Part 8

The conversation between Jack and Grady. What else can be said?

Again, it's great how we're never quite sure if it's really happening, if Jack is imagining all of this, or somewhere in between. Someone else making this scene today would blow it at the end, and show that Jack was standing there in the bathroom by himself the whole time.

This seems to be the crux of the entire movie. It's very unsettling and uncomfortable, but so intriguing at the same time. Funny how it almost mirrors the first conversation between Jack and Lloyd at the bar: it starts out affable, with aimless chit-chat, then it takes a more serious tone once Jack downs a couple of shots, then it begins to border on violence, and becomes a blood-letting.

Almost literally here. As soon as Grady begins telling Jack about Danny's "talents", he becomes a lot more authoritative in tone. As Grady tells Jack how he dealt with the problems he was having, he goes from that to a cold-blooded murderer.

If HAL-9000 had a perfect human equivalent, it would be Delbert Grady.

"And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty", he tells Jack, "I...corrected her!". And with a little forward tip of the head, it's as if he were saying, "And you damn well know what I mean by that!". Jack chortles nervously again. Grady responds with a satisfied but chilling grin, as if to say, "And it appears you do, sir!".

If Stanley Kubrick had put an INTERMISSION title card right then and there, it wouldn't have been out of place, but that practice was unfortunately all but dead by then. (On a side note, funny enough, when The Shining was on Laserdisc format, it was cut into three sections, and this is where the second section ended).

One thing has since popped up in my mind during that scene: why did the Grady girls try to burn it down? Did they have the "shine" themselves and found out about the evils of the hotel (like Danny), and then try to destroy it? Is that why they appear to Danny, to warn him?

But as soon as the bathroom scene ends, it cuts to Jack walking across the lobby, over to Ullman's office, while the park ranger monotonously calls out over the two-way radio. Jack looks at it drunkenly, manages to get the lid off, tosses it aside, plucks one of the transmitters out of it...

And as soon as he's done that, it cuts to Hallorann sitting on a plane, going...somewhere.

And just as soon as the lady on the side turns the page of the magazine she's reading, it cuts right away to Hallorann in a car, driving in some very dark early-morning snow and ice, passing by a terrible-looking accident on the side of the road.

 

And then it cuts away to Wendy walking across the Colorado Lounge, with baseball bat in hand.  Awesome atmospheric look and feel to this scene. Again...this was done on a soundstage? I mean, just look at that fluorescent-looking early winter morning coming through the windows...all artificially done? Amazing.

The place is empty. But what's this in Jack's typewriter?

Not good. Not good at all. But what's in the ream box next to the typewriter?

Pages and pages upon pages of the same sentence, over and over. Very interesting how it's in separate lines, paragraphs, stanzas, even written in inverted pyramids. What's unnerving is that it's damn near an entire ream of paper, and a ream is 500 sheets. Was Jack aware of what he was writing out, or did his mind make him think he was writing something other than what he was actually typing?

And there he is, coming in right behind Wendy, menacingly. This may not end well.

Danny, meanwhile, is upstairs alone in the apartment. He's now seeing the bathroom door with the word REDRUM scrawled across it, and that corridor with the elevator at the end, now engulfed in blood, with the furniture and tables floating around in it.

Jack begins confronting Wendy about what she's doing down there, why she's down there, becoming more enraged at her, mocking her, and generally letting loose some rather pent-up frustrations at her. Sort of like the night before, in the apartment, only worse, and much more dangerous. As he's walking toward her, she's walking backward, away from him, the whole time.

But wait! We were shorted a few scenes!

A while back, after the conversation with Grady, Wendy is spelling out plans to leave the hotel with Danny, but he's sitting up in bed, yelling out "Redrum!", and when Wendy tries to reach him and see what's wrong, Danny only answers back in Tony's voice. He seems to be in some sort of deep, traumatized state of mind, and letting Tony answer for him.

Another scene that was cut was Hallorann on the plane, asking the stewardess what time they'll be arriving in Denver (so that's where he was going!), Jack typing away in the Lounge, and then a call that Hallorann makes to Larry Durkin's garage, which seems to be the last-chance stop before the Overlook Hotel.

An interesting part of the phone-call scene is that there was a slightly different edit to it in the middle. Larry asks why Hallorann is going to the Overlook in such conditions; "Larry, just between you and me, we got a very serious problem with the people takin' care of of the place", he says on the airport's phone, "They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes. Ullman phoned me last night, and I'm supposed to go up there and find out if they have to be replaced".

