The Shining (1997)

Movie
German title	The Shining
Original title	Stephen King's The Shining
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1997
length	259 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Mick Garris
script	Stephen King
production	Stephen King Mark Carliner Laura Gibson
music	Nicholas Pike
camera	Shelly Johnson
cut	Patrick McMahon
occupation
Steven Weber : Jack Torrance Rebecca De Mornay : Wendy Torrance Courtland Mead : Danny "Doc" Torrance Melvin Van Peebles : Dick Hallorann Will Horneff : Tony Pat Hingle : Pete Watson Elliott Gould : Stuart Ullman John Durbin : Horace Derwent Stanley Anderson : Delbert Grady Cynthia Garris : "Ghost woman from room 217" Stephen King : Gage Creed

The Shining (alternatively: Stephen King's The Shining ) is a three-part horror film and thriller from 1997 based on Stephen King 's novel of the same name and produced for US television . Steven Weber played the main role as Jack Torrance, and Mick Garris directed.

action

Jack Torrance, writer and dry alcoholic , applies for a winter job as caretaker at the luxurious Overlook Hotel . The job seems easy, as its tasks are limited to minor repairs and heating of the individual hotel wings. However, he has to pay particular attention to the huge old boiler in the basement, the pressure valve of which has been broken for years.

When the Torrance family arrive at the hotel at the end of the season, the hotel chef Dick Hallorann is waiting for them. He shows her around the hotel and the pantries and apparently has a particularly good rapport with their son Danny. In fact, what connects the two of them is the gift of clairvoyance that Dick calls the shining or "second sight". He tells that the hotel is a nasty place and that he should stay away from certain areas, especially room 217. If he should get into trouble anyway, he should use his shining and call him for help.

Shortly after their arrival, eerie phenomena begin to pile up, which seem to have a particular effect on Danny. He is plagued by visions sent to him by his imaginary friend Tony. A strange voice tries to lure him into room 217. The invisible forces, which are getting stronger every day, also affect Jack. He suffers more and more from paranoia and, although there is no alcohol in the whole hotel, he shows symptoms from his drinking days again.

The ghosts of those who died in the Overlook for an unspecified reason try to come back to life via Danny's psychic abilities. For this they use his father as a tool by giving him alcohol in order to be able to influence him. Through their whispering Jack starts a terrible rampage and tries to kill Danny and his wife Wendy with a cricket bat. Danny and his mother manage to escape with Dick's help and Jack, who has regained consciousness through his son's abilities, destroys the evil spirits by blowing up himself and the haunted hotel with the outdated boiler.

Ten years later, Danny graduated with honors from Stovington High School. In addition to his mother, Hallorann is also present at the celebrations. It turns out that 17-year-old Danny (full name Daniel Anthony Torrance) is identical to his imaginary friend Tony, who probably wanted to warn him about the future. Jack Torrance's ghost also appeared when his son graduated from school and is proud of him. It also shows that Danny still owns the Shining .

At the same time in the Rocky Mountains, a sign has recently been hanging in front of the ruins of the Overlook Hotel, saying that the reconstruction of the hotel should begin this summer, with the motto: "Great things must never die!"

Reviews

“Two-part television version of Stephen King's bestseller that describes a family slowly but inexorably going mad. After a cautious beginning, the horror breaks out in the second part, which turns into a bloodthirsty ghost dance. However, the conventional staging style hardly arouses interest; the film is too poor in mood, too superficial and too long for that. Excellent: the little actor's skill in playing. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Stephen King, who wrote the script based on his horror novel, was the engine of this weak remake. He didn't like Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie. Unlike Kubrick, who let whole blood avalanches flow through the halls, this time the horror is downright tamed. For this, director Garris undertakes sophisticated psychological studies. Kubrick star Jack Nicholson is of course unrivaled as the demonic Jack Torrance. But Steven Weber is also not bad as an honest househusband. Until he, too, falls victim to the evil hotel spirit and picks up the bottle again ... The TV version of the material is more concerned with human aspects. "

- Cinema

DVD release

• Stephen King's The Shining / February 20, 2003 / Warner Home Video

• Stephen King Collection (Includes: The Green Mile , The Shining , The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer , House of Damnation & It ) / October 13, 2006 / Warner Home Video

Others

The Stanley Hotel in Colorado is the Overlook Hotel in the film.

• Since King was dissatisfied with Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation at the time, he wrote the script for the remake television himself.

• The camera take of the scene in which Jack tells his son about the Donner Party on the drive to the hotel was copied 1: 1 from Kubrick's version.

• Many of the scenes, especially the exterior shots, were shot at the Stanley Hotel ( Estes Park , Colorado ), where Stephen King got the idea to write about a haunted hotel . At that time he lived in room 217 , which for a long time had been said to be haunted.

• The Stanley Hotel offers, among other things, a postcard with an exterior view of the hotel, on which there are blood splatters and the inscription "Greetings from the Overlook Hotel" (English "Greetings from the Overlook Hotel").

• The role of Jack Torrance was originally intended for Timothy Daly . After this, however, was already otherwise committed, he recommended his good friend and fellow actor Steven Weber for the part. Daly played the leading role in Stephen King's The Storm of the Century in 1999 .

• In the scene where Jack Torrance hears his dead father's voice speaking on the radio, Steven Weber really got a nosebleed. This was not in the script, but happened completely unexpected.

• Stephen King made a brief cameo as the conductor of the ghost band. His role name "Gage Creed" is the same name as that of the little boy from the cuddly toy cemetery .

Web links

• The Shining in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Shining in the online film database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Shining. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
2. ↑ Review of Cinema