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25 Things You Might Not Know About The Shining

1. DIRECTOR STANLEY KUBRICK HAD AN INTEREST IN

HORROR WELL BEFORE HE MADE THE SHINING . Kubrick is known for

his forays into different genres—and

horror was a genre that piqued his interest. In the early '70s, he was in

consideration to direct The Exorcist . But he ended up not getting the

job because he only wanted to direct the film if he could also produce

it. Kubrick later told a friend that he wanted “to make the world’sscariest movie, involving a series of episodes that would play upon the

nightmare fears of the audience.”

2. THE FILM WAS INSPIRED BY AN EPISODE OF OMNIBUS .

In 1952, Kubrick worked as the second unit director on one episode of

the television seriesOmnibus. But it was a different episode, aboutpoker players getting into a fight, that inspired parts of The Shining.

According to Kubrick, “You think the point of the story is that his death

was inevitable because a paranoid poker player would ultimately get

involved in a fatal gunfight. But, in the end, you find out that the man

he accused was actually cheating him. I think The Shining uses asimilar kind of psychological misdirection to forestall the realization

that the supernatural events are actually happening.”

3. KUBRICK DIDN'T EVEN READ A SCREENPLAY THAT STEPHEN KING

WROTE...


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According to one of Kubrick’s biographers, David Hughes, King wrote

an entire draft of a screenplay for The Shining. Kubrick didn’t even

deem it worth a glance, which makes sense as he once called King’swriting “weak.” Instead, Kubrick worked with Diane Johnson on the

screenplay because he was a fan of her book, The Shadow Knows. The

two ended up spending eleven weeks working on the script.

4. ...BUT KUBRICK STILL HAD QUESTIONS FOR KING... This is a

legendary story that King apparently still tells at some book readings.

Stanley Kubrick called him at seven in the morning to ask, “I think

stories of the supernatural are fundamentally optimistic, don’t you? If

there are ghosts then that means we survive death.” When King

responded with the question of how hell fit into that picture, Kubrick

simply responded, “I don’t believe in hell.”

5. ...THEN KING DIDN’T EVEN LIKE THE MOVIE.

King told Playboy in 1983, “I’d admired Kubrick for a long time and

had great expectations for the project, but I was deeply disappointed

in the end result. Parts of the film are chilling, charged with a

relentlessly claustrophobic terror, but others fell flat.”

He didn’t like the casting of Jack Nicholson either, claiming, “Jack

Nicholson, though a fine actor, was all wrong for the part. His last bigrole had been in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , and between that

and the manic grin, the audience automatically identified him as a

loony from the first scene. But the book is about Jack Torrance’s

gradual descent into madness through the malign influence of the

Overlook—if the guy is nuts to begin with, then the entire tragedy of


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his downfall is wasted.”

6. HE HIRED HIS FAMILY.

The executive producer of the film was Kubrick’s brother-in- law, Jan

Harlan. Christiane Kubrick and Vivian Kubrick, his wife and daughter

respectively, helped with both the design and the music—though

Vivian might be more well-known for the on-set documentary that she

made titled, The Making Of The Shining. The 30-minute film, which

aired on the BBC, was a very rare look into Kubrick’s directing styles.

You can watch it above.

7. KUBRICK WASN’T THERE FOR LOCATION SHOOTS.

Kubrick hated to fly and refused to leave England towards the end of

his life—so he was not in attendance when the opening credits of The

Shining were shot. A second unit crew headed to Glacier National Park

in Montana where they filmed from a helicopter.

8. ROOM 217 WAS SWITCHED TO ROOM 237 AT THE REQUEST OF THE

TIMBERLINE LODGE.

In the book, the spooky events are set in Room 217, not Room 237.

The Timberline Lodge, which was used as the hotel’s exterior for someshots, is to blame for this swap. The Lodge’s management asked for the

room number to be changed so that guests wouldn’t avoid Room 217.

There is no Room 237 in the hotel, so that number was chosen. The

website of The Timberline Lodge notes, “Curiously and somewhat

ironically, room #217 is requested more often than any other room at

Timberline.”


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of (Starsky & Hutch’s) David Soul.” Perhaps Kubrick was throwing in

some extra foreshadowing. Regardless, no normal hotel leaves copies

of Playgirl lying around, so the magazine serves as an immediate redflag in the film.

12. DAN LLOYD, WHO PLAYED DANNY IN THE FILM, HAS ONLY BEEN

IN THIS FILM.

The Shining seemed to introduce a promising child star in Dan Lloyd.

He ended up having a role in a TV film two years later, but that was the

extent of his acting career. “We kept trying for several years ... until Iwas in high school and I stopped at about 14 with almost no

success,"he told the New York Daily News.

13. YOUNG DAN LLOYD DIDN’T KNOW HE WAS FILMING A HORROR

MOVIE.

To protect Dan, who was 5 when he made the film, Kubrick told him

that they were filming a drama. He didn’t even see the actual film until

he was 16. He said later, “I just personally don’t find it scary because I

saw it behind the scenes. I know it might be kind of ironic, but I like

funny films and documentaries.”

14. JACK NICHOLSON IMPROVISED THE LINE, “HEEEERE’S JOHNNY.”

Jack Nicholson is responsible for the only line from The Shining to

make it onto AFI’s Top 100 Movie Quotes. While filming the scene in

which Jack breaks down a bathroom door with an axe, Nicholson

shouted out the famous Ed McMahon line from The Tonight Show

Starring Johnny Carson. The catch phrase worked and stayed in the

film. Some behind-the- scenes footage, which can be seen here, shows


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Nicholson’s method acting before filming the iconic scene.

15. JACK NICHOLSON WROTE A SCENE.

In addition to improvising one of the most famous lines of the film,Nicholson actually wrote an entire scene. He felt a particularly deep

understanding of Jack Torrance's berating of his wife while he’s trying

to write.

