Analysis of The Shining

Analysis of two scenes from ‘The Shining’

The Shining (1980) is an American horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is broadly a horror however it also falls into the subgenre of psychological horror. As a horror film, it follows several specific conventions of the horror genre. Such conventions as an isolated setting (the overlook hotel), overarching themes of insanity, death and survival as well as technical conventions like point of view shots and extreme close ups. However in some respects it also bucks many of the typical conventions of the horror genre, for example its use of a lot of high key lighting. The ways in which the shining does not follow typical horror conventions could arguably be said to make the film scarier. Audiences expect certain things from a horror movie and by disregarding these typical conventions the movie places the viewer on the back foot, leaving them more open to being surprised and scared. The shining is famous for its strong iconography, images such as ‘redrum’, the overlook hotel and room 237 as well as many other key symbols of the film have become so strongly associated with the horror genre that they are constantly referenced or paid homage to throughout many other areas of media.

The first scene I’ve chosen to analyse is the first time that room 237 is open to Danny and his subsequent unseen assault by an anonymous assailant within the room. As Danny approaches room 237 we can clearly see the room number on the key hanging from the door. This instantly makes the viewer remember earlier in the film, where Danny was explicitly warned to stay away from room 237 straight away this creates tension within the viewer as we are already aware of the dangers that may exist within the room. The room key itself is red and this is connotative of the danger within the room and could also serve as a warning to Danny not to enter as red is the colour of warning signs. The colour red also appears when the scene cuts to Jack asleep on his desk. Jack is wearing a red coat which he is also wearing later during the climax of the film. This could possibly be foreshadowing as during the scene Jack describes to Wendy his dream wherein he murders both Wendy and Danny. The fact that jack is wearing the red coat could suggest that he himself is dangerous or could also represent blood or even his future murderous intent towards his family. Danny’s clothes during this scene could also be symbolic. He is wearing a knitted sweater featuring a design with the words ‘USA’ and ‘Apollo’ the name of the rocket from the first American moon landing. These clothes could be symbolic of America and American values as a whole, later in the scene when Danny is approaching Jack and Wendy in the main room, we see that his jumper has been torn at and now has a large rip in it. Throughout the movie there are numerous subtle references to Native American culture. The most important of which is during the scene where Wendy and jack are being given a tour of the overlook and are told that the hotel was built on a Native American burial ground, this gives us an important clue as to who or what exactly could be causing the disturbances within the hotel. Through these clues within this scene we can assume that the occurrences, and Danny’s supernatural assailant were vengeful spirits, angry at the American values which led to the overlook, a symbol of American innovation with disregard for anything aside from profit, being built upon and desecrating their resting place. Danny’s torn shirt could show some of the anger felt by these spirits towards the family within the hotel.