Larry checks his watch and asks, "How long is it going to take you to get up here?".

In the TV edit, after Hallorann says that there are problems with the caretakers, it cuts to Larry on the phone, and we can hear Hallorann: "They turned out to be completely unreliable, and I'm supposed to go up there and find out if they have to be replaced".

Larry says, "Sorry to hear about that, Dick", and glances at his watch, "How long is it going to take you to get up here?".

On a related note, during the part where Hallorann is driving his car in the snow, f you listen to the deejays on the radio, you hear that Hallorann had just narrowly missed getting there, as the Stapleton airport was just about to close down.

Another scene taken out is where Wendy is sitting with Danny in the apartment, with Danny staring blankly at the TV while Looney Tunes blares away. When Wendy says that she's going downstairs to talk with Jack, he answers via Tony, "Yes, Missus Torrance", showing that Danny still hadn't snapped out of whatever had a hold of him the night before. Not much happens here, admittedly, but it's simply showing that things were still not well with Danny.

Some people would say that those scenes were superfluous anyway, but to me, they highlight some growing tension and anxiety in other areas, not to mention that the hotel is increasingly hard to get to.

Part 7

When last we left them...Wendy and Jack are sitting on the bed together. Wendy wonders about the bruises on Danny's neck, and how they got there. Jack suggests that Danny did it to himself, saying that it could be possible; the line "It wouldn't be that different from the episode that he had before we came up here...would it?" was deleted. Good thing it was, as it would have not made any sense here.

Danny, meanwhile is wide awake in bed, hearing them in the next room. Very strange echo effect on Wendy's voice, considering she's just a few feet away.

More visions entering Danny's mind. The elevator vision is shown again, with blood knocking the furniture around.  I like how this shot is establishing that something is boiling over by this point, and there's nothing to be done about it.

She suggests that they get Danny out of the hotel, right away, and Jack does not like that. Does not like that at all. In fact, he goes up to about a "6" on the Richter scale when he gets up and blames yet another potential failure in life all on her, then storms out of the room.

Everything else is still pretty much intact for the next 8-odd minutes, even the scene where Hallorann calls up the ranger station to see if they can put a call in to the hotel via the two-way radio. Meanwhile, Jack is puzzled by the sight of balloons and streamers decorating the lobby, with music playing in the background and wanders off to the Gold Room again.

Is it all really happening? Are they ghosts? Is it all in Jack's mind? I like how we don't know for sure, and we aren't told as such. If anyone else did this scene today, it would be shown that Jack is imagining it all, and the camera would periodically cut to Jack talking to himself out loud in the vast, empty Gold Room, and spoil the whole thing.

Another thing I really admire about the direction and photography is that it's pretty much at eye-level at all times. No swooping shots done with a boom crane, floating from the ceiling to the floor (or vice-versa), going in concentric circles the whole time. It really gives you the feeling that you are there, right along with Jack, seeing what he's seeing going on around him.

After another chat with Lloyd at the bar, Jack wanders off to go mingle with the other people, but literally runs into an affable butler carrying a tray of advocaat drinks, who invites Jack into the men's room to clean the stuff off of his jacket.

Into the loo they go, but Jack seems to recognize the man's name when he says "Delbert Grady".

Another strange juxtaposition here. A very '70s-looking bathroom, but the music playing in the background seems to evoke a whole different era altogether. Is the music playing out in the ballroom for real, or is it playing over the speaker system in there? This part gets a little claustrophobic and unsettling.

Jack nervously prods for a bit more info on the man as he'd getting cleaned up, but is trying not to blurt out where he apparently heard and/or read about him...not right away, but he does, and insists that Grady was the caretaker of the hotel at one point, some years back.

Grady calmly begs to differ there. "But YOU are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I've always been here", Grady tells him.

Jack chortles nervously and confusedly in response. What could Grady be getting at?

Part 6

Without the earlier scene of Wendy telling the doctor about Jack having injured Danny a few years back, it seems kind of odd hearing Jack tell his rendition of the events without us really knowing what he's talking about, if we hadn't seen the full version.

"That bitch!" Jack spits out with pure venom and hatred, and we now know how he feels about her. Likewise, Jack exclaims of Danny, "I love the little son of a bitch!", and then (almost in the same sentence) angrily spitting out, "The little fucker throwing my papers all over the floor...!". Not a happy or content family man, we see.

