What do you think of the mirror interpretation and true meaning of the classic horror film "The Shining"?

"The Shining" is a psychological horror film adapted by the famous American director Stanley Kubrick in 1980 based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. It has been considered a classic in the history of horror movies for many years. work.

"The Shining" tells the story of Jack, an amateur writer who accepts a job as a hotel manager during the winter. He lives with his wife and children in a hotel called the Lookout. The long-term claustrophobia and loneliness, as well as the temptation of the so-called evil spirits in the hotel, led Jack step by step onto the path of madness, and finally killed his wife and children but froze to death outside the hotel.

The director's use and success of the soundtrack in the film maintained the horror atmosphere in the film until the end; in addition, the repeated use of tracking shots made the audience lose their normal perspective and made them unable to predict what would happen. What happened, the feeling of fear and uneasiness always lingered in their minds.

However, when such a classic master-level psychological horror film is seen for the first time, not all viewers can understand and appreciate some of the plots in the film.

But if we use Lacan's "mirror image" theory to interpret the misalignment of Jack's self and "other" mirror images in "The Shining Man", which leads to his so-called supersensory perception due to cognitive impairment, Then it is not difficult to understand most of the plot of the film and its classic essence.

Under the influence of the social mirror, that is, the claustrophobic space constructed by Jack's own consciousness and the undead in the hotel, the protagonist Jack activates his inner desires. When he reconstructed his identity, his inner desires projected another disordered mirror image on the reconstructed identity, leading to his death.

The impact of "social mirroring" on Jack's consciousness

Lacan's mirror theory is actually easy to understand. It refers to the theory of mirror experience, which confuses all situational awareness between reality and imagination. .

The research subjects of this theory are infants aged 6-18 months. They are initially unaware of the image in the mirror. Only after their mother and others recognize them do the infants recognize themselves as Own.

At this time, for the baby, although the mirror is the baby's mirror image, this mirror image is not the baby itself, but another person other than the baby itself.

When the two conflict, only one party surrenders to the other to merge, otherwise there will be endless entanglement and pain.

Then let’s go back to the movie. The protagonist Jack in the movie successfully applied for a job as a hotel steward after losing his job, but he was very dissatisfied with himself.

When asked what his occupation was during the interview, Jack was evasive. He first explained that he was a teacher, and then added that he was a writer. At the same time, he laughed at himself and said that the salary of a teacher could not sustain his family life. Reflects Jack's wavering mentality and self-denial.

So while guarding the hotel, he tried to find himself through writing, but he still couldn't find a suitable position, so that he had nightmares in a trance, and finally went crazy and froze to death.

But in this process, we should pay attention to the shock wave caused by the impact of "social mirror" on Jack's consciousness.

During a conversation with the hotel manager, Jack learned that in 1970, a hotel owner went insane while on duty in the winter and killed his wife and two daughters with an ax before shooting himself. .

This story drew a heavy blow on Jack's extremely fragile consciousness, so much so that Jack frequently equated himself with the guard in the story in the process of self-search, and even arranged for a male bartender to Appeared at the 1921 party. The bartender and the guard who killed his wife and daughter had the same surname but different names, but Jack still blamed the murder of his wife and daughter on the imaginary male bartender, and imagined that the male bartender would convince him."

Various opinions in the film I just want to tell the audience that "mirror image" has a profound impact on Jack's pursuit of self.

Jack's own mirror image also comes from his wife Wendy.

Wendy is a kind and very kind person. An obedient woman. When the doctor asked Wendy why her son Danny had dislocated his arm, Wendy shook her head, lit a cigarette, and told her son Danny's naughty behavior, her husband Jack's efforts and his drunken behavior. An accidental miss. In the end, she consoled herself with a smile, thinking it was an unfortunate blessing that her husband hadn't had a drink since then.

After staying at the Lookout Hotel, Wendy took on the boiler. Checking maintenance, cooking and other work, enduring the husband's MoMo and nonsense noise.

She just wanted to remind her husband not to work too hard on writing, but she was met with harsh words.