In an interview with the New York Times, Nicholson explained, “That’s

what I was like when I got my divorce. I was under the pressure of

being a family man with a daughter and one day I accepted a job to act

in a movie in the daytime and I was writing a movie at night and I’m

back in my little corner and my beloved wife Sandra, walked in on

what was unbeknownst to her, this maniac—and I told Stanley about it

and we wrote it into the scene.”

16. SHELLEY DUVALL AND STANLEY KUBRICK DID NOT GET ALONG.

Though he had a good relationship with Nicholson, Kubrick wasnotoriously brutal on Shelley Duvall during filming. In her words,

“From May until October I was really in and out of ill health because

the stress of the role was so great. Stanley pushed me and prodded me

further than I’ve ever been pushed before. It’s the most difficult role

I’ve ever had to play.” The scene in which Wendy is swinging a bat at

Jack is an example of this pushing. The scene actually made it into TheGuinness Book of Records because it took 127 takes, the most for a

scene with spoken dialogue.

17. SLIM PICKENS WAS OFFERED THE ROLE OF DICK HALLORANN.

Pickens had already worked with Kubrick before. He played Major T. J.

King Kong in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and


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Love the Bomb. Regardless, he was a particularly strange pick for the

role of Dick Hallorann because the character is black in the book.

Pickens chose to not work with Kubrick again, as he did not like thestrenuous Dr. Strangelove shoots. The role then went to Scatman

Crothers. 18. THE OVERLOOK HOTEL DOESN’T MAKE SENSE SPATIALLY.

Observant Shining fan Rob Ager noticed that there are many aspects to

the set of The Overlook Hotel that make no sense. For example,

Ullman’s office has a window to outside, but there are rooms

surrounding the office, making that window impossible. This is thecase for many of the windows in the film —they don’t work in context.

There is also a hallway in the Colorado Lounge that essentially appears

out of nowhere. Ager created a video in which he maps out the

nonsensical visuals.

The executive producer of The Shining, Jan Harlan, has stated that thiswas intentional. “The interiors don’t make sense," he said in 2012.

"Those huge corridors and ballrooms couldn’t fit inside. In fact,

nothing makes sense.”

19. MUCH OF THE SET BURNED DOWN.

Toward the end of shooting, a fire broke out and destroyed multiplesets. According to the set still photographer, “It was a huge fire in there

one night, massive fire, we never really discovered what caused that

fire and it burned down two soundstages and threatened a third at

Elstree Studios. It was an eleven alarm fire call, it was huge.” The

rebuild of one of these soundstages cost an estimated $2.5 million.


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evidence of anything at all out of the ordinary.” He also encourages

Wendy and Danny to stay with him for a while. The film ends with text

over black, “The Overlook Hotel would survive this tragedy, as it had somany others. It is still open each year from May 20th to September

20th. It is closed for the winter.”

Roger Ebert deemed the cut a good decision. According to him,

“Kubrick was wise to remove that epilogue ... it pulled one rug too

many out from under the story.”

23. IT WAS KUBRICK’S NEXT FILM AFTER HIS WORST- RECEIVED

FILM,BARRY LYNDON .

Things weren’t looking good for Kubrick after Barry Lyndon was

released in 1975. Film reviewer Tim Robey notes, “It was not the

commercial success Warner Bros had been hoping for.” The film cost

$11 million to make and earned $9.5 million in the United States,

though it did have a good life in foreign box offices. According to

Hughes, the film would have had to earn $30 million to be profitable.

The Shining did a lot better financially. The film cost $19 million to

make and it went on to earn $47 million in the United States. It was

one the top ten highest-grossing films of 1980.

24. IT HAS INSPIRED MANY CONSPIRACY THEORIES.

So many film theorists have their own takes on The Shining that these

conspiracies star in their own film: the documentary Room 237 . Onetheory is that Kubrick helped to fake the moon landing and The

Shining is his confession. Another claims that the film is truly about the

genocide of Native Americans. Yet another theory reads the film as a

story about the Holocaust and concentration camps.

Leon Vitali, Kubrick’s personal assistant during filming, has since

denied these theories. Hesays of the documentary, “I was falling about


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laughing most of the time. There are ideas espoused in the movie that

I know to be total balderdash.”

25. ITS MOST FAMOUS FAN SITE IS RUN BYTOY STORY 3

DIRECTOR,LEE UNKRICH.

Unkrich runs The Overlook Hotel, which contains tons of pictures and

behind-the-scenes information about the film. “I started the site purely

for selfish reasons," he said. "I’ve been collecting stuff from The

Shining over the years, and I just wanted to have one place where they

could be organized.” Unkrich was also one of the people who helped

fund the Room 237 documentary.

But, undeniably the most fun part about Unkrich’s Shining obsession is

finding the hidden references in Toy Story 3. Sid’s carpet is very similar

to a carpet in the Overlook Hotel. A garbage truck’s license plate reads

“RM237.” And Trixie chats online with a dinosaur toy down the street

who happens to have the screen name “Velocistar237.”

What happened to Jack in the end of the movie?

One of the most puzzling questions in The Shining has always been;

what happened to Jack at the end of the movie?

In Stephen King’s novel he dies in a boiler explosion inside The

Overlook, but nothing that simple happens here. In another

undeniable Kubrickian reversal of the source novel at the end of the

movie we see him frozen solid outside of The Overlook. But what may

have been also included in the first directors cut, and later removed, is

that his body couldn’t be found by the police. This is very important.

His body just disappears and to answer the question we should look at

something else first; was Jack ever in the hotel before?


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What would lead us to believe Jack’s been to The Overlook before as

he definitely wasn’t there before in Stephen King’s novel? Early on he

says this to Wendy, “It was as though I had been here before” but thisstatement doesn’t really prove anything. Grady’s famous line, “I'm

sorry to differ with you, sir, but you are the caretaker. You have always

been the caretaker, I should know, sir. I've always been here” cannot

be used as proof that Jack’s returned because his visions of Grady are a

product of his own imagination, combined with his growing madness

coupled with his ability to “Shine”. If The Overlook is speaking to him

through Grady it can’t be believed because as Danny states in Stephen

King’s novel, “The house always lies”.

