Movie of the Moment

[chris]

rewatched, on blue ray, stanley kubrick's the shining last night. this is creepy. a horror movie where an uncomfortable dread meets unstable insanity. even in the beginning when things are good, the music implies happy times are certainly not going to be here again.

talked to my daughter's english teacher about this before i re-watched it. he asked me to keep an eye out for any metaphors this movie may be about. he told me what to look out for...native american genocide. sorry didn't catch that. sure, the inlayed floors were common with native american patterns. and sure on the walls were native american tapestries. and there was even mention of it (the overlook) being built on a native american burial ground. not uncommon for what was considered the wild west not all that too long ago. but other than that...nada.

if pressed to...i'd say the miles of endless empty corridors the kid big wheeled thru was a metaphor for jack's writers block.

and it did seem as if every time jack "spoke" to someone (butler, bartender) there was always a mirror behind his friend. i think he was always talking to himself.

if you want to see a flick about a realistic scenario of a guy going insane...this just might be the one for you.

[mr h atom]

always loved that movie...even if king doesn't

i've read enough, through the years, that i don't think kubrick had quite in mind all the metaphors that english teacher might wish upon it...from everything i've read and seen, he saw it as one mans descent

did you try any of the extras to see if there were any clues either way ?

[chris]

funnily enough, i always go for the collection with the bonus material, only to (almost) never watch any of the actual bonus material. but on your suggestion, i thought i'd take a look.

turns out, kubrick was never one for supplementary material, never endorsing "making of" documentaries or providing commentaries so this disc has what was previously available, though only on the special edition DVDs.

i did learn some of what i already knew tho, that kubrick was a perfectionist. and he nearly drove shelly duval crazy with his insistence she redo take after take until it was perfect. some scenes took as many as 148 takes before he was happy. and nearly every scene was shot at least 30 or 40 times. many actors who worked with kubrick vowed never to do so again.

but i did google "the shining, metaphors". and most, if not all seem to suggest this somehow has something to do with native americans. it went over my head, if it was. reminds me of the time i was in high school english after reading a required book. the teacher called on me to say what i thought the book was about. so i stood up, and said...i don't know...just about a couple of guys going fly fishing...sometimes they would catch something, sometimes not...maybe it suggested that fishing was a lot like life itself. now, personally, i thought what i had said was brilliant. but the teacher looked at me scornfully and said, no, chris...did you even read the book? thats when a classmate raised his hand after me, got called on, stood up, and proclaimed that it was a tale about the plight of the black man and the white man keeping him down. WHAT? the fishing book was about THAT?

what the hell do i know about metaphors anyway?

[mr h atom]

no worries, big c...i was always happier with metathrees, anyway..less finger counting

[mr h atom]

sanity returns nov. 23rd...''the muppets" return to the big screen wednesday and the world may just be a little more sane for a while

can you spell oscar

[Girl4Beats]

WOW! Some impressive movies out there. Okay. My picks are The Thin Man Movies. All of them which I don't think were many. Love William Powell and Myrna Loy in those characters. I also love the vampire movies with Bela Lagosi or however you spell his name. And if it weren't for all that durn singing, I think I would go to musicals more often but then if there was no singing it couldn't be called a musical, could it?

WOODSTOCK, the original.

[chris]

just saw the dilemma. i like the people in this movie. been a big vince vaughn fan ever since wedding crashers. i like kevin james. jennifer connolly and wynona ryder was well. but...it was severely lacking in a required element i look for in any comedy. it wasn't funny.

[mr h atom]

that little yellow bird had a movie..??

how'd i miss that !

just kidding...speaking of older movies...'the maltese falcon' and the 'treasure of the sierra madre'...bogie rules

[Girl4Beats]

Older movies? The African Queen. SHOOT! My brain is mush again. I have all sorts of titles for old movies that I think are good but I can't think of any now. But I did live through the 1960's.

[chris]

just watched arguably my all time favorite movie on blue ray. QT's pulp fiction. the movie is so funny (especially in situations that aren't really supposed to be funny) and so clever. it pays homage to so many great movies of the 70's and 80's. you see a tip of the hat to the godfather, deliverance, the warriors. the music is pitch perfect. if you haven't seen it. you must. it is violent, and really, really profane...so it isn't for everyone. and it isn't linear...that is...on a straight time line from beginning to end...so you have to put the puzzle in your head a bit (which makes it even for fewer people.)

just a masterful piece of work by a master writer/director. see this movie.