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Comments on an Analysis of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – Opening
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10 responses to “Comments on an Analysis of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – Opening”
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Very nice.
I was pointed to this article by another, private blogger after they read my own little article on the similarities between The Night of the Hunter and The Shinging:
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Having already commented on your blog on certain similarities between “The Night of the Hunter” and “The Shining”, it then also occurred to me that Shelley Winters had also been used by Kubrick in “Lolita” as the ineffective mother who falls under the spell of another style of predator. In both “The Night of the Hunter” and “Lolita”, though the roles are quite different, Winters is the sensual woman denied and used by the predator husband.
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Hello again, I picked this up from someone else, if you observe the angle of the shadows cast by the trees, the chopper shadow cannot have been cast by the camera ‘copter. There had to have been a second chopper.
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Interesting. The shadow does look to be a bit ahead of the copter.
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I interpret the misplaced shadow thus: A shadow should not lead, but follow. It’s another clue that this film should be viewed backwards.
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I believe the helicopter shadow was left in intentionally. Noticing the shadow has the effect of taking one out of being immersed in the movie. I think Kubrick was instructing the audience that to some degree “The Shining” should be viewed as, perhaps, a study of psychology rather than just a horror flic.
I don’t have the film handy but have a look at the skeleton scenes that Wendy sees toward the end of the film. The skeleton scene that features skeletons in phone booths has been lighted from directly behind the camera. The shot is static so Kubrick could have spent as much time as he wanted composing the shot. I could be wrong but isn’t that the shadow of the camera on a tripod in the center of the shot. If it is I’m pretty sure Kubrick must have done it intentionally – again bringing the viewer right out of a scene in which the viewer would be totally engrossed.
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John, I can’t tell if that’s a camera and tripod shadow in that scene, but it looks like it may be. It’s certainly not Wendy’s shadow. You’re likely correct. Kubrick noticed everything, was a stickler about lighting, and if the camera and tripod made it in there I would have to assume that was his intention.
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Check this website out regarding the Egyptian interpretation of Kubrick’s work (mainly focusing on the shinning and clockworkorange). It’s an interesting feature read all of it:
http://subliminalsynchrosphere.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/stanley-khufu-brick.html
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2:35-2:45 i see kubrick’s face/profile at the top right of the mountain that the VW is driving toward…also closer to 2:45 i see in the snowbank off to the right a half face of one of our forefathers (jefferson or franklin–the eyeball reminds me of something that would be on our paper currency) am i just seeing things or have other people commented on these two things?
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I always enjoy all the nit-picking that goes into analysis of the opening shots of “The Shining” especially regarding the helicopter shadow. Since that also happens to be a shadow of me, as the helicopter cameraman, it never ceases to amaze me how people try to attribute greater meaning to what was a simple mistake. I was using two cameras on a belly mount, operated remotely from inside the helicopter. One of the lenses was a 9.8mm which is a very wide lens and was helpful in smoothing out many of the shots. It does however add a fair amount of distortion towards the edges. We were shooting at what is called full aperture, meaning we used every bit of the film frame but we were “protecting” for what is called 1:1.85, the standard projection aperture of the time. I was monitoring from a small black and white camera that was mounted beside the two film cameras so it didn’t see exactly what they were recording and the lens on the video camera was not nearly as wide as the 9.8mm. The helicopter shadow was something I struggled with to keep out of the shots and I was mainly trying to keep it out of the 1:1.85 area, but we were dealing with a moving VW, a flying helicopter, the early morning sun angle (on one of the few really good days where we got fall colors and a glassy lake). The conditions didn’t last very long and we had to do all our filming without any traffic control in Glacier National Park. That meant for every shot we were flying around at a thousand feet waiting until traffic looked clear. That was purely for safety reasons, having nothing to do with a Kubrick request or direction. It was part of our deal with the Park Rangers. The biggest gamble we took was the main fly-by of the VW at the top of the crest because there was no way to know if a car might have been coming the other way on the turn which would have been precisely the worst possible time. The pilot and I worried we could have frightened some poor vacationer right off the road, especially since we were at car height. We got lucky on that shot, and others.
By the way, with the talk about the vehicle parked on the far side of the tunnel, that was one of the crew member’s vehicles and I recall they got chewed out for getting into the shot, so all the theories are bogus about any other meaning. Kubrick did not give us any particular directions about any location. We just shot off and on for a month, practicing various shots I came up with, based on what we found in the park, what we thought might look interesting or involving. We’d practice certain shots when the weather wasn’t cooperating, hoping when we got some sun we were ready to grab the good shots. We sent the footage to England for developing and Kubrick decided from all that material what he wanted to use.
One added pleasure for me was discovering when the film premiered that Kubrick changed the continuity of the film to include more helicopter shots. Jack’s character goes up to the hotel for the interview in the first sequence and later returns with his family in the VW towing a small trailer with their personal effects. Lots of material was shot by second unit of the VW and trailer for that part of the film, but it was all ground-based photography. In the final film, Kubrick choose to use more helicopter shots of the solitary VW to intercut with the family inside the car for the second trip and dropped the notion of a trailer altogether.
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