Then we see it! Jack appears standing in The Overlook in the last

picture of the movie dated July 4th 1921. Ask anybody who’s seen

"The Shining" if Jack Torrance has ever been there before and they will

all use this picture as the one irrefutable example of it.


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“Of course he was, I’ve seen a picture of him with a date under it from1921, I’m absolutely sure of it, it has to be; Are you f’ing crazy?” The

audience has been masterfully manipulated, this is just too easy. On

the surface the picture is just to easy to interpret and as I’ll show you

Stanley Kubrick’s put specific suggestions in our heads throughout the

movie; Jack has never been in the hotel before, hasn’t returned, and

isn’t Grady reincarnated. No matter how hard you say, “I believe, Ibelieve” it just isn’t so; we’ve been manipulated by a master.

Any serious discussion of this film must address what happens in the

last scene and can’t be considered complete without it. We’ve seen

throughout the movie that whenever someone “Shines” something

moves, changes color or disappears whether inside or outside of The

Overlook. Just about all of the props in the last shot except the ceiling


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and floor have changed, and this alters everything because the

question has to be; Who did it now? The cast members have all gone.

But you must ask yourself; am I the one seeing the vision this timewith the song "Midnight, The Stars and You" playing in my ears?

The chairs are now covered maybe indicating that “The Caretaker” is

gone and there are more no invisible entities sitting around on them.

The Gold Room sign moves across the floor from left to right but hasn’t

changed with the same 2 artist’s pictures on it (indicating to me that

we’re still in the present time frame and not in the past, or in somerecurring BS sci-fi time warp).

The 2 mirrors on the sides of the 21 pictures are gone, replaced by

Indian artwork, and the red couch, another place to sit, has now

disappeared.

Lastly, don't forget there’s the most important alteration in the whole

movie (maybe of any movie ever), the 21 pictures on the wall. They’re

entirely different from what was in this spot when we’ve seen it several

other times throughout the movie and the most puzzling image of all

time dead center, “Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball 1921”, just wasn’t there

before this last shot of the movie. No one ever noticed this. How could

all the pictures be different?

Anyone who doesn’t realize by now that all the cast members in this

movie have a very special ability may be hopelessly thick. They can see

visions, speak together telepathically, change the colors of possessions

and surroundings, and they can move objects without touching them.


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This is what the movie is about and it’s obvious someone used this

special power and “Shined” that picture onto the wall at the end of the

movie, but everyone in the story with the power is either dead or has

left the building; Do you know who did it this time?

Stanley Kubrick has added yet another brilliant twist to this movie

(maybe the greatest hidden twist in movie history); In the end as the

camera zooms in on the center picture we, the audience, are the only

ones there in the lobby, and we become an integral part of the movie. Jack was never in The Overlook in 1921 but we, never realizing that it’s

us doing it, “Shine” him to the spot on the wall where we believe he

was and belongs; back into the Overlook’s past. In the end he doesn’t

exist anymore. Nothing more, nothing less. We’ve turned him into just

a picture on a wall. Now he’s where he belongs, in the Overlook, frozen

for all time, “for ever and ever and ever”. Throughout this entire moviewe’ve been guided by the art of Stanley Kubrick’s simple suggestions

and are unshakenly positive in our belief that Jack Torrance was in a

past life, Grady, The Overlook’s caretaker. In the end, again, we’re

seeing a reflection of what we thought was real. Anyone who

erroneously tries to explain why this picture, the most enigmatic prop

in movie history, isn’t there for 99% of the movie as a movie mistake or

continuity error is insulting Mr. Kubrick’s intelligence, and just doesn’t

get this movie. This must have a valid and plausible explanation. No

one would go through the trouble of finding an authentic picture from

1921, as stated in his interview with Michel Ciment, and then forget to

hang it up till the end of the movie. Come on, get real. Jack was never


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there before, but he sure is now, “for ever and ever and ever”; and you

did it.

There’s a classic episode of “The Twilight Zone” from 1961 that reminds

me of all this, and I bet Stephen King or Stanley Kubrick must have

seen it. In “It's a Good Life”, Billy Mumy plays a child who has a special

power that will look very familiar if you ever get to watch it. He’s totally

evil and is able to transform people he doesn’t like into inanimate

objects at will. If you ever get to see this episode you’ll know why the

picture isn’t there for most of the movie and what power transformed

the 21 pictures on the wall in the end. It will also become very clear

who did it.

But it’s so obvious; Jack’s been reincarnated. Everyone believes he’s

been in The Overlook before. This is the enormous power held in this

one enigmatic image. The image of Jack standing there is almost like a

religious icon. There’s a weird kind of faith people have in it, that it’s

telling us he’s been in The Overlook before. It's unshakable. The

audience must be aware of the visual inconsistencies contained in that

picture though. They can’t be explained away or ignored, and I believe

they prove that he’s never been there before.

Unfortunately Stanley Kubrick will be no help whatsoever in trying to

understand what’s going on in the end of “The Shining”. Look carefully

at what Stanley Kubrick said about this scene in his interview with

Michel Ciment. He could have told Michel exactly what the ballroom

picture means, but instead he cleverly says this; “The ballroom

photograph at the very end suggests the reincarnation of Jack”. What


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an interesting choice of words he uses as the definition of ‘suggests’ is

to cause one to think that something exists. The implication here is

obvious. He wants Michel Ciment, as well as the rest of us, to “thinkthat something exists” or else he simply wouldn’t have used that word.

Everyone is positive they have the answer to the most puzzling

question in this movie because the power of this one image, and what

it says, is unbelievable. But look closely at Jack in the final picture. The

Overlook's caretaker worked in the winter. It’s a total paradox. July 4th

is in the summer and Jack wouldn’t have been there. He isn’t the

caretaker in that picture either if you look closely he’s The Manager. It

isn’t even July 4th, as the only identifiable object seen there would

obviously make us think of a New Year’s Eve party. Unless you're

someone who uses New Years Party favors in the summer. And what

happened to all the other caretakers that had to have worked in

between and before Jack and Grady?

