Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
I'm in a Shining kind of mood... not just because it's that time of year or because I'm kind of always in a Shining kind of mood, but I've been lost in King's Shining universe in my limited amount of free time. His sequel, Doctor Sleep, came out while I was running around like a mad man at Fantastic Fest and just last night I finished my re-read of The Shining.
If that wasn't enough, I've also been pulled into many conversations begun by THIS SALON.COM ARTICLE defending Stephen King's dislike of Stanley Kubrick's film.
I'm finding there's a lot of black and white responses to this. You either seem to have to side with King or Kubrick. I decide to do neither. I'm Bi-Shining. I love the book for what it is and the movie for what it is... and on my recent re-read of the book I found myself scratching my head a bit at some of the common complaints about Kubrick's adaptation. The big example is Jack Torrance as a character. You always hear about how the Jack of the book is an everyman nice guy who is tempted into evil whereas Jack Nicholson in the movie is unhinged from the get-go. That's not true, though.
You have to take into account that film is a visual medium and as such Kubrick had to take what was internal in the book (Jack's struggle with temper and addiction) and externalize it. His only other option would have been a voice-over and that wouldn't have worked well at all, I think. As such, Nicholson plays what's already there in King's book, it's just hidden from Wendy and Danny better because we go into Jack's mind.
So, Jack's character is almost exactly the same, with exactly the same arc, it's just externalized instead of internalized. Wendy is actually given much more the short end of the stick, but even so the character as it stands is pretty damn close to the book. I think people just don't like Shelley Duvall's performance, which I can understand. I disagree, but I understand. From A to B the character is exactly the same, she's just a little more shrill than what was on the page and lacks the backstory that explains why she still puts up with Jack (her only safety net being her horrible mother).
Anyway, I get worked up about this stuff. Kubrick took some liberties as anybody adapting anybody has to and ended up making a masterpiece of tonal horror that is unmatched by almost any other genre picture ever created. I love the book, I love the movie. Can't we all just get along?
Today's image is from the big turning point in both the book and the movie... when Lloyd the bartender makes an appearance and Jack is nudged off the wagon... a scene, I might add, that Kubrick adapted nearly word for word.
Thanks to the wonderful Shining fansite (that just happens to be run by Toy Story 3's Lee Unkrich) The Overlook Hotel for the image. Enjoy!
If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.
Aw, hell... what am I gonna use for tomorrow’s behind the scenes pic?
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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I've got a lot of maintenance work to do on the previous BTS articles, but you can visit two pages worth of images (beware of some broken links thanks to the last server shift): Click here for Page One and Click here for Page Two!