Later in the film, Jack discovers the party happening in the gold room. The first shot of this scene has jacks head framed against a tapestry in the background. This tapestry has an interesting pattern which looks almost Native American style. This could be symbolic of him entering the world of the spirits of the hotel or symbolise him almost stepping into their world. In this scene there are many of uses of the colour red. There are red chairs in the hallway as he is approaching the ball room. Among the rest of the décor in the hallways which is gold and elegant, the simple red chairs look very vulgar and almost out of place. This could mirror how out of place Jack obviously is in within the party and maybe within the hotel in general. His everyday clothes also look extremely out of place compared to everyone else in the gold room who are dressed extremely formally, they are also wearing dated clothes, giving a clue to what time period these apparitions are from and also foreshadowing the very end of the movie where the camera slow zooms towards a black and white photograph of jack with a large group of people at a party dated from 1921. The colour red comes up again as Lloyd the bar tenders uniform is also red. This could represent that his character is dangerous. The fact that Lloyd’s character is dangerous is also shown through the use of Lloyd’s dialogue upon refusing Jacks offer to pay for his drink, which is incredibly sinister. In it he mentions that he has “orders from the house”. In the context of the movie this has several connotations, the most startling of which is the suggestion that the hotel itself is almost sentient and aware of the events transpiring within it. This also taps into the fear of the unknown convention within horror films, as we can only imagine who Lloyd is receiving these orders from. Grady is also wearing a red jacket later in the scene. Once again this has connotations of danger about the character, and after Jack realises that he is the previous caretaker who murdered his family, his red uniform could represent the spilt blood of his children or his murderous intentions. Grady’s character also seems extremely sinister through his use of dialogue during the part of the scene where he asks Jack is he is aware that Danny is attempting to use the shining to contact Halloran. This seems to be suggesting that he is also aware of the entirety of the situation within the hotel and makes him appear to be an almost omnipotent extension or element of the hotels consciousness. The bathroom during which this part of the hotel takes place is again sticking to the theme of the colour red. This could be symbolic of a number of things as it is this scene which seems to be the turning point for Jacks sanity. It is also the scene where rather than the suggested idea of something supernatural lurking within the hotel this is the point of the film where both the viewer and the characters realise that the supernatural presence is actually incredibly strong and the ‘monster’ is revealed for the first time. It could also be foreshadowing of the danger that is to come thanks to Grady’s suggestions to Jack that he ‘take care’ of his family, the same way that Grady murdered his own, because of this it may be the scene where Jack finally decides to murder his family. The bathroom walls are also covered in mirrors. The use of mirrors throughout the film are recurrent and seem to be gradually building in how noticeable their placement is until this scene where there are many. The mirrors may represent the fractured or distorted representations of reality that are being presented to Jack, or may be representative of the many different sides of his personality shown by the character at this point in the film.

Favourite movie of the summer - The Thirteenth Floor

The thirteenth Floor (1999)

The film opens on a quote from the famous French philosopher Rene Descartes. “I think therefore I am” this proves to be the overarching theme of the film. The film takes place in a world like our own however technology has advanced to the point where scientists have created virtual worlds with sentient inhabitants. These virtual ‘people’ are not aware of the fact that their worlds are virtual creation. This fact is the main cause of moral dilemma for the protagonists and engineers of the virtual world and the point which the plot revolves around. Personally I enjoyed this movie on many levels, firstly the genre of the movie is sci-fi which is one of my favourite film genres. As a sci-fi film you would expect the technology featured to look light years ahead of our times current technology and this it did excellently. The technology used within the film looked realistic as well as futuristic, as though this very technology could exist within our own universe any day soon. This makes the moral issues raised by the film even more relevant as it invites the viewer to ponder what they would do in the same situation as the characters and where you would stand on the moral issues presented to the characters. This aids the connection you feel with the characters and how deeply you care about their plight as they battle the issue of if they have the right to be the ‘gods’ of this universe they have created, this links back to the quote at the start of the movie “I think therefore I am” as this idea of a created world is easily applicable back to our own universe back again, what is there to say our own universe isn’t some virtual creation which could just as easily be shut down by its creators as those in the film. The film is extremely poignant in its telling of the story and even after the film was over I found myself experiencing a minor existential crisis as a result of the issues raised in the film. I was also left to consider what it was that makes a person ‘real’ after all and if it is simply just the ability to recognise your own existence within your world, as suggested by the plot of the movie and the “I think therefore I am” quote yet again. In our own world where technology is advancing more rapidly than ever before and more and more of these moral questions about how much of a right we have to dabble in areas previously left to nature such as in the areas of medicine with recent debate over issues such as cloning and the ability to grow organs and so on, this debate over what rights we have to do with the technology now available to us as a race makes this film and the questions raised by it increasingly more relevant as time goes on.

