After watching "The Shining"

Looking at the schedule, this Sunday is actually the last weekend I can have free time. So I decided to watch a movie with my wife, so I chose a horror classic that I didn't understand back then - "The Shining".

This movie was released in 1980, and it is now 40 years old. Since its release, some people have regarded it as a classic, while others have said that the director has exhausted his talents. Stephen King, the original author, was so dissatisfied that he later directed another The Shining. The new version in 1997 can be said to be the one closest to the original work.

The Shining is confusing because of its elusive themes. If you want to confirm the theme, you need to return to the original work. Stephen King's original novel mainly shows the fear of the little boy Danny because he can see supernatural things. In the original work, the novel clearly tells us that there is a ghost in the hotel that the little boy's family takes care of. This ghost wants to seize the little boy's body. After being unsuccessful, it turns the finger on the little boy's father, and leads to the father's death. Ultimately crazy.

In the movie, director Kubrick deliberately deleted the story background in the novel, cleverly mapping the story of "The Shining" to the American society at that time. For example, in the opening part of the film, a concise dialogue is used to outline a deformed American family, which could easily trigger an uproar only in "the United States at that time".

For American men in the 1970s, a series of world events such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the oil crisis caused a large number of men to lose their jobs and even have to rely on their wives to support them. I accepted the job of looking after a hotel when I was in poverty. Although I felt low, I still had the dream in my heart that "once I write my stuff, I can make a comeback."

However, the more I long for it, the less I can get it; the more I want to write, the less I can write a single word. For a time, he numbed his behavior by repeating "all study and no play, and smart Jack will become stupid". Once discovered, the time bomb was instantly detonated.

There is more direct evidence, including the fact that the hotel was originally an Indian territory, and the American flag that Jack wore when he was drinking in the bar, which gives us reason to suspect: He just wants to be a metaphor. American society.

You must know that when filming "The Shining", Kubrick was already a long-established director, and almost all the shots and props were not meaningless. For example, the "mirror" that appears frequently in the film:

In fact, at this time, as a father, is Jack already "diffident"? Are there things in your inner world that can no longer be hidden and are coming to the surface?

Another example is the following shot:

At first glance, there is a question: Is this a corpse? In fact, the owner of this pair of feet had a premonition that something was going on in the hotel, and when he returned, he was knocked down by the male protagonist with an axe.

If we interpret the existence of this supporting character in a "metaphorical" way, he is the epitome of an Indian: he warmly welcomes the arrival of guests, and is very honored and proud to introduce his products to the intruders. and mineral deposits, and when he felt that the visitor was a visitor and was in danger and must help, he was instantly killed by the male protagonist who was hiding in the shadows.

There is a lot I want to say, but it may not be right. Just say whatever you want.

Classics are actually the easiest to be "over-interpreted", or it is unknown whether this ambiguous theme and obscure expression helped him become a classic.