stephen king's the shining

review by rob gonsalves

director
Mick Garris

screenwriter
Stephen King
based on his novel

producer
Mark Carliner

cinematographer
Shelly Johnson

music
Nicholas Pike

editor
Patrick McMahon

cast

Rebecca De Mornay (Wendy Torrance)
Steven Weber (Jack Torrance)
Courtland Mead (Danny Torrance)
Wil Horneff (Tony)
Melvin Van Peebles (Dick Hallorann)
Elliott Gould (Stuart Ullman)
John Durbin (Harry Derwent)
Stanley Anderson (Delbert Grady)
Pat Hingle (Pete Watson)
Cynthia Garris (Lady in Room 217)

mpaa rating: None
running time: 273m
u.s. release: April 27-28, May 1, 1997
video availability: VHS - DVD
official website
cool fan site

Stephen King never cared for Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of his novel, so he decided to write his own adaptation 17 years later.

So this version is more faithful to the book, right?

Hell, yes. Six hours (with commercials) of faithfulness.

Six hours? Shit, wasn't The Stand eight hours? And that book was, like, three times as long as The Shining. How could they get three nights' worth of story out of an average-length novel?

They couldn't; the damn thing dawdles like Scatman Crothers coming to the rescue in the Kubrick film.

Why did ABC give carte blanche to King?

Because The Stand had been a ratings bonanza. That's also why that miniseries' director, Mick Garris, was asked back for this one.

How does the Garris version compare with the Kubrick version?

You mean aside from being pretty well unmemorable and bereft of fright? Well, Steven Weber makes a more naturalistic, likable, and human Jack Torrance than Jack Nicholson did, and Rebecca De Mornay turns in a much stronger and warmer Wendy than Shelley Duvall was allowed to contribute. The scenes in the book wherein we're supposed to sense love between the Torrances -- the better to mourn that love when it's challenged later -- are enacted far better here than they ever were under Kubrick, who had other things on his mind.

Are you saying the guy from Wings gives a better performance than Jack Nicholson?

I'm saying Weber's Jack Torrance is closer to the novel's Jack Torrance. Given this to work with, Weber makes us care; and therefore, when Jack begins to lose his shit, Weber is able to dig into a disturbing and saddening downward spiral. Nicholson's performance, highly entertaining and iconic on its own, was stylized from the get-go and offered little or no contrast between Sane Jack and Axe-Swinging Jack.

Is there anything in the Garris version to top the peerlessly bone-chilling "Come and play with us, Danny" bit in the Kubrick film?

No. Doesn't even come close; hardly even tries. It simply lacks the chilly strangeness of Kubrick. The maestro may not have understood the genre very well -- or overintellectualized it -- but he birthed a creepy, ornery beast in a class all by itself. Garris, as he did in The Stand, merely delivers a dutiful, subservient-to-the-material job of work. Nothing in it truly fucks with you the way Kubrick's to-hell-with-the-book, I'm-in-charge-now film did. There are a few cameos to tickle horror fans, though: directors Sam Raimi and Frank Darabont, writers David J. Schow and Richard Christian Matheson, and the Tall Man from Maine himself. Listen for Miguel Ferrer's voice as Jack's abusive dad.

How's the kid?

Courtland Mead, who plays Danny this time, is more outgoing and verbal than Kubrick's Danny, and is also borderline annoying. I prefer Danny Lloyd's grave, near-catatonic performance in the original.

Does Melvin Van Peebles as Halloran make us forget Scatman Crothers?

Nope. Crothers had a genuine, unforced warmth that the one-time director of Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song can't duplicate.

So what was ABC's reward for springing for this miniseries?

Relatively low ratings, plus a gag order on King preventing him from dissing the Kubrick film in promotional interviews for the miniseries. It's believed that Kubrick (and by extension, I presume, the Kubrick estate) did not care for the idea of The Shining being done again, and that this may be why the miniseries took almost six years to emerge on American home video.

Did you tape it when ABC aired it?

I have the tapes around here somewhere. It's not like I'm ever going to watch the whole damn thing again, so they're collecting dust alongside my Golden Years tapes.

Can I buy them off you?

No.