Visuals and Story
The Shining is one of Stanley Kubrick’s most notorious films for being a psycho-thriller, the way it left the audience feeling freaked out yet they could not take their mind off of it. The Shining starts off with eerie music playing over an establishing shot of an island located in the middle of a lake. The camera pans forward at high velocities towards a mountain road that twists and bends. Here we are introduced to a car driving onward. Carrying on forward at high speeds the footage turns from more of a warm feel to a colder and dimmer one. Following the car, we see a giant resort in the distance at some point. The camera comes in closer to the resort and then suddenly the screen goes black with the transition slide titled.
“The interview” comes into view for the viewer. Inside what is quickly made apparent to be a hotel. Here the viewer meets Jack for the first time. Jack speaks to the receptionist who he explains to about he being in the hotel to have a job interview. From there the film transitions again to show us Jack’s son Danny and wife Wendy who is sat down eating breakfast.When speaking with Her son it becomes apparent that he does not like the idea of going to this hotel. This is backed up by Danny’s imaginary friend Tony who also does not like the idea. Of going to the hotel which already builds up the negative stimuli around the hotel they will be staying in over the winter. Moving on we meet Danny’s counsellor who appears to speak with Wendy about Danny. Wendy ends up opening up about how Jack used to be an alcoholic however Wendy explains that changed after Jack abused Danny in a drunken rage. After that, the next really important scene is when Jack drives Wendy and Danny to the Overlook Hotel where Jack explains about the Indians who resided there before the hotel was created. When the family arrived at the hotel Jack meets with the owner once again who shows them around. the next scene is when we hear about The Shining for the first time from Dick Halloran. To shine is at the telepathic ability that is said to allow two uses of The Shining communicate with one another. This is what Dick explains to Danny while they eat ice cream with one another.
dick explains that he had discovered this ability from his grandmother. after that same, the next really important part of the movie comes in the form of Danny riding his quadricycle around the hotel landing. the shots are pretty creepy followed by the strange soundtrack to the footage. there is a feeling of constant buildup to room 237. The next major scene is where we see the two girls standing next to each other in front of the overlooks lift. the girls ask Danny “ come play with us Danny” who in turn is freaked out by what he is seeing in front of his own eyes right now. the camera shot changes and we see a horrifying grotesque pool of blood streaming from the doors of the lift. Danny who is a little kid is extremely terrified by what he has just witnessed in front of his own eyes. this is a clear reference to what happened in the past of the hotel where the previous caretaker had butchered his own family. We also see Danny approach the open door of room 237 and enter looking for his mother. The scene dramatically ends with Wendy approaching Jack explaining that an old crazy lady had been residing in room 237 and caused harm to their son. Jack goes to room 237 out of disbelief of his sons and wife’s words he enters the room languidly and looks around until he reaches the bathroom and sees a nude woman having a soak in the bath who gets out and approaches Jack making out with him before transforming into an old saggy rotten corpse. 
following the freaked out Jack as he staggered from the room Jack runs away out of sheer grotesque for what he has just seen. We see many other unimportant homages within the hotel such as the bartender who speaks to Jack as if he has known him. and Jack in return also speaks to him as if he knows him. in this scene, there is a real feel of dejavu as though Jack had been here before. we see Danny getting closer to the room every time he turns the corner. Danny never manages to enter the room. Over the course of the film, Kubrick demonstrates Jack’s descent into insanity being isolated from the real world with his family. This all takes a turn for the worse when Jack goes to the hotel bar and bumps into the waiter who escorts Jack into the bar’s restroom Where the ghost gives off a very cool and conniving performance in manipulating Jack Driving him even into even more insanity. 
The ghost of the waiter happens to actually be the man who butchered his family in the hotel prior. explaining to Jack how his son and wife must be punished for their bad behaviour Jack Giles try to resist the pull however when he hears that Danny is communicating to Dick Holloran through the shining ability. Jack is most displeased to hear about this. Taking matters into his own hands Jack Begins to aggressively with malicious Intent, Wendy managers to read just in time pushing him off of her so that he falls down the stairs in a heap. only really bumping his head when the locks him within the freezer of the hotel and explains to him when he wakes up that she will “get him some mental help.” 
