Monday, March 11, 2019

Part 2

Okay...so...the blood rushes up the screen, making it go black, and then we go straight to...

"Closing Day".

That's right...the entire sequence where Anne Jackson appears as a visiting doctor looking over Danny in his bedroom, and the following conversation with Wendy has been removed entirely.



Wow, talk about a huge, gaping hole in the film that really explains a lot, and even seems more and more horrific every time you see it. Life in the Torrance household was most definitely not a bucket of laughs, it sure sounds like. Even the doctor looks shocked and concerned toward the end of Wendy's story about Jack breaking Danny's arm during a drunken parental-discipline incident a few years back, and perhaps at the way Wendy almost casually tosses off the whole story, as if if were hardly anything at all, and that she's resigned herself to life with Jack as he was.

Lots of people note the almost callous way that Jack had only given up drinking only about five months prior, almost three years after the incident.

CLOSING DAY


We zoom above the Torrance VW bug, through the mist and clouds, and seeing Jack looking less than enthused about going there together. Then again, all of them look like they're not particularly happy about going there. Jack lightly scolds Danny about him not having eaten his breakfast, then tells him about the Donner Party with a bit of relish, when Wendy brings up the subject. Danny tells Wendy, "I know all about cannibalism...I saw it on TV!", which begs the question: "What in the hell kind of kiddie show was talking about that???".



Ullman and Watson greet Jack in the lobby, about to commence the grand tour of the hotel, only they need to find Wendy, while Danny is amusing himself in the game/recreation room.


"This is our Colorado Lounge", Ullman grandly presents. Wendy asks Jack, "This is place is fantastic, isn't it, hon?".
"It sure is", Jack agrees.



And with that, almost mid-sentence, we see Danny throwing darts in the game room, climbing up onto a chair to pluck them from the board, and that's when he sees the two mystery girls from his vision from earlier.  Nothing is said, though we see the two of them look at each other, smile, and silently walk out of there, still holding hands.


Back to Ullman with Jack and Wendy. He opens the door to the room they'll be staying in, proudly showing off a room for Danny, while the Torrances wander around the room, checking it out. As soon as Jack turns around and offers Ullman a satisfied grin...




We then cut right to the backyard of the Overlook, just in time to hear Wendy ask when the Overlook was built (the mysterious Watson was absent during the last scene, but magically reappears here!). Ullman shows off the hotel's SnowCat, telling them that it operates lust like your average car. Never mind about the hedge-maze behind the hotel!


"God, this is the kitchen, huh?", Wendy asks, almost in the next breath. Forget all that stuff about the hallway leading into the Gold Room being re-furbished, the actual Gold Room itself, who this man in the blue suit jacket is (or what he does there), or Danny walking around outside the place, "bombing the universe" (whatever that one means...anyone have an idea?).


The rest of the kitchen and store-room scenes are the same, as is when Hallorann gets Danny alone, bribed by a dish of chocolate ice cream, and Hallorann pries into Danny's ability to "shine".

"Is Tony the one that tells you things?"
--"Yes"
"How does he tell you things?"

And that's where the ten-minute cutoff appears here!

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