The Shining Task


Reviews
We meet Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a man who plans to live for the winter in solitude and isolation with his wife and son. He will be the caretaker of the snowbound Overlook Hotel. His employer warns that a former caretaker murdered his wife and two daughters, and committed suicide, but Jack reassures him: "You can rest assured, Mr. Ullman, that's not gonna happen with me. And as far as my wife is concerned, I'm sure she'll be absolutely fascinated when I tell her about it. She's a confirmed ghost story and horror film addict."

Danny: Is he reliable? He has an imaginary friend named Tony, who speaks in a lower register of Danny's voice. In a brief conversation before the family is left alone, Hallorann warns Danny to stay clear of Room 237, where the violence took place, and he tells Danny they share the "shining," the psychic gift of reading minds and seeing the past and future. Danny tells Dick that Tony doesn't want him to discuss such things. Who is Tony? "A little boy who lives in my mouth."

Tony seems to be Danny's device for channeling psychic input, including a shocking vision of blood spilling from around the closed doors of the hotel elevators. Danny also sees two little girls dressed in matching outfits; although we know there was a two-year age difference in the murdered children, both girls look curiously old. If Danny is a reliable witness, he is witness to specialized visions of his own that may not correspond to what is actually happening in the hotel.

Evaluation of the actors performances

I think that the performances we see from the actors/actresses in this film vary in believability quite a fair amount. I think Danny does very well in portraying the character of a confused child who is very curious to find out what he sees and hears in his visions. Towards the end of the film, it shows that he is very afraid of what he is hearing from his father, and when i watched it i felt disturbed to watch his facial expressions because the fear he was showing seemed too real.

Wendy on the other hand shows a far less believable character because her expressions and movement, i.e. the way she would run away, seemed to stereotypical of a horror film it just seemed quite 'cheesy' and the fear wasn't as believable as the fear shown by Danny.

Jacks character was very believable to me as someone who was experiencing some kind of mental breakdown. i feel that he played the role very well because in the parts of some scenes when he was looking very sinister and creepy, I found myself looking away from the screen as I thought his expressions and actions were very disturbing. This proves that he was successful in becoming this character and making him believable.

Cinematography and Mis en Scene
high/low angle-when jack is trying to get to Wendy up the stairs, he is made to look inferior as he is in a high angle shot, and Wendy is made to look superior as she is in the low angle shot, when actually it's jack who seems to have the power and controll over Wendy.
Close ups-Close ups are used a lot through out this film to show the fear in the characters faces. This camera shot is used a lot on Danny when he experiences his visions, because it draws our attention to his facial expressions which tell us how he is feeling.
Camera Movement-The magority of camera movement used in this film is tracking. It is used a lot to follow Danny around  the corridors of the hotel to make it seem as if you're there with him. Also, when we are tracking Danny, we are at the same level as he is because Kubrick wants us to feel as young and defenceless as as him to create more fear for the audience. He also liked to zoom in to a characters face when they are showing fear, which makes you ignore the background of the frame and focus on how the character is feeling.