It can be just as powerful in a movie but we see this in life all the time;

the amazing power of a single image.

Stanley Kubrick purposely created a cinematic enigma that he knew

viewers would be trying to understand for a very long time. In a

beautifully simple way he made it as hard as possible to figure out

because the more you look, the more you notice. And the more you

notice, well.... No one can argue this fact though; he released a work

that looked exactly the way he wanted it to. It was planned out ahead

of time and what we see on the screen was placed there purposely. It is

what it is. What we see can’t be changed and has to be the foundation

of any attempted explanation.


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If you just want to enjoy “The Shining” on a basic level what I’ve shown

here won’t matter to you, but if your desire is to delve into a deeper

understand of this work you’ll need to look very carefully at thispicture. I stated before I don’t believe Jack’s ever been in The Overlook

before. It’s the reverse of what everyone else believes but everything

needed to prove my seemingly outrageous statement is there in the

picture. It must be looked at and any examination of the last shot in

“The Shining” that doesn’t acknowledge or attempt to explain these

three obvious facts is intentionally incomplete.

The first problem as I stated before is the definition of reincarnation;

the rebirth of a soul in a [new] body. Jack is still in the same body and

this can’t be changed; by the very definition he hasn’t been

reincarnated. Second, there’s one glaring problem with the July 4th

picture that hardly anyone has ever realized, yet can’t be ignored. If

Jack is the reincarnated caretaker from the Overlook’s past, or for thatmatter if he has ever been there in a previous life, than the picture had

to have been taken in The Overlook. It may say “Overlook Hotel July

4th Ball 1921” but the party depicted in the picture quite simply isn’t

in any room of The Overlook.

We’ve seen all the big rooms in the hotel and there's absolutely no

indication of another one either in the movie or the novel. This is no

mistake. It’s such a brilliant yet simple deception. Stanley Kubrick

makes us believe the photo was taken in The Overlook by what’s

written on it. Anything can be written on a picture but it doesn’t make

it true. Kubrick aficionados can jump up and down, throw tantrums,

spit blood, or spin their heads like Regan from the Exorcist, but it will


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not change a thing. The place depicted in the picture is just not The

Overlook. Stanley Kubrick planned it this way and this picture simply

cannot be used as proof that Jack has ever been in The Overlook beforein this or any other lifetime because it’s obvious, the picture has been

taken somewhere else. The “somewhere else” Stanley Kubrick may

have had in mind might be an interesting thing to ponder though.

Again we must return to what I showed you before. The third and most

important thing about this picture that I bet you never noticed until

now is; it’s not there on the wall at any other time in the movie. Themost enigmatic prop in movie history just appears on the wall in the

last shot? I believe someone “Shined” it up there. After all “Shining” is

what this story is about, not reincarnation and there’s not a shred of

evidence that any supernatural power other than “Shining” is going on

here. Something else happened to Jack Torrance at the end of this

story. We still see him in the same body; it’s not reincarnation as thedefinition of the word is very precise. Jack's never been in The

Overlook before and the final picture wasn’t there earlier in the movie

because, in the story’s time line, what it depicts simply hasn’t

happened yet. It’s our vision of Jack’s future that Stanley Kubrick made

to look like the past, and it happens at the very end of the story when

all the cast members with this power are gone. He’s been frozen againa second time, for the rest of time. “Shined” onto a wall in a hotel

where he will be “for ever, and ever, and ever”.

Look at all the major reversals Stanley Kubrick made to Stephen King’s

story. In the novel Jack burns to death, The Overlook is destroyed and


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no one remains there. In the movie The Overlook is not destroyed, Jack

is frozen and remains there on the wall forever. It’s obvious, but old

perceptions die- hard and again a knee-jerk explanation for all this isthat the picture has mistakes in it. But Stanley Kubrick doesn’t make

“mistakes” like this without a reason and anyone who thinks he does

should be prepared to prove how they know this for a fact. “The

Shining” was released looking exactly the way he wanted it to. We’re

looking at a brilliant deception. Everyone thinks they see people

attending a party back in 1921. The picture looks like the past but we

don’t even know for certain whether it’s past, present, or future; or

what it actually depicts. The question that’s never asked is “who are the

people in the picture?” Maybe it’s a get together of previous “Shiners”

who visited The Overlook in the past. If you look closely all the sofas do

disappear as the movie progresses – no place for their Doppelgangers

to sit. When you read the next section of my blog you’ll understand

why I believe the picture is not only there in the end but might actually

depict a different type of end; a future gathering in hell. Whether you

like his character or not Jack took a major wrong turn in life.

I mentioned before Stanley Kubrick’s obvious manipulation of time

codes in this movie. If you look closely the shot where Jack gulps down

his first drink is exactly 66 minutes and 6 seconds into the movie.Could this have just happened by chance? It’s undeniable the time

code is exact to the second from when the story starts after the :11-

second Warner Brothers logo is finished. If you don’t believe me “go

check it out” for yourself.


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In the last picture if Jack has become, as I believe, The Manager or the

Master of Ceremonies in hell the people with him may very well be

other “Shiners” who, like Jack, have passed through life and taken asimilar wrong turn. It’s not The

Overlook in the picture though, that’s not where they’re gathered. The

picture may have ended up on The Overlook’s wall but they are

definitely somewhere else.

You may still feel Jack’s been in the hotel before but think about this.There’s something in the dialog that proves Jack in the present day

Overlook could not be a reincarnation of Charles Grady who killed his

family and himself. Listening to the bathroom conversation between

the two Charles Grady and Delbert Grady appear to be, on the surface,

the same person, but they actually aren’t. Stanley Kubrick gave them

two different names for a reason; they’re two different entities. One is avision and the other is a real person. There should be no confusion

about this; Delbert Grady is a vision inside Jack’s head that looks

exactly like the real Overlook caretaker, Charles Grady. We know this

positively from the dialog Stanley Kubrick put in the movie. Jack says

this as he speaks to him in the bathroom, “Mr. Grady. You were the

caretaker here. I recognize ya. I saw your picture in the newspapers.”

