King hated how Kubrick relegated her to a weak character only there to cry and act as a punching bag for Jack. King's biggest upset is that Kubrick failed to recognize the autobiographical parts of the novel. Like all authors, King put a bit of himself in the book, seeing himself to some degree as a version of Jack.
While Kubrick admired the novel, he found it unsuitable for his vision partly because it was written in the first person. But he respected Johnson's work and would call on her for help. When, in July 1976, John Calley sent Kubrick galley proofs of Stephen King's manuscript of The Shining, he had found his source.
Easily the most famous example of a movie that Stephen King clearly dislikes, The Shining has been criticized by King for being an empty adaptation of his work, comparing the film to "a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it".
Diane Johnson said this of Stanley Kubrick's non-horror vision: "The ending was changed almost entirely because Kubrick found it a cliché to just blow everything up. He thought there might be something else that would be metaphorically and visually more interesting."
However, Kubrick's The Shining was too much for King to bear, and such is the reason why it is the adaptation of his work that the author himself has criticised the most. While he praises kitsch like Pet Sematary, he seems to believe that The Shining is bad because it deviates from its source material.
Why Stephen King Hates Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
What did Kubrick think of Stephen King?
Stanley Kubrick Considered Stephen King's Writing “Weak”
Kubrick's other reasons for not reading Stephen King's script and instead writing his own was that King's was a too literal adaptation of the novel – after all, it was an adaptation of his own novel.
In King's perspective, Kubrick's adaptation was a botched attempt at traditional horror, leaving King with the impression of “a guy who doesn't know how to tell a joke.” Many of King's disparaging remarks about the film seem to stem from his struggle to reconcile his perspective on the movie with his long-standing ...
The family has to care for the hotel for the winter, but they cannot leave the mountainous area. In this isolation every day becomes the same for Jack as his writer's block becomes quotidian. The combination of isolation, monotony, creative frustration, and supernatural forces extract Jack's insanity.
Moments later, he would improvise the “Here's Johnny!” line, which was a reference to the intro of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Interestingly, Kubrick originally shot the scene with a fake door, but Nicholson – who once trained as a fire marshal – chopped it down too quickly.
The ending of The Shining, particularly the photo of Jack in the 1921 ballroom, suggests that Jack is a reincarnation of a former hotel employee, although this explanation is not explicitly stated in the film. The Shining explores themes of cyclical violence and abuse, and Kubrick's film is full...
The Shining (1977) Ask 20 King fans to name his scariest three books, and you'll get 20 different lists — but The Shining is likely to be on all of them.
What movie does Stephen King not remember writing?
Cujo, Stephen King's 1981 award-winning best-seller that was later adapted into an acclaimed 1983 film, is a favorite of many constant readers. King likes it too, but unfortunately, he has almost no memory of Cujo's writing process.
Stephen King's The Shining focuses on families and the way various forms of dysfunction—such as jealousy, insanity, abuse, and addiction—can rip them apart. At the center of the novel is the Torrance family—Jack, Wendy, and Danny—and they are fighting considerable odds.
In the Guardian profile, however, Danny Lloyd expressed that when he eventually saw "The Shining" in his younger years, he wasn't particularly scared by Stanley Kubrick's horror masterpiece, a feeling that persists through the years: "For me when I watch 'The Shining,' it's like watching a home movie.
How did Stephen King get the idea for The Shining?
King was inspired to write The Shining after staying a night at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, a resort town nestled in the Rocky Mountains. In late September 1974, King and his wife, Tabitha, checked into what King described as a “grand old hotel.” Notably, the Kings stayed in room 217.
It's made very clear from the beginning that he was a drunk and a violent husband and father. He seems to go to the closed down hotel in hopes to get sober, since there's no booze at the hotel when it's closed. However.. We also see how cold he treats his family during the ride up to the hotel.
Jack tells Danny to run and remember how much he loves him, before the hotel's power takes over again and forces Jack to bash in his own face with the mallet. Jack had forgotten to dump the boiler, which grows too hot and causes the hotel to explode. Jack is killed, but Danny, Wendy and Hallorann get out just in time.
At the hotel, Jack begins to display the telltale signs of drinking that Wendy has come to know so well. He constantly wipes his mouth with a napkin and chews Excedrin one after another.
Room 237 is basically a dream logic version of the Torrance apartment and the neck injuries inflicted upon Danny for having woken his father up. One of the biggest giveaway's that Jack strangled Danny is a shot in which Jack walks down a mustard coloured hallway before switching on the lights of the Gold Room.
What does Grady mean by "You've always been the caretaker"?
This argument would also seem to support Grady's claim to Jack that he has "always" been the caretaker; if Jack is the reincarnation of the caretaker from the 1920s, it would suggest that the hotel continuously "reanimates" its 1921 guests, bringing them back in different guises; hence, just as Delbert was brought back ...
Summary. Kubrick's decision to change the focus of The Shining from the supernatural hotel to Jack's deteriorating mental state made the movie more emotionally resonant. The ambiguity surrounding the supernatural occurrences in Kubrick's adaptation made Jack a scarier character and heightened Wendy's plight.
The film's final shot zooms into an old picture hanging in the hotel's hallway, of guests attending a ball on July 4, 1921. Standing front and center is Jack, smiling right into the camera. Kubrick has explicitly stated that the photograph suggests the reincarnation of Jack, possibly of a guest or staff member.
The Shining uses fictional horrors (the supernatural ghostly presence in the Overlook Hotel) to explore real horrors like murder and child abuse. The real-world horrors are hidden in the subtext.
