Rating: NNNNN
THE SHINING (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) was so disliked by author Stephen King that he wrote and produced his own television miniseries version — something no one has ever mistaken for a masterpiece. Kubrick’s grandiose style is uniquely suited to a movie about a vast empty hotel that slowly drives its occupants over the edge of psychological endurance. Jack Nicholson stars as Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic who takes a job as an isolated Colorado resort’s winter caretaker. As he tips into madness, he decides — or the hotel decides for him — that his wife and son are the problem. At a certain level, Kubrick is too good a director for the material, but his sensibility imposes an unusual rigour on King’s ramshackle tale. You can view Nicholson’s performance as completely over the top, or a brilliant performance as an over-the-top madman. On the other hand, Shelley Duvall gives the most human performance in a Kubrick film since Sterling Hayden in Doctor Strangelove. NNNN (November 25-27, Royal and November 29, Music Hall)JOHN HARKNESS
king vs. kubrick