By Eamon McGillicuddy
Stanley Kubrick
What is an Auteur?
Background on Kubrick
Auteur Theory
Kubrick as an Auteur
The Shining
Many of Stanley Kubrick's films didnt get great receptions when they Premiered and one of the
films was the Shining.
The Shining is a horror classic today but back when it
premiered it was criticized to no end. The film had been
criticized for Nicholson's over the top acting and a lot of
people just didnt really understand it. Today The film is
considered a masterpiece of horror and Kubrick's intentions
behind the film and what he's trying to say through the
movie. Many have had different theories of what the film
means and what Kubrick was trying to say. Some said that
Kubrick was trying to tell the public about how he directed
the moon landing and the US had never landed on the
moon. There are many theories about the intention of the
film and a lot of them are explained in the documentary
Room 237.
The Shining
The Shining
Jack Torrance's body is found at the end of the film in the maze, he
froze to death. The film then ends with a shot of the picture with Jack
Torrance in it and in the picture you can clearly see the picture was
taken in 1921. So the point of the ending is very unclear.
There are theories of what the ending means and one of the theories
are that after Jack had died he was sucked into the overlook hotel
and became one of the spirits in the hotel, He had become part of
the history of the hotel.
Another theory is that Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson's character) was
a reincarnation of the old caretaker Delbert Grady who Jack meets
the spirit of in the film as a bathroom attendant. Grady had killed his
family in the hotel when he was the caretaker and through out the
film his spirit tries to get jack to do the same thing to his family.
There is no clear explanation and there probably never will be
because the point of these endings in Kubrick's films is for the
audience to decide.
Conclusion