel's grounds as well as poltergeists created by the negative and evil spirit energy of the Hotel's dead former inhabitants. Former owner Horace Derwent was the Hotel's second in command of its imprisoned human ghosts, demons and poltergeists. Derwent himself being a corrupt billionaire playboy, entrepreneur and accountant with mafia connections that allowed gangland hits to happen in the Overlook Hotel under his ownership and management. In the book Danny saw the composite of the Hotel's imprisoned evil human ghosts that possessed Jack aside from the Manager/Caretaker after the Hotel smashed Jack's face with the Roque mallet to fully possess Jack's body to kill Danny, including the woman in Room 217/237 aka Mrs. Massey, the undead child Danny encountered in the cement tunnel on the playground, and I also believe Danny saw the ghosts of Derwent, Delbert Grady, Lloyd the bartender, Derwent's slain mafia associates including Vito the Chopper and his bodyguards that were shot on the third floor and the ghosts of several of Derwent's 1940's/1920's party guests.
@@robertbusek30 In the Shining novel the Overlook Hotel exploded due to the Manager's foolishness and overconfidence, in Stanley Kubrick's film adaption the Overlook never blew up and was left standing and abandoned to rot. After the Hotel exploded in the book, the Management lingered within the ruins of the Overlook Hotel's grounds, remained dormant and possessed the summer campground that replaced the Overlook Hotel.
Thank you for sharing your insights on this masterpiece. It really makes the film more special.
Oh oh it calls you.....stay away, it's a wendigo trick.
I think it’s clever that, on the Gold Room sign, the G is written in such a way that it could also be read as the Cold Room. This alludes to Jack freezing in the elements at the end of the film
2:39 if we accept the idea from Doctor Sleep that the people killed by the hotel become its ghostly staff (Charles Grady becomes Delbert Grady the butler, Jack Torrence becomes Lloyd the Bartender), maybe that's why the hotel wanted Danny so badly. Someone with his Shining ability, if turned, could allow the hotel to exert more of an influence than it already has over a much wider area.
The Wendy Theory explains it all
@@fenian123 no, it doesn't - its amazingly bad media literacy and requires throwing out WAY too much stuff, and it is also inconsistent - it chooses to ignore any thing that doesn't fit the narrative in one scene, and then use that exact sort of thing in another scene as the basis for what happening there. Either chairs moving between shots always matters or it doesn't.
@OP its not wise to look at the book or other movies to say anything about a film that was more than happy to make MANY changes. In virtually every case, Kurbick who argue against using the novels for a source of anything, such as with 2001
@@fenian123 um, no.