Not sure why King hated the movie, "The Shining."

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KingisnoJoyce

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Dec 6, 2018
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I know why. He wrote it. Staccato practice is now. I was seven with my sister. We watched the movie several hundred times. Jack was like our dad. After this, I dreamt my dad had an axe. It snowed in Florida too. Excellent background movie. Thank you Kubrick. Thank you King. "And that's all I have to say about that," - Forest.
 

Moderator

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I know why. He wrote it. Staccato practice is now. I was seven with my sister. We watched the movie several hundred times. Jack was like our dad. After this, I dreamt my dad had an axe. It snowed in Florida too. Excellent background movie. Thank you Kubrick. Thank you King. "And that's all I have to say about that," - Forest.
He thought it was emotionally cold, its misogynist treatment of Wendy, and that it didn't do a good job of showing Jack's decline into madness.
 

KingisnoJoyce

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Dec 6, 2018
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He thought it was emotionally cold, its misogynist treatment of Wendy, and that it didn't do a good job of showing Jack's decline into madness.

Jack being nuts at the beginning family car ride was bad. Even in my nine year old brain, I tried to cram in the idea that the ghosts already got to him on the interview. However, I never enter a cool hotel without thinking of the overlook. Every time I think of the book, I think of the wasps. If I ever see wasps in a cool hotel, I will freak out!
 

kingricefan

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Jul 11, 2006
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Jack being nuts at the beginning family car ride was bad. Even in my nine year old brain, I tried to cram in the idea that the ghosts already got to him on the interview. However, I never enter a cool hotel without thinking of the overlook. Every time I think of the book, I think of the wasps. If I ever see wasps in a cool hotel, I will freak out!
I never thought about that before. That puts a whole new twist on things for me.
 

AnnaMarie

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Feb 16, 2012
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Jack being nuts at the beginning family car ride was bad. Even in my nine year old brain, I tried to cram in the idea that the ghosts already got to him on the interview. However, I never enter a cool hotel without thinking of the overlook. Every time I think of the book, I think of the wasps. If I ever see wasps in a cool hotel, I will freak out!

I always assumed it showed Jack had a weak mind...easily taken over. To me it made complete sense because he was the only one that the ghosts got to.
 

KingisnoJoyce

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Dec 6, 2018
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In the making of The Shining, Jack scrubs rice and lamb cutlets out of his teeth. He rubs weird. He has a constant waterfall as he vigorously brushes the stones. ( I just reread this and had the word, "brush" like five times. What are some good alternative verbs for brushing the teeth. Scraping enamel, rubbing off plaque, circling the bristles, painting with toothpaste, etching in fluoride.

My father drank like Jack and used to talk to his hand. When I saw Jack walking outside the ballroom and talking to himself, violently waving his arms. My dad.
 

carlcreighton

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May 30, 2019
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I'm watching the movie again for the first time since reading (3/4) of the novel (savoring it) and it's a very disorienting experience. It is like he said, the movie is like a nice car with no engine or something. I think the big big big big difference is that the film is like an allegory. I wonder if... So... in On Writing, Stephen talks about how the writer reader imagination transference is like a miracle. The characters in the film The Shining are so detached from themselves, I think it adds to the alienation feeling as an audience member. The acting too, they seem to hate each other. It's like the context has been stripped down to the bones of the novel (dysfunctional family of three stranded in a haunted hotel) so that you can kind of put your own dysfunction in there however you like, whereas the novel is so intimate. Those people going through that is the point, not just some rando unhappy family getting out of the way of the elevator blood. You can still use your own imagination, but it's on a paragraph to paragraph basis instead of a gliding camera no matter what sort of deal. I wonder if what I'm saying is making any sense.
 

RichardX

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Sep 26, 2006
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I never really understood King's angst with this movie. Particularly since he is pretty laid back regarding some really horrible movies based on his books and stories. Children of the Corn - Part 25! First, The Shining is a great movie. A horror movie icon. Second, despite all the hue and cry, it doesn't stray all that far from the book. That seems like a contrived criticism (again think about all the other movie adaptations like the Dark Tower that really strayed). Third, it really launched King's career to another level. My best guess is that there was an ego conflict with Kubrick. This is considered as much or more a Kubrick film than a King-related film. I think there might have been some lingering resentment that Kubrick got much of the credit for its success. In comparison, when I see anyone talking about the recent "It" movie it is all about King. The movie's success is about him and his book.
 

Rockym

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Feb 11, 2012
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It might be because Kubrik left so much out and changed a lot of things. The movie, while good on it's own, is a very poor adaptation of the book. It didn't even seem like Jack was being taken over by ghosts or the hotel. It was more like he was just getting cabin fever and going crazy.
 

wolfphoenix

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The movie "The Shining" was a great KUBRICK film.
Artistic, visually powerful and suspenseful.
But it was not a really good representation of Mr.King's work.
To me the film is kind of like "Gramma", if you didn't know it was based on his work, you wouldn't have recognized it as being from a King novel/story.
I saw "Gramma" and had no idea it was based on one of my favorite King short stories. It was nothing like the story I remember.
But maybe that's just me. :)
 

Nat Damon

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Aug 1, 2019
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Considering Jack's reaction to Danny spilling beer over his papers, Jack's tendency to blame his son--venting temper like a forgotten boiler--and the author's initial inability to see himself in Jack's character, I wonder if another storyteller's interpretation of his work rubbed King the wrong way, like a uncanney valley mirror showing uncomfortable parts of himself. Inadequacy projected.
 
Mar 5, 2019
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i have so many thoughts on this and discuss it often!!! i think the biggest issue for king was that kubrick's changes felt less like artistic freedom and more like pointed "**** you"s to stephen king. the shining is arguably one of the most personal stories king has written, being that jack represents stephen king the parallels to his own addictions and being a writer and all that. yes, king has represented himself in many of his characters, but i feel like this one was the most vulnerable with the showcasing of his addictions and stresses of being a father. so kubrick's depiction of jack being an insane, aggressive guy from the start and taking away his heroic ending likely felt like a personal attack for king. there was no redemption for the character, and kubrick was very vocal about doing whatever he wanted and it being his movie, rather than an adaptation of king's story. i believe at one point king objected to a choice kubrick made while filming, and this pissed him off. i can't remember exactly what happened or if i got the details wrong, but i remember learning that kubrick was definitely trying to assert his dominance in making this film. THAT BEING SAID.... i personally love the movie so so much. it is genuinely one of my favorite movies and sometimes that makes me feel a bit guilty knowing the issues my favorite author has with it. but i choose to separate them in my mind, and see them as two different things that i like for different reasons. the book will never fail to be better than the movie, though. especially when it comes to stephen king books :)