Jack is enraged at this point and when Wendy leaves the scene, the ghost reappears to rile jack-up father and released him from the freezer. Jack locates and acts and begins to Crusade around the hotel displaying a deep malefactor in his ragged walk. Danny Writes “REDRUM” On the wall which if flipped around in a mirror reads murder. This was a warning he made to his mother who came into the room to get Danny as they were leaving the hotel as they were not safe. when Wendy looks into the mirror and notices what’s Danny’s secret message actually was it, was too late and Jack was outside the room approaching with an axe. locking herself and her son in the bathroom Wendy hides behind the door after instructing Danny to escape through the window of the bathroom.When Jack had completed smashing his way through the door you have the very famous line “Here’s Johnny” come from that scene. Slicing with a knife that she picked up Wendy cut Jacks hand who withdrew from making his attack out of pain allowing her to escape him. Jacks resilience was not cut-off however and he carried on pursuing Danny calling out for him.Having sensed there was something wrong dick Holloran made his way to the hotel and in a scene well prepped we see Jack slammed the axe into dick ending his life. Haven’t come close to Danny Jack Wills ready now it was almost as if you could sense him, Danny run from a container he was hiding into the maze in the garden of which Jack made the mistake following him into it. Jack ended up freezing to death and Danny managed to escape with Wendy. The end of the film shows the ballroom picture from the bar located in the Overlook Hotel which shows a figure spitting image as Jack from decades prior. From there the film rules to the credits.
Representation, deeper message
I believe that first of all this film crafted by Kubrick is a work of art, the detail he goes into many different themes. However the main theme for me is Violence and Death, this is underlined at so many points during the movie. The first and very inconspicuous moment Jack starts to hear about the incident that happened in the hotel before when the caretaker murdered his wife and two daughters. A little after that we see in a scene where Wendy speaking to her son (Danny) counsellor or mental helper speaking to Wendy who opens up about how Jack had abused their son one night when he was drunk furthermore 
prescribing the violent theme into the film. However, for me, the eeriest one we see is portrayed in the ride to the hotel where Jack explains to Danny how the Indians once resided near the complex a long time ago. Jack goes on to explain how they needed to savage their own and practice cannibalism to survive the inhabitable terrain of the winter you can even sense a bit of a playful malefactor by the way he speaks to his son. We also see the reference to violence later in the film as well and it shows how deep-rooted violence is in the history of the hotel itself. Another moment where we have seen violence being a big motive of the film is when the waiter who was actually the previous caretaker tries to persuade Jack to kill his family and explains why he had to “punish” his. Jack wears a crimson red jacket at some points throughout the film which kind could give a symbolisation to blood. There are almost moments where’s that seems like the red one the American flag also seems like blood due to the rich violent history of America itself this is seen throughout the film also.
I also believe the film also has a theme to be about Alcoholism. We see this in Jack and the first time we hear about this is when we go back to Wendy’s communication with Danny’s counsellor. In that conversation, Wendy explains how jack used to be an
alcoholic but he changed his ways for the better after he harmed Danny is a drunken rage. We also see this moving on into the film where Jack enters the overlook bar. In this scene we see Jack speaking to the bartender from back in the day. Jack drinks multiple glasses of alcohol showing he has not really moved past his alcoholism. We see this again later in the movie however this time when Jack enters the bar there can be seen multiple people dancing around with one another.
It is often hinted that Jack has been here before, we see this when the bartender of the overlook Hotel speaks to Jack like he’s been there before and Jack speaks to him like he knows him he calls him a good guy. Jack is also seen in the picture at the end of the film, the picture dates back to the 1920s a time where jack could not have been. there is a lot of emphases where Jacks feels deja vu being in the hotel. He even multiple times states “I feel like I’ve been here before.” Jack also talks to the waiter as though he knows him personally and the waiter interns speak to him in the same manner.
Ethan Perotti 