The interaction between Tony and Danny takes place with the camera focused on a mirror in the bathroom and the shot composition is similar to the bear man shot later on in the movie. The film within a film parallel is also hinted at by the television content initially filling up our entire view of the scene before zooming out to reveal Danny and Wendy in the lobby. He also informs Jack about Danny involving an outside party (Halloran) in the situation and stresses on words like will, to upset Jack. Wendy and Danny lock themselves in the bathroom, and Wendy sends Danny through the window. We see Halloran contacting the rangers to get in touch with the hotel. Wendy keeps swinging the bat to keep him away, and begs him to take Danny to a doctor. There is also Jack and Danny's conversation in the apartment suite with Danny on Jack's lap. But that hasnt stopped people all over the world from trying. Note how Jack wears dull colored clothes in the beginning but wears a burgundy jacket throughout the second half and the opposite for Wendy who wears a bright red and blue costume, similar to that of the Goofy poster in Dannys bedroom but towards the end opts for dull ones. What makes The Shining so special? Related:Are Charles & Delbert Grady The Same Person? Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round. As for Jack, he does die but not in the snow: a malfunctioning boiler explodes and kills Jack while also destroying the hotel. This video is my attempt to put the record straight. Introducing aspiring bodypainterCharrar.basPennywise the Dancing Clownfrom Stephen Kings It, the hit book, television adaptation, and film adaptation. A month passes and we are greeted with the most iconic tracking shot of all time and unlike most of them, it tracks the tricycle of a kid moving around empty corridors with the echoing sound of the wheels rolling against the wooden floor creating a oddly satisfying atmosphere. One might expect that explaining The Shining could be done by reading the original novel written by Stephen King. Realizing that he is leaving footprints in the snow, Danny carefully maneuvers backwards over his own . These observations could easily be interpreted as evidence that Wendy has also had an incestuous relationship with Danny, but my guess is the older woman relationship refers to the woman in room 237, who we know is simply a dream manifestation of Jack. Wendy calls a doctor who checks Danny and asks about some sort of trauma Danny may have suffered that may have caused him to make up his imaginary friend. Wednesday, and Danny finds the Room 237 ajar and we see him walking towards it because a red ball rolls upto him out of nowhere from that direction. Further evidence includes the cases of Tang in the Overlooks pantry and the otherwise innocuous change from Room 217 in the novel to Room 237 in the film. Those who believe this theory point to a handful of other small details. {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}Your submission failed. The text version is slightly more in-depth as well. Despite being strange and somewhat out of place, The Shining bear scene exists in the book as well but involves a man dressed as a dog who is performing the sex act on one of The Overlook's owners, who was bisexual. Interesting. The Shining bear is no different, and, if Rob Ager's theory is correct, could explain a much darker nature to the relationship between Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) and his father, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson). What happens to Wendy and Danny after that is unknown (in the film, at least), although a deleted scene featured them in a hospital, recovering both physically and mentally from everything they went through. Why the bear costume? This led to him intentionally reversing a lot of features from the book, changing them, experimenting with them and using disrupted continuity. The Shining novel, however, has a very different ending, and one that even made way for a sequel: Doctor Sleep. Below are the six biggest and most popular theories on The Shining explained. The Shining is full of allegory and mystery, but none are as wild and potentially insidious as what could be lurking behind that strange man in a bear suit. While some fans felt this missed an opportunity to add some meaning to The Shining bear suit, Flanagan felt trying to give the bear from The Shining a backstory would disrupt the rest of the movie. The Shining Explained . We are no more shown the mirror, questioning the accuracy of the depiction, while he makes Danny sit on his lap and this is when Jack abuses him (the bathroom door is open and theres no toilet paper). This makes the scene even more baffling and the unknown even more frightening. We also see two doors on either side of Room 237 that lead nowhere. Yes, one involves the furries. The aforementioned Room 237 doc covers this theory and the following video digs even deeper into this Native American genocide interpretation. He might have had his anger under control for a while before taking the job, but he went back to it there. There are so many doors in the movie that lead nowhere, like our ideas of the movie that according to Kubrick offer no explanation and hence raises the question : What is the maze? Figurative representations of hell can be found in other horror films, so it wouldnt be a stretch to imagine Kubrick was doing the same thing. There is also an odd Mickey Mouse parallel. With a narrative that's as puzzling and confusing as the hedge maze found in the terrifying climax, The Shining has led fans to rack their head for it's various meanings for the past 40 years. About the Jack in the picture, Kubrick confirmed that it wasnt taken at The Overlook and doesnt serve as an evidence of