I had seen the later, Steven Weber TV mini-series adaptation of this Stephan King classic, but it is the original Kubrick adaptation that is iconic. King had the mini-series made because he felt Stanley Kubrick’s film strayed from his vision of the story, I’m sure it did, I trust King and Kubrick was notorious for the looseness of some of his adaptations, he’d seize on a basic story premise and go his own way from there (A Clockwork Orange is suppose to be the best example of this tendency). But what Kubrick would make of any material was always fascinating, and here we have the directors cool and innovative visual sense (tracking the big wheel down the hotel corridors, genius), hypnotic pacing, deceptively simple yet reveling dialogue, and a heck of a performance from Jack Nicholson. While the basic plot is pretty well known there are a few brief moments of haunting weirdness that stayed with me (one in particular) that hint at something wider, crazier and more mysterious going on. High brow horror, if can call it that, which maintains lasting popular appeal and is a true touchstone of its genera. Grade: A.
I'm also a big fan of this inspired Shinning spoof trailer.
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