Everything else in the scene is left intact, as is the transition from Hallorann's room to the venture into Room 237. On a side note, this whole section was shortened and condensed for the edited-for-TV version of the movie. In Hallorann's room, it was probably done to skip the images of the nude paintings on his wall, and we're treated to a couple of alternate shots of the TV showing images of snowplows during the newscast.

Great shot of Hallorann's face as he goes from bored disinterest into the grip of pure terror as the camera slowly zooms in. When the ambient music comes on, starting with the rhythmic heartbeat, many people assume he's having a heart attack (at least by those who've seen it for the first time).

The one odd aspect of the Room 237 scene is how strangely dream-like it is, moving in almost slow motion throughout the duration of it. And it seems, at first, you don't know from whose point of view it's from until we see Jack standing there in the doorway of the bathroom, actually looking a bit scared. Also great how it's simply just the music and images that carry this scene along, with no real dialogue.

 Another part of it that has always mystified me is the interconnection between Hallorann in the grip of fear in his room, and Danny sitting up in his bed, shaking, and with spittle hanging from his lips. Is Danny sending Dick a telepathic "message", or is he looking into Jack's mind while he's in the room, unwillingly seeing what he's seeing, and re-experiencing the gruesome encounter again?

This part was also shortened for the TV edit. As soon as she rises up from the bathtub, it cuts to Danny in his room, and when it cuts back to the bathroom, the two of them are already embracing.

We definitely know what happens here. Man, what a truly disturbing scene, and one that will never leave your memory, no matter how hard you try.

Back at the Torrance apartment, Wendy is completely distraught at the day's events. When she asks Jack if he saw anything in Room 237, I'm surprised he didn't seem as if he were caught in a lie, or looked a bit shook up himself after what he just went through. 

This section ends when Wendy asks about the bruises on Danny's neck.

Part 5

Danny is still on Jack's lap, and now asks, "You would never hurt mommy or me, wouldja?".

The mood of the Bartok piece darkens a bit, as Jack wonders what Danny means by that, and after he is reassured that it wasn't a put-up question, he lightens up, as does the music. I still think it's perfect how the scene almost seems to have been written around the music, but I later learned that this was not so.We sense we're seeing the last glimpse of Jack Torrance before his eventual unraveling.

"I love you Danny. I love you more than anything else in the who-o-ole world. I'd never do anything to hurt ya. Never! You know that, dontcha? Good! Hmm-hmm!"

WEDNESDAY

Danny is in one of the hallways, playing with his little cars and trucks...

Until a balls rolls along the carpet, into his toys, breaking his concentration.

He knows something's up, and I always liked how he looked a little pissed off at whatever the hell was going on, and this time, he wasn't running off in the other direction.

The mysterious Room 237 door is open, and beckoning.

Wendy, meanwhile, has her hands full. And increasingly so. Looks like she's even doing some of the heat-rotation chores that Jack is supposed to be doing.

Jack is having a nightmare in the Colorado Lounge, and Wendy rushes to him to see what's going on. I like how Jack falls to the floor while waking up, looking around wildly as if he'd just got a whopper of an electric shock, the images still racing through his head as he's realizing that it wasn't really happening, and takes a bit of time to put it into words. I also like it how we can only imagine how horrific it was when he tells Wendy about it, with no type of flashbacks or grisly images to it.

And then, as if things couldn't get any worse...

Danny wanders in, sweater collar torn, thumb in mouth, catatonic, and bruises on his neck. Wendy immediately thinks Jack did it, curses him out for it, and runs off with Danny in her arms, leaving Jack puzzled and pissed off.

Newer fan theories abound that Jack did it just as soon as the camera cuts away from the two of them in their scene together, but that was on Monday, and this is Wednesday, and I'm sure Wendy would have seen something by then...right? Plus, he had on a different sweater!

Jack stomps off, grumbling and cussing to himself about what has been going on, and maybe letting off some pent-up frustrations building up in him for some time. We haven't seen this part of the hotel yet, have we?

Something about the downward glissando that makes Jack's walk into the Gold Room that much more chilling, like he really shouldn't be going in there, let alone jonesing for a drink, as if it's some form of hell that he's descending into.

And then Lloyd the barman appears, along with a fully-stocked bar, just as Jack grumbles something about selling his soul for a glass of beer. Is he really there? Is he a ghost? Is he part of Jack's deteriorating sanity? I like how there's no definitive answer to be seen, or spoon-fed to us. Today's director would show (somehow) during the scene, that Jack is alone and talking to himself the whole time, and blow the whole thing.

