STEPHEN KING’S
THE SHINING (1997)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: Part 1 (90:40), Part 2 (90:31), Part 3 (91:00)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Mick Garris
Cast: Steven Weber, Rebecca De Mornay, Courtland Mead, Pat Hingle, Elliott Gould, John Durbin, Stanley Anderson, Cynthia Garris, Lisa Thornhill, Miguel Ferrer, Michael O'Neill, Jan Van Sickle
Stephen King has never been too tight-lipped about his disapproval for Stanley Kubrick's "adaptation" of his novel The Shining, which wholesale dismissed large swaths of the book, it was a much emotionally colder film, and he especially disliked how Jack Nicholson's portrayal of recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance was insane from frame one. So in the 90's when King was enjoying a string of prestige TV mini-series adaptations he tapped his go-to adaptor Mick Garris (The Stand, Sleepwalkers) to helm a book-accurate adaptation of The Shining, with King himself scripting the teleplay. I can imagine the pressure for Garris stepping into the directing role, following in the behemoth footprint of a legend like Stanley Kubrick, ouch. Ditto that for TV actor Steven Weber (TV's Wings) who stepped into the role of Jack Torrance, just four days prior to filming after numerous other actors refused to attempt the challenge of filling Jack Nicholson;s shoes.
For the record Kubrick's film is one of my absolute favorite films, and while it is not book accurate it is a chilling and masterful film with a terrific cast. I saw it when I was about 10, and I didn't read the book for probably another decade, and I remember noting the differences, but it didn't affect my deep love for Kubrick's film.
Interestingly the location for this TV mini-series version is
the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, the actual hotel that inspired King to write the novel. It's here that recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Steven Weber, Single White Female) accepts a position as winter caretaker for the hotel from the hotel's manager Stuart Ullman (Elliot Gould, Night Visitor). Her drives his wife Wendy (Rebecca De Mornay, Mother's Day) and their young son Danny (Courtland Mead, Hellraiser: Bloodline) to move into the sprawling, vacant Overlook Hotel to get away from it all, with Jack attempting to write a play.
They are given a tour of the hotel by caretaker Pete Watson (Pat Hingle, Batman), and later the cook Dick Hallorann (Melvin Van Peebles, director of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song), the later of whom instantly recognizes that Danny has a psychic ability that allows him to tune into the ghost world and see visions of the future, an ability he shares to a lesser degree, which he calls "The Shining". He warns the boy of the ghostly inhabitants of the hotel and tells him that if he finds himself in a a situation to give a psychic shout to him and he'll be on his way. As the family settle in the sober father begins having eerie encounters at the hotel which influence his increasingly irate demeanor, before going full-blown nuts and attempting to murder his family with a croquet mallet to appease the hotel's eerie inhabitants.
I had not re-watched this since it aired on ABC TV back in 1997, and I wanted to like this more this time around than I remembered, hoping I had taken more of a Shining to it, but alas, just like when I first watched it I found it too long, too clunky and apale shadow of Kubrick's iconic fright flick - sorry Stephen King. At 4.5 hours long it just takes too long to get a proper head of steam going for me, and the slavish literal adaptation just screams vanity project to appease Stephen King. But hey, it's King, who was gonna tell him no when he was at the height of his pop-culture powers.
That's not to say I hated this adaptation, it's just a bit long in the tooth for the story it's telling, and like many novels, a straight adaptation does not necessarily translate into a gripping film, or mini-series. Hats off to Weber for taking on the role, he has a bit of passing resemblance to Nicholson, the upturned slightly menacing smile for sure, and he gives it a good go but at times it comes of as mimicry, others it's a bit too over-the-top in the moment. Watching it now I certainly thought less about him being "that guy from Wings", which helps. DeMornay as the put-upon wife Wendy is solid, she's sweet, supportive, but also defensive when it comes to her son and his safety, she's not the helpless screamer that Shelley Duvall was relegated to from Kubrick's version. Young Danny as played by Courtland Mead is decent if annoying, he's not quite Bob from Fulci's House by the Cemetery but it's close at times, a super saccharine sweet, milquetoast sort of kid whose acting is often pancake flat.
Also, evil animated topiary and death by croquet mallet is never gonna usurp the iconic hedge maze and the axe wielding madman from Kubrick's adaptation, never gonna happen my friends. I didn't want to shit on this, I thought I would re-watch this after 27 years and say it's aged well and is better than I remember, but nope, it's a Stephen King vanity adaptation of his own material that is a pale shadow or Kubrick's superior adaptation at best. Sorry King, Kubrick stamped The Shining with his indelible mark, it's iconic, the TV adaptation not so much. It doesn't matter which is more faithful to the source, it's who adapted it better for the visual medium, and it's no contest. Interestingly though, Mike Flanagan did a pretty masterful job melding the source material and Kubrick's version with Doctor Sleep, but that's another review.
Like I said, I don't want to shit all over this though, there are things I do like about it, there's just nothing I prefer over what Kubrock did. For a made-for-TV flick it looks pretty solid, the set design, location and ghoulish make-up effects are fine, and there's some nice camera movement throughout, it's handsome production. I do think that King and Garris succeed in putting across good gut recovering alcoholic dad possessed by malevolent hotel much better than Kubrick's adaptation, though overall I am still very much team Kubrick on this one. Also, I like the look of the ghoulish Lady in Room 247, and how Jack is obsessed with combing through newspaper clippings he finds down in the hotel basement about the hotel and the murder and mayhem that occurred there, of which we get flashbacks to, these were cool.
Audio/Video: The Shining (1997) gets a 2-disc Blu-ray release from Scream Factory, presented inthe original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 fullscreen in 1080p HD, sourced from a new 2K scan of the interpositive, looking spiffier than ever, but inherently soft. Audio comes by way of uncompressed English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The track is clean and well-balanced, don't expect a ton of stereo panning audio effects, but it does the job, and the score by Nicholas Pike (Sleepwalkers) fares well.
No new extras, nothing new but we do get the previously available Audio Commentary By Author Stephen King, Director Mick Garris, Cast Members Steven Weber And Cynthia Garris, And Select Crew, plus 11 Additional Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary that were cut from the mini-series, these are mostly character driven stuff, but also some goppy face-melting scenes from the finale that are cool to have here. There's also a TV Promo for the series, that I recall watching when they first aired and being pretty excited for. The 2-disc Blu-ray releases comes housed in a standard dual-hub keepcase featuring the same artwork as the previous DVD release.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K Scan From The Interpositive
- Audio Commentary By Author Stephen King, Director Mick Garris, Cast Members Steven Weber And Cynthia Garris, And Select Crewhttps://mcbastardsmausoleum.blogspot.com/2024/03/rick-and-morty-season-7-2023-wbdhe-blu.html
- 11 Additional Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary by Director Mick Garris (16:53)
- Audio Commentary By Author Stephen King, Director Mick Garris, Cast Members Steven Weber And Cynthia Garris, And Select Crewhttps://mcbastardsmausoleum.blogspot.com/2024/03/rick-and-morty-season-7-2023-wbdhe-blu.html
- 11 Additional Scenes with Optional Audio Commentary by Director Mick Garris (16:53)
- TV Promo (1:27)
Screenshots from the Scream Factory Blu-ray:
