The Shining is not only one of my favorite horror films of all time, but also one of my favorite movies period. I have watched it yearly since childhood, spending many snow days at Stanley Kubrick’s rendition of the Overlook Hotel. I have read and do enjoy Stephen King’s novel, although as far as King goes my favorites remain Pet Sematary and It. As for the film adaptation, Kubrick’s telling scratches a different part of my sub-conscience every viewing.
The documentary Room 237 and countless film critics have attempted to dissect the Torrance’s brief Colorado stay, but upon my latest viewing I found myself wandering all new hallways which I have never encountered. Specifically, key moments that reveal the relationship between the Overlook and Torrance’s alcoholism.
Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance stands as one of the all time great onscreen lunatics. From his iconic “Here’s Johnny” to lumbering through the hedge maze, Nicholson transcended literature and film to create a pure and simple image of utter madness.
A common attack on the performance though is that the character has no arc. He starts crazy and ends crazy. Stephen King never approved of Kubrick’s interpretation nor Nicholson’s over the top performance.
Nicholson’s approach though is not broad at all, but extremely specific to the ailment draining Torrance of life. Jack Torrance is not a man being driven crazy by an evil hotel. He is an alcoholic, one who has gone through the cycle of sobriety many times and comes to his final bender at the Overlook Hotel. This all of course is out in the open. What I maintain though is that the hotel acts as an enabler and then as the literal physical manifestation of Torrance’s final downward spiral.
Jack enters the film as a dry drunk. Despite not having had a sip of alcohol for five months, we learn from various conversations throughout the film that he has had several relapses since breaking his son’s arm several years ago. His wife Wendy defends his every action, but Torrance buzzes with an irritation and dismissal of his domestic life that will implode upon his arrival at the Overlook.
The hotel management has had all alcohol removed from its premises over the winter. Jack literally cannot get drunk. No matter though, as the multitude of spirits step in to press the same buttons that the alcohol would. In one very telling image at a party scene, Torrance mimes taking a swig from his bare hand while scanning the ballroom. As Torrance imagines himself a nice stiff drink, such ghosts as Lloyd the bartender and Delbert Grady needle their way into Torrance’s domestic life, allowing Jack to place blame on everyone in his life besides himself- Wendy and Danny are holding him back. It’s their fault, not his that he can’t hold down a job or gain respect as a writer. The ghosts of the Overlook are like fellow alcoholics keeping Jack from sobriety, not wanting him to take any responsibility for his actions. Jack cannot even take full responsibility for breaking Danny’s arm.
So the hotel rather than booze unravels Torrance, even making a sick joke of seducing him in Room 237. The scene plays out as the most nightmarish version of taking off the beer goggles ever. The beautiful stranger rising out of the bathtub literally decomposes before him moments later.
Even after Jack has come upon ghosts and rotting corpses, he still defends the hotel like he would his barfly friends. He is in the throes of denial and while bellowing to Wendy the financial repercussions of losing this job he is really defending his habit.
By the end of the film, Torrance has utterly fallen apart. He limps along yelling incoherently, his arm clutched to his side. He cannot even form full sentences while stumbling through the hedge maze, finally collapsing and succumbing to the elements like a drifter locked out of their halfway house. What would have taken years of hard drinking and eventual homelessness, the Overlook has achieved in a single winter.
Then we of course have the ending shot. After leaving the frozen Torrance in the maze, we suddenly find him back inside the hotel- grinning from a 1921 photograph hanging on the wall. Interpreting the photo as evidence of reincarnation, that Torrance had worked at the hotel previously and was always doomed to return, one can make the connection to the cyclical nature of a relapse. Torrance is going to return to the Overlook lifetime after lifetime until he can overcome its power, just as an addict is doomed to substance abuse unless they find sobriety. He will keep wandering that maze or keep typing “All work and no play.” The framed photo represents a final taunt from the hotel, like a blurred polaroid hanging up in a neighborhood bar. It’ll keep saying “Welcome back” until the drinker stops going in.
Kubrick’s adaptation follows Torrance from a powder keg ready to explode up until his final incoherent mutterings. While not the slow building arc of King’s novel, it provides a powerfully grim insight into addiction and the havoc it wreaks upon one’s physical and mental state as well as their relationships. Watching The Shining in this light adds many nuances to an otherwise totally gonzo performance and places many of the hotel’s mysteries into context. While I don’t claim to have broken the code of this enigmatic film, I do hope I offered some new points of interest on your next trip to the Overlook.
Wow I completely agree !