the shining....so many things I love aout this moviet but probably the main thing I love is the camera work .Some of the amazing shots and how they pulled them off are quite remarkable.Kubrick truley had a vision of how he wanted every single shot to be.Sometimes it took 40-50 takes before he saw one he'd use even if the first take was good.This pushed the actors to their limit particulary the scene where Jack is trying to chop through the door.Overall its said the film took 200 days to shoot.Anyways here is a list of many others things I loved about the shining.
-The opening shots of the car driving through the huge mountains with the loud ominous music playing along with it..incredible visuals done via helicopter
-The first shot of the overlook hotel with the huge moutains behind it..surreal
-The first scene showing Danny talking to his imaginary friend tony that lives in his mouth
-Jack's expression when told of the past tragedy of the overlook hotel
-The maze and the amazing camera shot from a up high that shows wendy and danny walking in it.To achieve this shot, a model of the maze was shot from 6 feet above the small central part of the maze was built to scale next to an apartment complex. Actors Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd then walked about in the central section while the camera crew filmed it from the roof of the apartment building. The two shots were then composited together
-The maze effect,the maze itself was only 8 feet high but cause of the extremely long camera lens they used made it seem about 13 feet high
-The drive up where Danny says he heard about cannibalism on tv and Jack says "see its okay,he saw it on the television"
-The visuals of the blood filling the hallways(absolutely chilling)
-The visions of the 2 girls than Danny sees (very creepy)
-The amazing shots of Danny riding through the overlook on his little bike.They used a steady cam and attached it to a wheelchair that Kubrick had specially made for him.The result is you feel like you are riding the bike and makes the hotel seem 10x bigger than it is and makes the space in each passing shot look incredible.Also the carpet,floor,carpet,floor sound is amazing.
-The scene where Wendy interrupts Jack while working on his novel and Jack says good " why don't you start right now and get the fuck outta here". First time we see something isn't right with him in my opinion
-Scatman Crothers,enough said
-The incredibly weird random image of the bear going down on someone as seen by Wendy.
-The scene where Jack is just kind of blankly staring out of the window with that emotionless expression
-The scene where Jack has Danny on his lap and tells him he'd never hurt him while just looking like he's not all there and his mind is somewhere else
-The scene in the purple and green colored room (237) where Jack see's the naked young woman in the bath tub and after hugging her see's she all old and rotted.
-the scene where Jack had the nightmare of him killing Wendy and Danny.He has the same gift as Danny in seeing the future but he doesn't make use of it
-The scene where Jack is walking through the halls mumbling to himself while making weird gestures
-The scene where Wendy discovers the hundreds of pages typed by Jack with "All work and no play makes Jack a Dull boy" and Jack asks her from the background "What do you think?"followed by Jack stalking her up the stairs.She's says she needs time to think thinks over and Jack goes "you've had your whole fucking life to think things over,whats another day gonna do" followed by "Wendy im not going to kill you" I'm just gonna bash your brains in,bash them right the fuck in"
-The scene where Jack is talking from inside the storage area where he tells wendy "you got a bug surprise coming for you".They way he says this while laughing hysterically is surreal.The shot of Jack trying pounding on the door was filmed with the cameraman laying beneath him and shooting up.
-When Danny shouts REDRUM! repeatdedly with a knife in his hand besides Wendy's bed
-Jack before he uses the ax to pound through the door saying "Little pigs little pegs let me in,not by the hair of my chinny chin chin...well then i'll huff and i'll puff and I'll blow your house in".Jacks facial expression as he's saying this are just amazing.He looks completely unraveled.And of course the "Here's Johnny" line which was all Jack idea and ad-libbed.
-Jack killing Dick Hallorann with his ax
-Jack trudging through the snow looking for Danny while raving and mumbling "Danny"
-the shot of Jack frozen in the maze covered by snow
All in all this is one of my favorite movies and horror movies of all time.It's a perfect example of a director getting everything out of a movie and his actors and not settling for anything less. It's a shame they don't make movies like this anymore.I wish they did.
The blu-ray is quite impressive in terms of the picture.The detail is amazing and the colors look so crisp that its hard to believe this film is almost 30 years old.What stood at most to me in terms of blu-ray quality was the blood filling the hallway,the blue and greens of room 237 and the bluish ting of final maze chase outisde.
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