Jack did not appreciate what Wendy did. He and Lloyd, Jack's imaginary male bartender, repeatedly complain about Wendy's and are full of profanity. Because in the mirror image of his wife, Jack saw his own incompetence and hurt his son Danny, so in the mirror image of Wendy, Jack did not identify with himself and felt guilty and depressed.

My son Danny is also a mirror image of Jack himself.

After Jack got angry at Wendy for the first time, Wendy reminded her son Danny not to bump into Jack.

Once, Danny sneaked back into the room to get the toy car, but he was afraid of waking Jack who was resting. But Jack didn't sleep, he just sat on the edge of the bed, speechless. As Jack hugs Danny and talks, Danny asks his father if he would never hurt himself and his mother, Wendy. The question hit Jack where it hurt because his guilt had left him extremely sensitive. He immediately asked Danny if this was Wendy's statement. After receiving Danny's negative answer, his mood gradually recovered

At this time, Jack's mood was at a critical juncture, and then he succumbed to the "mirror image" of hating his wife.

The long-term deviation between self and "social mirror" makes Jack's spirit become more and more trance-like, and he begins to appear tangled and painful. what do I do? With no hope of self-improvement, it seems that all problems can only be solved by turning himself into a "mirror image" of his past - a hotel guard who went crazy and killed a family, but he still blames himself and is still at a loss. He could only type the same sentence over and over again on paper:

"All work and no play makes smart children stupid"

The dislocation between Jack himself and the "mirror image"

Lacan’s mirror theory mainly talks about the self and the mirror as the other. After experiencing a series of social "mirrors" that affected his consciousness, Jack's perception of his own "mirrors" also became skewed.

As a member of society, as a father and a husband, Jack's own "mirror image" has been misaligned to varying degrees, so much so that he has succumbed to the evil mirror images of others under the influence.

At the beginning of the film, the audience is told that there are many photos of different ages hanging on the walls of the Lookout Hotel, but it is not until the end that a significant photo is revealed in close-up. The photo was taken on July 4, 1921. It was a grand ball. In the middle of the photo stood a man who looked exactly like Jack, wearing a dress and holding a wine glass in his hand.

It is conceivable that Jack must have seen this photo during the winter months of guarding. Under the suggestion of this mirror image, Jack's subconscious was immersed in the party in 1921, thereby visualizing these non-existent characters in his life.

The first time Jack met Lloyd, the bartender in the golden hall of the hotel, he said the classic words in the movie: "I would trade my soul for a glass of beer";

With Jack's self-identity dislocated, finally, when he went to the Golden Hall for the second time, he found that it was full of people dressed in costumes from the 1921 photos. Jack regarded himself as one of the photos. This was Jack's own " The dislocation of the mirror image of “the other”.

At the beginning of the movie, Jack drove his wife and children to the Overlook Hotel. Danny asked Dona what the expedition was about, and Jack told his son that the people killed each other and ate human flesh in order to survive.

His wife Wendy quickly stopped the conversation between father and son. At this time, Jack completely forgot that he was the mirror image of his father, and seemed a little complacent when talking about cannibalism with his children. His fatherhood seemed to be slipping away from him. At this time, Jack already had problems with identity construction and cognition.

Later, as a husband, Jack was very cold to his wife. In addition to playing with his son Danny and taking care of the hotel, his wife Wendy could only speak a few words to the outside world through the radio.

Jack himself has doubts about his social identity. He does not identify with his "mirror image", is unwilling to be bound by ethics and morals, and faces his wife and children who lead to self-repression. Therefore, when Jack walked into room 237, he saw a beautiful and tall naked woman. He gave up his "mirror image" - the lover, openness, imaginary woman kissing and hugging. This is the third step in Jack's identity self-construction. Dislocation.

Jack's self and his "mirror image" actually go from constant detachment to detachment, and finally complete the split.

The role of mirrors in the expression of "mirror images" in movies

The basic tool of the "mirror image" theory is the mirror. Only with a mirror can you see the image in the mirror.

Mirrors appear several times in The Shining to remind the audience.

After Jack's family checked into the Observation Hotel, director Kubrick arranged a series of images in the mirror to set off Jack's gradually divided self and his "mirror image."

