The Shining (BFI Film Classics) Paperback – January 1, 2013

I've read just about everything I could get my hands on about Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and this brief volume from BFI Film Classics has been one of the best.When The Shining was released in the summer of 1980, I went to see it eleven times before heading back for my senior year of high school. There was just something mysterious and hypnotic about it and I felt that if I saw it enough times, it would come to me.(I don't mind admitting this since I've seen Room 237, the very bizarre "documentary" of wild conspiracies surrounding the film by people who's watched it literally hundreds of times, so much so that they're seeing all kinds of crazy things in it!).But this book is a level-headed and very enjoyable look at a strange, frustrating and resilient horror film that endures to this day.I'm sure I'll be getting more of the BFI Film Classics series. I've read others that looked at Blade Runner, Eyes Wide Shut and The Exorcist and enjoyed them immensely.

Mr. Luckhurst has written an incisive, thought-provoking and incredibly illuminating examination of Kubrick's "The Shining," a movie that is notoriously opaque, frustrating and confusing, even for Kubrick fans. Luckhurst brilliantly and clearly analyzes the film in terms of psychology, mythology and horror film history, and he even sheds light on the evolution of the script and the reasons behind many of the film's confounding mysteries. The BFI Film Classics series has published many fascinating volumes, but Luckhurst's analysis of "The Shining" is one of the series' more indispensable offerings. Highly recommended.

The Shining, and I speak of the movie, not the novel or this little BFI book, is . . . strange. Isn’t it? What is happening there, up on the screen? Ok, the little kid has some psychic power and can communicate with others without opening his mouth. That’s cool. And Jack Nicholson is playing, it seems, himself, just more so. The wife is the screaming damsel, the target for the crackpot.Yes, yes, all that is going on. But what of the story, if we can call it that? People appearing in the bar when Nicholson enters, the inferential conversations with those people, Nicholson’s rather monotonous book that he is writing, what’s going on?The movie begs for repeat viewing (or a single viewing and never again, depending on one’s disposition) and it would be a wise move to read this BFI book by Roger Luckhurst before the next time you do so. Luckhurst does a wonderful job of looking at the movie in various contexts that allows us to appreciate it more: the horror genre as it evolved up through the ‘70s, Stephen King’s original source material, Stanley Kubrick’s body of work, before providing us with a more focused analysis of the pivotal scenes in the movie itself.Despite going into some depth, the book is an easy read for a not-so-easy movie. Shine on!

Word for word it is now one of my favorite meditations on _The Shining_.Roger Luckhurst grounds his book well in the history of criticism of the film, and then launches forward with some unsettled (and unsettling) questions and observations of his own. With fresh metaphors, and free from the academic jargon, meandering, and stalled-out digressions that sometimes thickly crusts over film criticism, Luckhurst is a clean axe cutting to the heart of mystery amid these mountains.

This book offers a workable analysis of Stanley Kubrick's film "The Shining" and its place in the horror-film genre. Overall, the analysis did not seem to include much that was novel or surprising, but the book did provide a good introduction to the film's themes and the issues that have been debated by critics. The best discussion in the book was probably the section entitled "Room 237," which offered some intriguing insights. I also appreciated the discussion of the film music, a topic that is often given short shrift in analyses of this type.Mr. Luckhurst also seems attuned to the subtleties of the characters' facial expressions, and meanings to be derived from them, in a film where Jack Nicholson's expressions, at least, are not always so subtle. (Steven Spielberg once accused him of giving a "Kabuki performance" in the Shining.)This BFI book is printed on glossy paper and while short, provides quite a few high-quality stills from the film. It includes notes, a list of film credits, and a bibliography.

Nothing new here to discover and relies too much on psychological mumbo jumbo. So much more to mine that is ignored in studying this classic film.

Interesting

A great insight on the film and filmmaker

The is the best essay I have ever read on The Shining, skilfully situating it in the history of modern literature and cinema. Full of useful insights.

Fascinating insight to the film and makes you rethink the novel too.

Good short read for person interested in movies. Highly recommended