The Shining (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Stanley Kubrick
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Barry Nelson, Danny Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, Scatman Crothers, Shelley DuvallDirector: Stanley Kubrick
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 142 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Shining (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: DVD extras
Summary: 4 Stars
Since I suspect that most people reading this have already seen "The Shining" and already have an opinion, I'm not going to comment on the plot. Instead I'm going to review the extra features.
"Crafting the Shining" - This was the first DVD extra that I watched, and I enjoyed it a lot. I thought it was a concise, well done look behind-the-scenes with a lot of interesting trivia and interviews.
"Visions of Stanley Kubrick" - This is a short homage to Kubrick. It looks at all of his films to showcase the sort of artist he was.
"Making of the Shining" - This is the exact same documentary as on the "Collection" VHS tape. However, a nice addition is the option of listening to a new commentary by Vivian Kubrick. I enjoyed hearing her stories. She had the unique perspective of being a 17 year old bystander on the set. I wish they had asked her to take part in the commentary for the full movie on disc 1.
"Wendy Carlos" - This is an interesting look at the musical sequences that didn't make it into the final cut of The Shining and Clockwork Orange.
Disc 1 special features - The only extra feature on disc 1 is the commentary by the steadycam operator and a Kubrick biographer. This commentary is why I gave the dvd only 4 stars instead of 5. The biggest disappointment was that they repeat a lot of what was already said in the extra features on Disc 2. The two commentators were recorded separately and then spliced together. The steadycam operator was humorous to listen to and he also keeps you interested because of his unique perspective as a crew member on set almost every day during filming. The biographer's commentary, on the other hand, was disappointing. A few of his comments were insightful, but everyone watching with me felt he sounded pompous. A lot of his comments sound like an art critic fawning over Kubrick while pointing out the obvious. Suffice to say, I wish they had paired the steadycam operator up with someone different for the commentary. It's a shame they couldn't get Nicholson or one of the other actors to provide commentary. I would have enjoyed it more listening to a second person who had actually been there during filming.
Overall, I felt it was worth paying the extra money for this 2 disc dvd as an upgrade from my old VHS copy. The picture quality looks good. I'm happy with my choice. But anyone who isn't a huge fan will probably be completely satisfied with the cheaper 2001 "Kubrick Collection" dvd instead. You are basically paying the big price difference for this special edition only to get 3 short featurettes, Vivian's 30 minute commentary, and a very mediocre full-length commentary. According to Amazon's editorial, the old "Collection" version was supposedly the aspect ratio that Kubrick approved of, anyways.
A five star movie, but only a four star "special" edition.
Summary of The Shining (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is less an adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling horror novel than a complete reimagining of it from the inside out. In King's book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretaker and provokes him to murderous rage against his wife and young son. Kubrick's movie is an existential Road Runner cartoon (his steadicam scurrying through the hotel's labyrinthine hallways), in which the cavernously empty spaces inside the Overlook mirror the emptiness in the soul of the blocked writer, who's settled in for a long winter's hibernation. As many have pointed out, King's protagonist goes mad, but Kubrick's Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is Looney Tunes from the moment we meet him--all arching eyebrows and mischievous grin. (Both Nicholson and Shelley Duvall reach new levels of hysteria in their performances, driven to extremes by the director's fanatical demands for take after take after take.) The Shining is terrifying--but not in the way fans of the novel might expect. When it was redone as a TV miniseries (reportedly because of King's dissatisfaction with the Kubrick film), the famous topiary-animal attack (which was deemed impossible to film in 1980) was there--but the deeper horror was lost. Kubrick's The Shining gets under your skin and chills your bones; it stays with you, inhabits you, haunts you. And there's no place to hide... --Jim Emerson?Heeeeere?s Johnny!? In a macabre masterpiece adapted from Stephen King?s novel, Jack Nicholson falls prey to forces haunting a snowbound mountain resort with a macabre history.
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