After staying in the hotel for a month, the wife prepared breakfast for her husband and sat on the bedside to chat with her husband. The two are still in a mirror at this time, indicating that the couple is establishing their identities at this time. There is no state of self-separation from their respective "mirrors";

As time goes by, Jack himself and his true image in the mirror begin to appear in the director's lens at the same time.

In the end, whether he was talking to Lloyd in front of the bar, talking to Grady in the bathroom, or talking to Danny and his son in the bedroom, he seemed to be staring at the image in the mirror (even storeroom door) talking to himself. Jack is trapped in his own world.

The role of the mirror in him is to reflect on the illusion of materialized reality, a deep loss that seems to be awake in the circuitous path of light.

The true metaphorical meaning of "The Flash"

The reason why this film has long been regarded as a classic is not only because Kubrick used the "mirror" theory to tell the audience about a spiritual The horror stories of people with schizophrenia, but also because of its profound meaning.

The film is filled with a strange and complicated atmosphere from the beginning.

A long shot at the beginning gives a panoramic view of the natural beauty. The calm iceberg lake is surrounded by mountains covered with snow. Everything conveys a natural and peaceful primitive state.

Then, contrary to this quiet and long distance, is the low and depressing background music, which follows an endless road through the lens of the follower and continues to spread endlessly.

In the subsequent development of the story, every time the protagonist and his family drive to the Lookout Hotel, they are always accompanied by calm and distant scenes and a suppressed mysterious soundtrack, making the tense and unknown atmosphere about to explode. The fate and situation of the protagonist become mysterious and dangerous.

With this musical background, the end of the road that stretches all the way is the Lookout Hotel.

In the movie, the Lookout Hotel shows a state of modern civilization that confronts nature and primitive beauty.

As the plot develops, the Overlook Hotel gradually takes on an anti-modern atmosphere - an unknown indifference and unfathomable isolation under the gorgeous appearance.

As a hotel custodian, the protagonist’s family members are also tortured by this atmosphere, causing burnout and negative fatigue, and gradually losing control of themselves and their surroundings. This is precisely what civilization and order give them.

In the movie, Jack gradually falls into the chaos between himself and the "mirror image" and loses his true consciousness. This is the process in which order and civilization are replaced by the confinement of modern thought.

The Lookout Hotel is no longer a symbol of modernity and order in the wilderness, but has fully exposed its desolate and dark side.

In this extremely depressive atmosphere, the Lookout Hotel gradually evolved into a prison-like cage, and the protagonist's family became like prisoners. Although the exit is right in front of you, it is suppressed by an invisible force and cannot escape.

The flashbacks that constantly appear in the hotel, the wandering of the former residents in the "mirror image" of Jack's consciousness, and the lack of a way out all indicate that time is flowing and the order of space is disrupted. Reality and imagination alternate.

However, although human alienation and oppression are staged inside the hotel like a haunted house, there is still an orderly scene outside the hotel.

The rare and intermittent contact with the outside world continues to torment and torment those trapped in it, eventually pushing them to the edge of psychological collapse.

The entire story revolves around an isolated cage. The so-called Overlook Hotel is the disguise of this cage.

Just as montage transcends the simple superposition of shots, the accumulated depression and loneliness in the film continue to sublimate the theme contained in the film -

The twisted side of modern civilization is imprisoned like a cage Individuals and groups trapped in it show repression and restraint under the order.

This topic is still of great relevance in today's era. Today, people are only as obsessed with modern civilization and technology as they were 40 years ago.

Without electronic payments and cars, it seems that even ordinary life is unsustainable;

Under the heavy pressure of survival and work, everyone seems to be crying out for loneliness and loneliness, but what is rare is that limited spare time Instead of communicating with family and friends, time is spent diving into mobile phones, browsing cheap fast food text messages alone, indulging in imagination, and the distance between people is once again alienated.

As depicted in the movie "The Shining", people are dependent on and powerless against modern technology.

The clean-looking modern Overlook Hotel is actually a mockery of modern development that has led to people’s increasing dependence and loss of communication skills.

The protagonist’s family, like contemporary people, enjoys all the conveniences provided by modernization on the one hand, but on the other hand, the inertia and alienation brought about by such conveniences are also constantly growing.

This is what "The Shining Man" means to a classic, thoughtful and enduring.