Gradys claim that Jack had always been the caretaker. She knocks him unconscious in an act of self defense and locks him in the pantry. He even sought to create an alternate adaptation of his novel in the form of a television mini-series in the '90s. Connecting the dots, The Shining bear man and his partner could be stand-ins for Danny and Jack. In Barry Lyndon a commoner, who marries his way into high society, systematically beats his stepson, Lord Bullingdon. Watch my new Shining analysis video \"Danny's ordeal and the bear costumed man\" here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW2GrG7Zk0UMy written Shining analysis articles and videos are at: http://www.collativelearning.com/FILMS%20reviews%20BY%20ROB%20AGER.htmlRob Ager's analysis of The Shining was plagiarized in a video posted on the Screen Prism channel and credited to Jeff Saporito. The most disturbing aspect of the movie and something that creeped me out after thinking about it (I am an avid horror movie fan but this aspect is just terrifying). This is one of the more compelling The Shining theories and there is a lot of ancillary evidence to support it. Netflix. The novel and subsequent film differ in significant ways. But, to be perfectly honest, every other piece of evidence in support of this theory is beyond far-fetched and not to be taken seriously. Here's The Shining bear scene explained. This chapter will cover the first of those themes. In Lolita, Mason played Humbert Humbert, a man who has a sexual relationship with his underage stepdaughter. The maze in The Shining went over better than the hedge animals would've in Kubrick's vision. Instead of being inside, the young boy is out in the hedge maze being pursued by his father. ", Doctor: "If you were to open your mouth could I see Tony? This is right before the fatherly love scene. In the HD version, several book and newspaper titles are visible in the psychiatrist scene. You look up and wonder, how could anyone have climbed that high? Theres an evil side to it. What she sees when she gets there is a disturbing image of a man in a bear costume performing fellatio on a man in a tuxedo. Coincidence much? Is this implying that Jack forced his son to perform felatio in the fatherly love scene? Kubrick didnt just show us random footage from the set. We identified in previous chapters that Jack strangled Danny in the fatherly love scene and with these new details it would seem that he also sexually abused his son during this event. One of the things that horror stories can do is to show us the archetypes of the unconscious; we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly. Related: The Shining Movie's Most Significant Difference From Stephen King's Book. Its eyes are similar in design to the floor dials of the gaping mouth elevator, which weve already identified as symbolic eyes, and the teddys mouth is bright red, which again is similar to the gaping mouth doors of the elevator. Additionally, lines of dialogue such as white mans burden further support this association. The fact that his films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining require detailed explanations says a lot about his craft. The visual imagery along with the symbolism, sound and production design, character mannerisms or dialogues have their own story to telland every single one of them could take you down through a different path, like a maze except theres no area of convergence. contain their own pieces of unique information. Tony is a little boy that lives in my mouth, Danny states, complaining about his mental condition, to which the doctor replies: If you were to open your mouth could I see TonyDoes Tony ever ask you to do things?. As for all the weird stuff Wendy stumbles across while running through the hotel, like the guy in the bear suit blowing the party guest and the lift full of blood, it's like Halloran said earlier in the film: "A lot of things happened in this hotel over the years, and not all of them were good". But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within. Stanley Kubricks The Shining is regarded by many as one of the greatest films ever made, and one that to this day continues to be the subject of many debates and discussions. For more information, please see our Later in the film, the adult Bullingdon is played by Leon Vitali. He thought there might be something else that would be metaphorically and visually more interesting. The Shining Caretaker Explained. However, in Kubricks adaptation, this context was missing which left many viewers questioning what they were looking at and why at that moment. Of course, there are some more convincing (and coherent) than others, but The Shining is, at its core, a story about violence and abuse and how these are often cyclical. This parallels the big brotherly relationship in Barry Lyndon between the adult Lord Bullingdon and his younger half brother, who is also a Danny Torrance look-alike. Some readers will probably disapprove or take offence at what Im about to say regardless of how I explain it, so Ill just say it outright. Jack later speaks to a disappointed Grady through the door, who believes Jack doesnt have the stomach to carry out the task. The open patch on the bear mans behind in the film simply adds to the sexual emphasis. This is thought to reference the estimated 237,000 miles between the Earth and the moon, even though this number is inaccurate. Theres no doubt that amongst Stanley Kubricks influential body of work, his 1980 horror The Shining remains his most disturbing film, with eerie atmospheric film suggesting something deeper to be running through the haunted floorboards of the Overlook hotel. This provides a clear association between bears and Danny Torrance. There are many visuals to prove this theory, small details that would be termed as continuity errors but are present to signify the difference between the real world and Jacks world. Those who believe in this theory point to a particular poster visible on the wall in the background as proof. Funnily enough, director Stanley Kubrick had a couple different endings in mind for The Shining, each of them very different. Privacy Policy. The hallucination ends when an hysteric Wendy comes running in and informs Jack about a woman in Room 237 who tried to strangle Danny. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques. The complete lack of wires running to the TV, pointed out by of my correspondents, may also be related to the concept of a fractal film. In researching the film I have found three thematic interpretations of the bear man scene and I believe Kubrick intended all three of these metaphors as part of the subliminal narrative. While Danny's barbs do eventually seem to wake up part of Jack's consciousness from inside his Lloyd identity, whatever good he had left in him was clearly erased once Jack was fully taken over. Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. A hostile Jack threatens her and claims he has responsibilities to look after and will get rid of her if she bothered him. Interestingly, in the 1997 Shining miniseries, which King himself wrote, there's a brief epilogue in which a graduating Danny is visited by the ghost of Jack, beaming with pride, suggesting that Jack's spirit was fully freed when the Overlook blew up. He also informs Danny about the hotels ability to shine owing to its tragic past from being built on an Indian burial site to the murders, discovered and undiscovered. Either way, The Shining is not so much a ghost story in a literal sense, but a story about the ghosts (or demons, in some cases) of violence and abuse, and how these can come back to continue with the cycle. In Kubricks version Tony is never shown and communicates with Danny through an involuntary movement of Dannysindex finger, since Kubrick never intended on giving a ghostly theme to the movie. That scene towards the end of The Shining where Wendy (Shelley Duvall) is navigating the hallways and sees a man receiving a bj from a person in a creepy bear suit. Here's The Shining bear scene explained. When Wendy finds Danny after he enters room 237, hes in shock and physically injured, and Wendy immediately blames Jack for it as he has hurt their son before. The Shining Caretaker Explained, Every Shining Character Who Returns In Doctor Sleep. The Bear Man. Both of them secretly despise their wives. There seems to be many hints in the film that Wendy is aware of her sons abuse and is covering up and denying the issue. One final detail hinting at Jack's guilt as an abuser of his family is his rotten glance to Danny's bedroom (and the camera) after argueing with Wendy about Danny's injuries. The Shining (1980) R Horror Drama Director: Stanley Kubrick Release Date: June 13, 1980 Cast: Danny Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, Jack Nicholson, Scatman Crothers Writers: Diane Johnson, Stanley Kubrick Rating: R Runtime: 146 minutes Cinematographer: John Alcott Producer: Stanley Kubrick Production Company: Spiked with sexual innuendo, this conversation holds several clues to the truth behind the relationship between Danny, his father and the imagery of the bear, with many suggesting that the animal is symbolic of Jacks predatory control over his family and sexual abuse of his son. The novel decided to show all the images at the beginning, while Kubrick decided to use the conventional step by step process to create suspense. He was creating a parallel between Jack Torrance and the main character of Kubricks earlier film Lolita. In this interview, Stephen King supports the notion that the Overlook Hotel could represent hell. The Overlook or the hedge structure. it is impossible not to mention the documentary Room 237. When Shelley Duvall witnesses the bear giving oral sex to another man, she is confronting the true horror and cruelty of her husbands actions toward her son, animating in front of her eyes as a disturbing vision. Sound familiar? The layout of the hotel seeming to fluctuate throughout the film is also used as evidence toward this interpretation. But there was always one particular scene in the movie that left me with an unsettling feeling: the bear man scene. This scene has been interpreted many ways, and one of the most popular explanations is that it represents the hotel absorbing Jacks soul. The Shining movie's brief moment of intimacy between the man in the bear costume and his partner has a different context behind it in King's book. Last update on 2023-02-28 / Source: Amazon Affiliates. Here, Im going by the theory that the Jack in the second half was typed into existence by the real Jack Torrance. I've watched the movie somewhere between 5-10 times over the years and still haven't been able to figure out the meaning of this scene. Ager suggests that Danny's experience in Room 237 was his way of externalizing his abuse and that it was his father who assaulted him instead. Jack comes back and lies to Wendy about finding anyone there and leaves enraged when she asks him to get Danny out of here, blaming her for f*cking up his life. A stone labyrinth in the case of the minotaur and a snowy hedge maze in the case of The Shining. Another connection is that both of these bear motifs are featured in relation to beds or bedrooms. Those who believe The Shining moon landing theory point to Danny's wardrobe. Like The Shining's Overlook Hotel, the Stanley Hotel also has a haunted history, even possessing a particularly haunted room (number 217) just like the Overlook's room 237. 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