The Shining (TV miniseries)

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Stephen King's The Shining

DVD cover
Format Miniseries
Created by Stephen King
Starring Steven Weber
Rebecca De Mornay
Wil Horneff
Courtland Mead
Melvin Van Peebles
Country of origin USA
No. of episodes 4
Production
Running time 65 minutes per episode / 273 minutes, total.
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run April 27, 1997 – May 1, 1997
External links
IMDb profile

The Shining is a four part television miniseries chronicling the events and actions that transpire as a family watches over a large and imposing Colorado hotel during the building's closed off season.

Adapted by director Mick Garris under the careful eye of Stephen King, the series was first aired in 1997 and starred a familiar cast of actors and actresses from across Hollywood at the time.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Plot overview

Jack Torrance has been regretting his drinking habit since it nearly destroyed his life. His alcoholism and explosive temper have led to him losing his teacher job at Stovington, a respectable preparatory school. The incident revolved around a student named George Hatfield who in revenge for being cut from a debate team slashed the wheels of Jack's car. Upon discovery Jack had attacked George and it was these dangerous outbursts that nearly led to the break up of his family when Jack injured his son Danny.

Now, nursing a life of sobriety and pulling in work as a writer, Jack and his family take on the seemingly dream job of looking after a large and rambling hotel as well as its grounds as winter caretakers. The Overlook Hotel, a large colonial building is sheltered away in a picturesque valley in the Rockies and commands impressive views of the local countryside and nearby mountains.

Hoping to succeed and move on as a writer, Jack is happy to take the job as it will provide desperately needed funds and the time to complete his first promising play.

Joining him are his wife Wendy and son Danny who also seem eager for the break from normal life and a home for the immediate future. Wendy has become strong in character due to Jack's former alcoholic mean streak, however, their child seems unsurprisingly fragile considering the emotional and physical abuse Jack unwittingly unleashed on the boy. Upon entering the Overlook and meeting its head cook, Dick Hallorann, Danny discovers that he possesses a unique power which grants him a form of telepathy. Hallorann tells Danny that he "shines", and thus this gives us the title of the story.

As the plot unfolds, it becomes increasingly apparent that the hotel's ghosts are more than figurative and far from peaceful. There is a force within the building that seems intent on using Danny for a means that remains unknown, and it goes from flickering lamps and spectral voices to a full-on masked ball from the Overlook's bloody past.

Danny is the first to fully notice the darker character of the building, having experienced visions and warnings that foreshadow what he and his parents will encounter over the long and lonely winter.

In order to achieve its goal, the hotel will happily take over the person dearest to Danny: his father.

[edit] Inspirations

The creation of this miniseries is attributed to Stephen King's dissatisfaction with the 1980 version of the story by director Stanley Kubrick.[citation needed]

The Stanley Hotel
The Stanley Hotel

Aside for the motive behind the creation of the miniseries, the 1997 rendition featured an important set piece that helped to inspire the original story: the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. King used the hotel that inspired him to write the book as the main exterior and the design of the interior sets. Scenes were also shot using the real interior, however there were specific pieces of set dressing to enhance the old fashioned feel of the building.

[edit] Differences

Adaptations are seldom 100% faithful and as such, material is either edited in or removed. As with any adaptation, The Shining had sections removed and added either for artistic license, content or time constraints. The 1997 rendition of The Shining features several major differences with the 1980 movie and even the book itself, the following is a selection of differences and notes to describe them in further detail.

  • Topiary hedges: Replaced by a hedge maze in the film, the topiary were returned to the story.
  • Horace Derwent: Completely left out of the 1980 film. (Though hinted at during a brief scene in the 1980 film, when Wendy looks into the room with the two men, one of which is wearing a dog/bear suit.)
  • Denver croquet: Replaced by an axe in the 1980 film, the miniseries returns the over-sized roque mallet to Jack Torrance's hand during the final confrontation.
  • Dick Hallorann: Unlike in the 1980 movie but in keeping with the original novel, Dick Hallorann isn't murdered by Jack.
  • Room 217: In 1980 film, room 217 was altered to 237 per request of the management of the Timberline Lodge (which served as the Overlook in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation) to avoid causing booking concerns with that specific room. In 1980 motion picture, Jack enters room 237 and sees a young, and very attractive, naked woman bathing. The woman emerges from the bathtub and begins to kiss Jack passionately. When Jack looks over her shoulder in the mirror behind her he sees that she has changed into a naked, decomposing, horribly ugly, old woman. In this version, Danny enters room 217 and sees a dead rotted woman (Cynthia Garris) in the bathtub. The woman rises out of bathtub and pursues Danny, eventually attacking him.
  • The ending/epilogue: One of the iconic scenes from the 1980 movie was the depiction of Jack Torrance (Played by Jack Nicholson) frozen to death in the hedge maze. In the original novel, Jack died in the basement of the hotel when the boiler exploded. For the miniseries, the novel ending was restored, and Jack died as the boiler exploded. However, King expanded his original ending: Instead of opening at a summer camp of the following year the story resumes ten years down the line. The epilogue sets up what has happened to the surviving characters, Danny is graduating from Stovington and Wendy has opened an art gallery. While no specifics are given to Dick's current exploits, he is still driving his mint condition cherry red 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. It is revealed here, that 'Tony' is in actual fact a teenage Danny Torrance, further emphasised by those observant enough to hear his full name as it is spoken by the teacher leading the ceremony: Daniel Anthony Torrance.
  • Different lines: When Jack sticks his head through the broken door, he says "Boo!" instead of the infamous "Heeeere's JOHNNY!" line (which Nicholson ad-libbed).

The epilogue ends on a windswept field in the Rockies, the burned and collapsed ruins of the Overlook Hotel following the fire have decayed and are now overgrown. However, a billboard stands nearby proclaiming an imminent reconstruction. As the screen fades, the ghost of the hotel hovers in the background, eagerly awaiting its rebirth as you hear a croquet ball click and a final spectral voice calls out "Good shot!"

[edit] External links