Trainspotting Analysis

The clip begins with a long shot which establishes the setting as a club, the lighting also helps us understand the setting. The clothes of Renton establish his character and the time that this film is set in, his clothes are scruffy and they look old as though they're hand-me-downs. Renton appears disheveled and just generally out of place in the club. The clip then cuts from Renton to the two men sitting apart form the rest of the club having their own discussion, with a slow zoom. The lighting around the two men is blue, for me this could mirror their conversation showing they're out in the cold with their girlfriends. The writing on the wall is an intertextual reference to A Clockwork Orange with the theme of drugs.

 

The clip then cuts to their girlfriends in the bathroom, it features an over-the-shoulder mid-shot of them looking in the mirror and talking, the use of the mirror emphasises their facial expressions and their conversation which is also what the two guys sitting on their own are talking about. Later in the clip the camera focuses on Renton and when he finally decides to join the rest of the people on the dance floor. The camera switches from a close-up of Renton's face to a two-shot of the women dancing and the disgust on their faces as Renton approaches them, the camera then changes back to a close-up of Renton's face which shows his indifference to the rejection, this called a shot-reverse-shot.

The lighting in the club alternates between green and red this is symbolic of people's emotions within the club. The green represents Renton's jealousy of the couples on the dance floor and his recovering from sickness and addiction of heroin. Also, the red compliments his narrating as he is talking about sex and the colour red is associated with lust and love. Later on in the clip you see Diane standing alone in white light, this could represent her divorced presence from the everyone else in the club. The white light may also have angelic connotations to Renton, she could represent Renton's saviour from the rest of the drunken, drugged mess of people on the dance floor.

 

As Diane leaves the club she puts on a red coat, suggesting that her attitude has changed and her character is less innocent than she appears to be in the club when she is standing in the white light. Towards the end of this part of the scene the camera cuts to a two shot of both Diane and Renton facing each other while she delivers her speech to him. In the background of this shot we see the colours red and blue. These colours between them both may be representative of the feelings they have towards each other. The blue representing the icy reaction Diane seems to have towards Renton's proposition towards her, while the red represents the sexual tension between the two.

Why was the Lone Ranger considered a box office failure?

Why was the Lone Ranger considered a box office failure?

One of the main reasons was the hugely excessive budget allocated by Disney. At a budget of $250 million many critics believe that for a movie with only two characters the budget did not need to be so huge. As the movie was a retelling of an originally simple western, it also need not have had so much effort placed on the effects which cost a huge sum of money and made it next to impossible to make the huge budget back at the box office.

The combination of the director Gore Vebinksi and actor Johnny Depp is also important as in their previous movies the pair have made a lot of money for Disney so pairing them together in another movie made obvious sense on the surface. However even if the audience were attracted by the actors and director it still didn’t take off as expected. Johnny Depp personally blamed negative critical; response towards to film, claiming critics had it out for the film before it was even in the cinemas. When a movie opens its fate relies heavily on the reporting of the media much like political reporting, when the media decides a movie is in trouble it begins a death spiral that’s nearly impossible to escape. This coupled with bad rumours surrounding the movie during its production, along with allegations that the production had been shut down at one point. On top of bad reviews and bad word of mouth, the modern interest in western movies is arguably minimum, summer blockbuster movies usually aim to be an easily recognisable franchise, this may explain why the sequel to Despicable Me made almost three times the amount made by the lone ranger on its opening weekend. The Lone Ranger is not a widely known franchise, especially among the age groups aimed at by the film, due to it being over 80 years old, because of this the only audience who would be able to connect with the original story would more likely be the grandparents of Disney’s actual intended audience.

Its failure to connect with critics was also extreme, On Rottentomatoes.com the movie scored a mere 28% positive reviews, with one critic calling the movie a 2frustrating exercise in overkill, a kind-of, sort-of interesting idea but buried in summer-movie excess.” Another critic added “An appealing pair of leads, but they’re not enough to make up for the Lone Rangers bland script, bloated length and blaring action overkill.” The movie is also 149 minutes long, this when compared with older classics from the western genre, which were shot on tight budgets but still achieved success, makes the Lone Ranger look like an exercise in overkill of length as well as overkill of budget.