There’s something here that movie viewers who have never read the

book are not aware of. When Jack says, “I saw your picture in the

newspapers” he’s referring to the unexplained scrapbook that we see

open on his desk throughout the movie. The scrapbook plays a big part

in the novel as it’s in the basement and used by “the manager” to lure

Jack. It contains articles about the hotel and Jack eventually decides to


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use it to work on a different project about The Overlook’s past. When

he says, “I saw your picture in the newspapers” he already knows what

Charles Grady looks like. You don’t know what Grady looks like, but Jack does. Delbert Grady, “the ghost”, and Charles Grady, “the

caretaker”, look exactly the same and Jack knows this for sure. He’s

imagining talking to the same Charles Grady that he’s seen in the

newspaper clippings who killed his family and himself in 1970. But

there’s a major problem here; there can’t be any reincarnation of these

two people because of what we know from the interview with Mr.

Ullmann. We know when the two little girls were killed. Jack and

Charles Grady, when he worked at the hotel, are both alive at the same

time in 1970. The party is all a vision we’re seeing from Jack’s

imagination. Grady may say this line “You are the caretaker, you have

always been the caretaker” indicating all the caretakers are the same

entity; Jack. But he and Charles Grady were obviously both alive at thesame time and this can’t be debated or changed no matter what your

opinion is. You can’t be a reincarnation of someone who is alive at the

same time you are.

This perplexing picture is the final vision in a movie that’s full of

visions. It’s by someone who has the exact same ability to “Shine” and

see visions as The Overlook’s previous guests, the Torrences and Dick

Hallorann who we know in the end are all either dead or like Elvis have

"left the building”. The hotel is now empty except for us, the audience.

Just think of how brilliantly this was put across in Stanley Kubrick’s

script by Dick Hallorann, the only expert on “Shining” we know of; “But

there are other folks, though mostly they don't know it, or don't


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believe it”. That may be you he's talking about, think about it; you are

the other folks that don't know it, or don't believe it. What an

unbelievable twist! The power of this one image. The unbelief ofrealizing that it might not be what it seems. It turns out in the end

Stanley Kubrick has taken Stephen King’s story about a little boy who

possesses the power to “Shine” and in the end reverses that power by

giving it to the audience. Now, in this last perplexing shot as John

Lennon sang in the song that inspired the novel.... “We all ‘Shine’ on”!


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Dialectics

From Apocalypse Now, "Do you know what the man is saying? Do you?

This is dialectics. It's very simple dialectics. One through nine, no

maybes, no supposes, no fractions -- you can't travel in space, you can't

go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, with fractions --

what are you going to land on, one quarter, three-eighths -- what are

you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something -- that's

dialectic physics, OK? Dialectic logic is there's only love and hate, you

either love somebody or you hate them."

In this movie it has to do with truth. Dialectic logic is there's only truth

and lies, you either believe somebody or you don't believe them."

The Gollywog

In the novel The Overlook uses racism to scare Dick Hallorann. In the

movie Stanley Kubrick hides the racism very well. If Grady is a figment

of Jack's imagination, then it's Jack and not the "ghosts" inside the

Overlook where the racism now lies. Someone else on another website

noticed this and it doesn't belong in this movie;

I would never know what this toy was as I'd never heard of or seen

aGollywog before. But you have to believe that Stanley Kubrick addedthis little touch in Danny's toys to indicate that one of his parents

might be a racist, as they were the ones that probably gave it to him. It

might have something to do with Dick Hallorann's death but I don't

believe it because Stanley Kubrick is a perfectionist and the Gollywog

isn't even close to the spot where he is killed. The rabit on the tryke is

but not the Gollywog. You'll have to be the judge but it is an


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interesting little visual tidbit that's been added to the film. Hidden

very subtly just like everything else I've discussed.

The Visions Seen In "The Shining"

My list of visions in "The Shining" are at the bottom of this page.

A vision is similar to a hallucination or an illusion, and a ghost is an

actual presence that becomes manifest to the living. It’s very

interesting that Stanley Kubrick doesn’t use either word, ghost or

vision, when he has Dick Hallorann explain “Shining”, and what he

might be seeing inside the hotel, to Danny. “Well, you know Doc, when

something happens it can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like if

someone burns toast. Well, maybe things that happened leave other

kind of traces behind. Not things that anyone can notice, but things

that people who 'shine' can see.”

He’s talking about Danny’s ability to “see” past events that have

happened inside The Overlook, and he doesn’t say a word about

ghosts or that The Overlook is haunted. He’s describing visions to

Danny here not ghosts, and he would have indicated so if he was. In

Stephen King’s novel he doesn’t know about “ghosts” either. The

spirits are aroused because Danny is in the hotel and they want hispower. In Stanley Kubrick's Overlook it’s Jack that arouses the "ghosts"

after he opens the scrapbook we see sitting on his desk throughout the

film. Jack is the only cast member that knows what The Overlook's

previous guests all look like; Dick Hallorann doesn't!


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In the movie Dick Hallorann doesn’t mention The Overlook being

haunted, or that there are ghosts there, because he’s never perceived

any of this himself and if he did know of these things he would havetold Danny so (exactly like he explained his ability to “Shine”). What

the Torrances’ are perceiving in The Overlook only happens after Jack

arrives. To a screen audience a vision or a ghost would both appear the

same. But

if you look closely at the script Stanley Kubrick puts proof that

characters can project these visions into each others minds. It appearsthat both Danny and Dick Hallorann experience the exact same vision

of Jack entering room 237. Danny is in his room and Dick Hallorann is

several thousand miles away yet they see the exact same thing. If it

happens once it can happen many other times like when Jack kills Dick

Hallorann, Danny sees it and screams while hiding inside the cabinet

on the other side of the hotel.