The scene is intact until Jack takes a drink, and then we see that it's the second shot he's been poured. I really like the natural flow of the uncut scene, where Jack toasts himself to getting off the wagon, which he obviously really hated, and then downing the first shot in one go. He lets it "burn", and you just know it felt every bit as good as it tasted to him. And you know he wouldn't have just one...not after an afternoon like this!

Part 4

"I'm not being grouchy, I just wanna finish my work!"

Or so Jack tells Wendy, among other things, showing sings that something is obviously not right. Granted, he doesn't fly off the hook like in Cuckoo's Nest, where McMurphy wanted the TV set turned onto the ballgame, or that scene where he completely goes off the Richter scale at Ann-Margret in Carnal Knowledge, but not far from it, either.

Poor Wendy slunks off...what else can she do? Although not touched upon here as in the original novel, it's as if all his old drinking habits have re-appeared: sleeping late, cranky in the morning (and all other times of the day now, apparently), increased isolation from Wendy and Danny.

Jack sets the typewriter back in place, and just before he begins typing again...

It cuts right away to Wendy and Danny behind the Overlook, running around, laughing it up, throwing snowballs at one another. The "Thursday" title card has been snipped out.

Then we come to the enigmatic shot of Jack alone in the Lounge, with the fire roaring away behind him, while he stares out the window...unblinking...unshaved...unraveling. I like how a small slice of Gyorgy Ligeti's piece "Lontano" plays underneath it all, swelling in volume as the camera zooms in tighter in Jack's face, as he looks up slightly. What could be possibly going on in his head?

SATURDAY

Jack is alone in the Lounge again, typing away.

Wendy, meanwhile, is trying out the hotel's telephone switchboard, but is having no luck making any connection, so she walks on over to Ullman's office and tries the 2-way radio. She has a short conversation with the ranger who answers the call. No changes here.

Oh, yes...we know what's coming here...

He saw them in the vision in the Boulder apartment bathroom, and seemed to see them downstairs in the game room on closing day, but now they're here for real, it seems.

"Come and play with us, Danny", they intone.

"Forever...and ever...and ever".

Wow, what a horrific sight that particular shot is. It almost looks like something from an actual crime-scene photo (not unlike some of the shots of the DeFeo murder victims that preceded the "Amityville Horror" story).What's also a little disconcerting is that the Grady massacre occurred in 1970, but their dresses evoke a much earlier era.

The rest of the scene is left intact, where Danny talks to Tony.

MONDAY

It cuts to Danny cautiously opening the door to the Torrance's apartment.

That's right, the preceding shot where Wendy and Danny are sitting in the lobby, watching Summer Of '42 has been scissored out entirely. What a shame, as I really like that particular shot. I was initially dismayed but still astounded when finding out that not only was the Overlook Hotel not an actual hotel, but that entire scene was done on an interior soundstage. Even the winter storm raging away outside the windows was done indoors. Which is amazing, as it gives off that sort of fluorescent-looking light that winter skies and snow seem to give off when it really piles up outside.Talk about Hollywood magic, without it actually being in Hollywood!

By the way, it becomes apparent by now that a lot of scenes with Wendy have been cut out.

Anyway, "Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta" is played again, only from the start of the third movement. The opening tinkling notes on the marimba seem to compliment the way Danny quietly opens the door and tiptoes in, hoping not to wake Jack up.

But there he is already, sitting on the bed, staring out the window for who knows how long.

This is a very unsettling scene. Much has been made in recent years about some underlying stories and theories about Jack and Danny, but none of that sounds right to me.

The way I've always seen it is: Danny has most likely been walking on eggshells around Jack ever since the arm-breaking incident, even if it had occurred a few years back, and he most likely never forgave him for that. Plus, he really hasn't seen much of Jack since they've been there, and when he finally does, Jack is really starting to look like a wino by this point. Plus, he looks like he doesn't smell too good, either.

I've always felt that Jack (Torrance, that is) is a little tipsy here, as he talks a bit slurry, like he's been secretly nipping away at a bottle of something that he's got hidden under the mattress. Maybe he's supposed to be half-awake, but he always sounded slightly drunk to me.

"Do you like this hotel?", Danny asks,

"Yes...I do...I love it", Jack says. "I wish we could stay here forever...and ever...and ever".

I'm surprised Danny didn't run the hell out of there when he heard that familiar chain of words!