preview

Stanley Kubbrick The Shining Essay

Decent Essays

“The Shining” is a 1980 psychological horror film that was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. At the beginning of the film, we see Jack Torrance, who is a writer and recovering alcoholic take a position as a caretaker at an almost abandoned hotel that is built on a Native American burial ground. Kubrick uses the hotel to his advantage as he uses the hotel to echo any and all sound. This is able to happen because of the hotels emptiness and size. All through the interview process the manager warns him that the previous caretaker developed cabin fever and ultimately killed his family and himself. But, his ultimate goal of taking the job was to use this abandoned hotel as his place to write. His young son, who lives there along with Jack …show more content…

But, the most important use of filmmaking that is exemplified throughout the entire film is the use of sound. Kubrick used both Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound to help the audience through the movie. One example of mise-en-scene is the first scene in movie where Kubrick shows the audience an amazing image. These openings consist of a lake that gives us a reflection of the island and the mountains surrounding it. As stated in the Kubrick Reading Part 2; Pages 438-439, theses stunning helicopter shots were done at Glacier National Park in Montana. When Kubrick decided to send a crew there, they deemed that location uninteresting. But, after Kubrick saw the test shots he concluded that this was the perfect location. Kubrick sets the stage right away as he uses the opening soundtrack to create tension for the audience and put you on the edge of your seat right from the start. Directly after the first shot, Kubrick gives the audience a great tracking shot of Jack’s car. This view gives us the impression that Jack is already trapped before anything even happens. Throughout the film, Kubrick does an outstanding job on matching the music to the pace of the movie. With Diagetic sounds like talking, relaxing, or just acting normal, the music is slow but, once the action being to pick up so does the music, which adds to the tension and speculation on what is

Get Access