The visions that characters in the movie experience are interesting and

important to look at and I’ve listed each of them. Jack is at the

Overlook during every vision that Danny Dick or Wendy have, and we

know from the dialogue the exact spot where he has the opportunity to

peer into the Overlook’s scrapbook (5:26 into the movie, “I’d like you

to take him around the place soon as we’re through ... ”). Visions begin

appearing to the characters right after that. Stanley Kubrick tells us in

the dialogue that these visions aren't real, “Remember what Mr.

Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn't real.”, and

Dick Hallorann knows exactly what he’s talking about. In the movie the

Torrance's see 21 separate visions. After Jack has the opportunity to


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open the scrapbook he knows exactly what all of The Overlook’s most

notorious guests look like. The ones that didn’t make it onto the hotel’s

walls, the ones that aren’t, “all the best people” that Mr. Ullman speaksabout during their tour. The exact same guests that appear in their

visions. If The Overlook was haunted Mr. Ullman would have been

proud of it and told Jack that fact during the interview, after all he did

tell him about the murders.

Stanley Kubrick got an idea for using certain colors from Stephen

King’s novel where Dick Hallorann smelled oranges when he “Shined”.Being that smell can not yet be adequately brought across to a theater

audience Stanley Kubrick made the brilliant decision to use the two

pigments a painter mixes together to make the color orange, then use

those as a visual device to indicate “Shining”. Here’s my list of the

visions and I've indicated where the color red, yellow, or the color

produced if you mix them together (orange) is present in each. Dannysees 9 visions (the audience only sees 8 of them) and they are in dark

red. Jack sees 8 visions and they are in dark violet. Wendy sees 4

visions and they are in dark green. With the final vision seen only by

the audience. Danny sees the bloody elevators, the women in room

237, and “Redrum” all twice, and he sees the Grady twins four times.

Lloyd and Grady both talk to Jack twice. And Wendy’s visions appear toher only once each.

Jack arrives at the hotel and is taken on his first tour by Bill Watson

where he has an opportunity to look into the scrapbook.

1) :11 Danny has a vision of the bloody elevators (3X) and the Grady

twins for the first time (1X). The elevator doors and the blood are red.


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2) :21 Danny has a vision of the Grady girls in the playroom (2X).

Danny is throwing red darts.

3) :39 Jack’s vision of the Hedge Maze Map. Jack is throwing the

yellow ball and both Wendy and Danny are wearing red.

4) :42 Danny has a vision of the Grady girls again as he looks at the

door of room 237. Red shirt and red trike wheels (changed from white

in the beginning of the film).

5) :46 Jack has a vision of Danny and Wendy playing in the snow.

Wendy’s red coat and Danny’s red boots.

6) :49 Danny has a vision of the Grady twins in the hallway (6X) all

hacked up (4X). Danny is wearing a red sweater.

X) :58 Danny is strangled by his father but has a vision of beingstrangled by a woman (This is the only vision that Stanley Kubrick

doesn't let the audience see). A red room key is in the door of room

237.

7) 1:04 Jack has a vision of Lloyd for the first time. Both Lloyd and Jack

are wearing red.

The middle of the film where Jack becomes totally possessed by evil (If

you look closely at the time code, the shot where we hear Jack gulp

down his first drink is exactly 66 minutes and 6 seconds into the

movie).


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8) 1:11 Dick Hallorann and Danny have the same vision of Jack

walking into room 237. Dick Hallorann's room is orange and he has a

large red picture behind his head. Danny is wearing red.

9) 1:11 Jack has a vision of the women in room 237. Jack is wearing

red.

10) 1:19 Danny in his bedroom overhearing his parent’s conversation

he has a vision of “Redrum” printed in red (1X), and the Bloody

elevators (1X). Danny and Jack are both wearing red.

11) 1:21 Jack’s vision of the party balloons. The other set of red

elevators are seen.

12) 1:22 Jack’s second vision of Lloyd at the party. Both Lloyd and Jack

again are wearing red.

13) 1:24 Jack’s vision of Grady at the party (he only talks to Lloyd and

Grady at the party). Grady spills yellow advacot on Jack and they have a

conversation in a red bathroom.

14) 1:45 As Wendy swings the bat Danny has a vision of the Bloody

elevators (2X) and “Redrum” (1X). “Redrum” is written in red on a

yellow door.

15) 1:54 Jack has an audio hallucination and imagines talking to

Grady in the storeroom. Jack is wearing red and is surrounded by red

Calumet cans and red Golden Rey boxes; all of which mysteriously

move between shots without being touched.


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The final chase after Wendy looks into another important book on

Jack's desk, "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy", and she

begins to see visions for the first time in the film.

16) 2:08 After Jack swings the ax Danny has a vision the death of Dick

Hallorann with red blood in an orange lobby".

17) 2:09 Wendy has a vision of the 2 gentlemen in the room.

Dogman’s face is yellow.

18) 2:12 Wendy has a vision of the old man who says, “Great party isn’t

it” (2X) and has red blood on his head.

19) 2:13 Wendy has a vision of the New Years Eve Party

“skeletons” (4X). Wendy passes the red couch that disappears in the

last shot of the movie. The three mirrors in the shot also disappear.

20) 2:14 Wendy has a vision of the bloody elevators (2X). The hallway

and elevators are both red.

Jack is dead and everyone is gone. One last vision is seen by the

audience who also have the ability to "Shine" and see visions that are

like, "pictures in a book".

21) 2:20 The July 4th photo appears on The Overlook’s wall for the first

time in the final vision of the film (other photos are in it's place when

ever else we see that spot). The conspicuous red couch under the

pictures and the mirrors have also disappeared.


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Does Delbert Grady ever tell the truth in the story?

