The Shining
[Blu-ray]
(Stanley
Kubrick,
1980)
Review by Gary Tooze
Studio
Theatrical: Warner Brothers
Blu-ray: Warner Home Video
Transfer:
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
REGION FREE
Audio:
English: PCM 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, English, French, Spanish,
none
Supplements:
• Commentary by Garrett Brown and John
Baxter
• Theatrical trailers
• View from the Overlook: Crafting The
Shining (30:12)
• The Visions of Stanley Kubrick (17:15)
• The Making of The Shining with
optional commentary by Vivian Kubrick
(34:58)
• Wendy Carlos, composer (7:30)
Disc: 50GB Blu-ray Disc
DVD Release Date: October 23rd, 2007
Product Description: Jack
Torrance becomes the caretaker of the
Overlook Hotel in up in the secluded
mountains of Colorado. Jack, being a
family man, takes his wife and son to
the hotel to keep him company throughout
the long, isolated nights. During their
stay, strange things occur when Jack's
son Danny sees gruesome images powered
by a force called 'the shining' and Jack
is heavily affected by this. Along with
writer's block and the demons of the
hotel haunting him, Jack has a complete
mental breakdown and the situation takes
a sinister turn for the worse.
The Film:
King's
book "The Shining" deals with, in his
own words, "just a little story about
writer's block". With collaboration by
novelist Diane Johnson, Kubrick struck
heavily upon themes of both
communication and miscommunication as
well as isolation. As was his penchant
he used rich symbolic motifs. They
repeat throughout the film as psychic
ability or "Shining" as well as the
major characters stymied authorship and
spiral into madness. In a very poignant
moment Jack destroys their only means of
outside communication; a 2-way radio.
The film starts to prepare the viewer
for isolation with gliding aerial shots
of a deserted winding highway (shots
critic Pauline Kael described as "like a
caterpillar seen by God"), leading to
the Overlook Hotel, Colorado where Jack
Torrance ( played by Jack Nicholson )
has taken his wife Wendy ( Shelley
Duvall ) and child to become the winter
caretaker in the cavernous, vacant
resort for the next 5 months. The child
is named Danny ( played by Danny
Lloyd... and chosen for the part by Leon
Vitali from over 5000 applicants! )
Danny displays his clairvoyance with a
premonition of his Father's job offer
and introduces us to his imaginary
friend "Tony" who communicates through
his wiggling finger. .
Excerpt from
Gary Tooze's review located
HERE
REGARDING THE EDIT - NOTE:
(sent in email by Francois) "To sum
it up, Shelley Duvall mentioned the
deleted scene in an interview to French
movie magazine "Positif" (which had a
strong Kubrick coverage due to Kubrick
expert Michel Ciment). It took place in
a hospital where hotel manager Stuart
Ullman visited Wendy and Danny,
recovering, a few days after the events.
Ullman told Wendy that Jack's body
hadn't been found so far. He spoke with
her about her plans for the future and
showed concern for Danny and her. Then,
he moved to Danny and threw a rubber
ball at him. The rubber ball bounced
exactly like the one Danny had found
earlier in the lobby, suggesting that
Ullman had been an accomplice with all
the things evil from the very beginning.
Cut to the final scene in the hall with
the picture.
Duvall spoke of it as an "Hitchcockian
ending", which was no surprise given
Kubrick's love for Hitchcock. She had a
clear recollection of the whole scene as
it was a tracking shot requiring dozens
of takes before getting one with the
very same bounces.
Peter didn't mention in his recollection
the bouncing ball. Maybe this part of
the shot was already cut in the
theatrical version, maybe it wasn't very
effective to the audiences, which would
explain why Kubrick removed it. In the
event, he made way for one of the most
powerful edits in all his work, going in
a few shots from Jack's frozen body to
the group photograph of 1921."
(Thanks Francois!)
Image:
NOTE: These
captures were ripped directly from the
Blu-ray disc.
Warner's dual-layered transfer on 1080P
looks absolutely marvelous. Crisp and
clean, colors are consistent while noise
is extremely minimal. After living with
a host of SD incarnations of varying
quality with varying digital weaknesses,
this Blu-ray is a true breath of fresh
air. It's the type of DVD image that
just makes you shake your head in
admiration. Warner offers the film in
a widescreen ratio that is not
without a little controversy. The film
showed theatrically in the US at 1.85:1
and 1.66 in Europe. Many will prefer
this 1.78 widescreen ratio and some will
not - it is no doubt a different film
with this alternation from past Full
Frame DVD
releases. Varying degrees of information
in the frame is at times lost or gained
dependant on the shot. For myself this
high-definition transfer towers above
all the SD editions - even the 2-disc SE
compared to the others
HERE.
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920 X 1080
RESOLUTION
Warner 4:3 Region 1 - NTSC edition from
June 99' TOP vs. Warner
Blu-ray
BOTTOM
Audio & Music:
My only disappointment with this release
would be that Warner have excluded the
mono, or 2.0 channel, option on their
Blu-ray of The Shining.
Only so much can be done with an
artificial bump and both the 5.1 and
PCM 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit) are ineffectual
in conveying what their intent had hoped.
Dialogue is clean and clear but the
background separations are weak. There
are two optional foreign language 5.1
DUBs and a choice of English, French or
Spanish subtitles.
Extras:
Supplements are fabulous in their
relevance and not so heavy we must
tiresomely wade through them. The
commentary by Steadicam operator Garrett
Brown and historian John Baxter is
wonderful - superior to the
2001: A Space Odyssey commentary
in that it has a lot of technical
information both about the production,
Kubrick's methodology and details of the
narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed it -
strongly recommended! There are 4
featurettes (3 of which are new) - the
first; View from the Overlook: Crafting
The Shining is half an hour and has
input from many (see images below)
including prominent directors, crew
members and even Jack. The Visions of
Stanley Kubrick is a little over 15
minutes long and is another keen piece
exploring Kubrick's ideas behind the
film(s) that he crafted. Next we have
The Making of The Shining (as see on
the old remastered editions) BUT it has
an optional commentary by Vivian Kubrick
(34:58) which is enlightening to some
degree although her comments reflect it
as an homage with her memories of her
father. Finally we have Wendy Carlos,
Composer at a little over 7 minutes and
although she discusses the music for The
Shining she tends to impart more in
formation on the music in A Clockwork
Orange (but that is fine). She talks
about Stanley Kubrick with keen
interpretational interest of the man and
her fondness for him. Completing the
extras on disc 1 is a theatrical
trailer.
Bottom line:
This film gets better every time I see
it and to own it in this stellar package
is a no-brainer.
Dim the lights on a late Friday night
and settle in for one of the horror
genre's true masterpieces as this
Blu-ray gives you the best possible
presentation you can get in your home
theater. This is one of my demo DVDs to
show off to friends as they revisit a
pure classic.
To me - it looks very film-like and I
consider this one of the must-own
Blu-rays (along with
The Searchers,
2001: A Space Odyssey, and
The Seventh Seal.
In case you couldn't tell it has our
highest recommendation.
Gary Tooze
June 26th, 2008
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