It’s amazing how in “The Shining” Stanly Kubrick is able to manipulate

the audience into believing that lies are the truth and that the truth is a

lie. And this may be what the final picture in the movie is actually all

about. Why do we believe what we believe? What I’m going to show

you now has flown right over the heads of most viewers. It’s quite

incredible when you think about it though. As you viewed “The

Shining” have you ever thought about what Delbert Grady’s character

is actually saying? Is he telling the truth? Of course he is everyoneknows that Jack’s been in The Overlook before because Delbert Grady

says so; no one ever asks this question about his truthfulness because

we’ve been manipulated. Grady is an honest God fearing “ghost”. He

may have had some problems with his family in the past but he

“corrected” them. He even tries to convince Jack to kill his family but if

you put all these shortcomings aside he has stellar credibility. As far as“ghosts” go he’s the top of the heap; honest and true. But it never

dawns on us that something is tremendously wrong here. Dick

Hallorann never lies in the movie and what he says is not believed yet

Grady has no credibility at all and what he says is believed

wholeheartedly. If you actually thought about it what seems right is

where the truth ends up being; in the movie Grady lies abouteverything and Dick Hallorann never lies – it’s so obvious. But when

you finally realize this it’s gonna’ make your head spin because it will

change everything about how you perceive this movie.

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Look closely at the conversation Jack has with Delbert Grady as there is

evidence in the dialogue that everything he says to Jack is a lie. And

remember that I believe that Jack is talking to his imaginary friend (hisversion of Danny's friend Tony) as he looks into the mirrors, not a

“ghost”:

Grady: Grady, sir. Delbert Grady.... That's right, sir.

Jack: Delbert Grady?

At first this seems to be just one more of those enigmatic things that

Stanley Kubrick placed in “The Shining”. Just a perplexing mystery withno real answer. But he doesn’t tell Jack his real name; it’s a lie as we

know from the dialogue where Mr. Ullman tells us that his real name is

Charles Grady, not Delbert Grady. In the novel there is no Delbert

Grady, just Charles Grady. The name Delbert Grady is a lie.

Jack: Ah, Mr. Grady... haven't I seen you somewhere before? Grady:Why no, sir. I don't believe so.

This is another lie as in the dialogue Jack tells us later on that he's

seen his picture in the scrapbook we see opened on his desk and

Grady would definitely know about the scrapbook.

Jack: Eh... Mr. Grady... weren't you once the caretaker here? Grady:

Why no, sir. I don't believe so.

Another lie as Charles Grady (as we know from the dialogue where Mr.

Ullman tells us) was the caretaker of The Overlook in 1970.

Jack: You’re a married man, are you, Mr. Grady?

Grady: Yes, sir. I have a wife and eh two daughters, sir. Jack: And, ah...

where are they now?


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Grady: Oh, they're somewhere around. I'm not quite sure at the

moment, sir.

Another lie as Mr. Ullman tells us in the dialogue that Grady actuallydid hack them to death.

Jack: Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here. I recognize you. I saw

your picture in the newspapers. You ah... chopped your wife and

daughters up into little bits, and ah... and you blew your brains out.

Grady: That's strange, sir. I don't have any recollection of that at all.

Another lie as Mr. Ullman tells us that all this actually happened. We

also now know that the "ghost" Jack is imagining looks exactly the

same as the real Charles Grady.

Jack: Mr. Grady, you were the caretaker here.

Grady: I'm sorry to differ with you, sir, but you are the caretaker. You

have always been the caretaker, I should know, sir. I've always been

here.

Another lie because if Delbert Grady had, “always been” in The

Overlook his face would be in the picture at the July 4th ball in 1921

along with Jack at the end of the movie. They were both “caretakers”

and he must be in that picture and must (like Jack) look exactly the

same.

Grady: Did you know, Mr. Torrance, that your son... is attempting to

bring an outside party into this situation? Did you know that?

Another lie as it’s Jack with his ability to “Shine” who alerts Dick

Hallorann that something is wrong at The Overlook. If you find this

hard to believe remember that Dick Hallorann knows something is


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wrong only when Jack walks into room 237 and not when Danny is

strangled, which happened earlier. This is very important; as Jack

meets the old woman he is “Shining” that image of room 237 into DickHallorann’s head. Danny never telepathically calls Dick Hallorann

when he's attacked, in fact there is no place in the dialogue or on the

screen that proves that he ever calls on him at all.

Grady: Your son has a very great talent. I don't think you are aware how

great it is, but he is attempting to use that very talent against your will.

This is an obvious lie as Danny never does anything except ride around

The Overlook, play with his toys, watch cartoons, and escape from his

crazy ax wielding father. Stanley Kubrick hides this extremely well but

we hardly ever see Danny use his special ability in the movie. If you

find this hard to believe, think about this. At the end of the movie as

he's running for his life Danny uses his wits rather than his "very greattalent" to outsmart his father.

It’s an amazing example of manipulation we’re witnessing here and it

has obvious parallels in human society. Because of the way the

characters are presented the natural instinct after viewing “The

Shining” is to believe all the things that the putative “ghost” Delbert

Grady says and to ignore what the totally truthful Dick Hallorann says.It’s really unbelievable when you stop and think about it. Dick

Hallorann never lies yet people don’t believe the obvious explanations

he gives us about whether the “ghosts”in the hotel are real or not,

“Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book,

Danny. It "isn't real” yet everyone believes that Jack has been in The

Overlook before because Delbert Grady says, “You have always been


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the caretaker, I should know, sir. I've always been here.” This ends up

being a study in mass manipulation on the highest level and has

everything to do with the final picture in the movie which is also notwhat it appears. Ask yourself this question; why do you believe what

you believe? he

Does Dick Hallorann Ever Lie in the story?

If you truly want to understand Stanley Kubrick’s “Shining” you have to

be able to decipher whether what the characters are telling you is thetruth or a lie.

One thing I never expected when writing this blog was that anyone

would question the truthfulness of Dick Hallorann’s dialogue. For me

it’s part of the explanation of this enigmatic movie and the meanings

that Stanley Kubrick concealed in the script (like the pictures taken

from the movie and the alterations he made to Stephen King’s novel)

can’t be changed. Viewers will attempt to interpret things in their own

ways but the words Stanley Kubrick placed in his finished film can't be

altered. They are what they are. It’s like when Stanley Kubrick added

this easy to miss statement in the dialogue as Dick Hallorann's

explanation of why he returns to The Overlook, “Ullman phoned me

last night, and I'm supposed to go up there and find out if they have tobe replaced.” It’s not a mistake to take his explanation along with the

other things Dick Hallorann says in the film as the truth. I believe the

statement for two reasons. 1) Because of the quality of the person who

says it and 2) because there is a very good chance that it is actually

what happened as it’s the only explanation Stanley Kubrick gives us in

the dialogue of why Dick Hallorann returns to The Overlook. Whether


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people like it or not; his boss ordered him back to The Overlook. It's all

about character, and Dick Hallorann has character. He's the hero of this

story.

In the novel Dick Hallorann lies several times about why he's going

back to The Overlook. He tells variations of his story about his son

being shot to the park rangers, to his boss, to the cop that pulls him

over, and to Larry Durkin at the garage. They all ask him flat out the

same question but he doesn't tell

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them the real reason for his return. He doesn't tell any of them that

Danny uses the "Shine" to call him in Florida. But in the film Stanley

Kubrick cleverly alters all this, his "Shining" is different from Stephen

King's. If you can find any spot in the dialogue of this film where

Danny calls on anyone for help please go back to my main blog and

post it. You may feel in your bones that Danny is calling for help in the

room 237 scene but he isn't. He doesn't call or ask for help when he's

being strangled, at the end of the film when he's being chased by his

father with an ax or at any other point in the story. This simply never

happens in the film. In his movie Stanley Kubrick cleverly reverses

what's happening and Dick Hallorann now only gives one reason for

his return and it's either true or false.

There's nowhere in the movie where Dick Hallorann lies, cheats,

dumbs down, exaggerates, misleads or tells any falsehood to anyone

at all. Any attempt at un-explaining this explicit statement that he

makes to his friend Larry Durkin about why he’s returning to The


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Overlook and who sends him there is pure speculation and a

fabrication from the mind of someone that has another agenda,

someone who doesn’t want his statement to be true. But what StanleyKubrick has him say is very explicit and we don’t have enough

information to make a wild guess that contradicts what Dick Hallorann

plainly states. In the end, as in life, we either believe what he says

because of the type of person he is or we don’t. There's no other

information to go by in the film. But what’s even more important is; his

statement is either true or it isn’t as Stanley Kubrick gives us no other

explanation in the movie as to why he returns to the hotel. If it’s true,

the implications of the sentence on how we view this movie are

immense. His statement totally changes everything about what's

actually going on under the surface of this movie because the phones

are out and the only way his boss could know something is wrong at

the hotel is if he sees the exact same vision of Jack walking into room

237 as Dick and Danny see. There is no other way he could know and

the only information we’re given

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from Stanley Kubrick about this is contained in that sentence. This is

what totally frustrates so many of my readers who have a certain

agenda. If you don't want to believe the obvious, that Stanley Kubrick

gives the "Shine" to other characters in his film than you'll fight this

sentence of Dick Hallorann's vehemently. But you can't change it.

It’s obvious that this question must be answered. In the film does Dick

Hallorann have any proclivity for lying? Some may think he was he

lying to his friend like he did in the novel. He didn’t want to let Larry in


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on the exact reason for his return to The Overlook. Maybe he was afraid

to tell anyone else about his supernatural ability to “Shine” and see

visions. Maybe he was afraid to tell Larry about the vision he saw of Jack in room 237 because his friend would think he was completely

crazy. But these are all just guesses because Stanley Kubrick only gives

us one bit of information about this and it's different from the novel,

“Ullman phoned me last night”, and that’s it.

A lot of what I’ve written about “The Shining” is only valid if Dick

Hallorann is telling the truth as he’s the only character that knowsanything about the “Shine”. We really need to know if he’s truthful or

not if we ever want to truly understand this film. I was alerted to a spot

in the movie where he appears, on the surface, to tell a lie so I

investigated a little and ended up discovering one of the most

important things about this movie that no one has ever realized. Just

who and what can you believe.

Dick Hallorann: Well I think we can manage that too, Doc. Come along

now. Watch your step.

Wendy: Mr. Hallorann, how’d you know we call’em 'Doc'? Dick

Hallorann: Beg pardon?

Wendy: Doc. You called Danny 'Doc' twice just now. Dick Hallorann: Idid?

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Wendy: Yeah. We call him Doc sometimes, you know, like in the Bugs

Bunny cartoons. But how did you know that?


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We’ve been watching the movie from the start and we never actually

see him hear Wendy call Danny “Doc”.

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But I thought about it for a while and it dawned on me; how on earth

can anyone after watching the first few minutes of this movie know

that he’s lying from that statement alone? We know Dick has the ability

to “Shine” but when he uses his special gift this early in the story we

don’t know yet how it actually works. And they do call him “Doc” all thetime. When he "Shines" does Dick read Wendy’s mind or did it actually

happen the way he said, “I guess I probably heard you call him that.” It

has to be one or the other. If he’s able to read her mind than he’s lying

but if he actually heard her call him “Doc” then he’s not. And if he

actually heard her call him “Doc” then not telling her about his ability

to “Shine” is not a lie of omission either as he answered her questionsimply yet truthfully. There was no implication in her question as to

whether or not he possesses a supernatural ability, or which of his

many supernatural abilities he might be using on that particular day.

For these characters “Shining” is an unusual gift but I can’t think of

anywhere in the movie where one of them uses it to read someone’s

mind. It doesn’t mean it’s not there I just can’t think of any. It doesn’t

matter anyway, it’s undeniable that there are several times in the film

where people use it to hear conversations that are happening

elsewhere. At 1:45 into the movie Danny, sitting in their apartment, is

able to use his ability and listen to his parents conversation before

Wendy clobbers jack with the bat. When Jack, inside the hotel, has his

vision of Danny and Wendy walking in the center of The Hedge Maze


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at 00:39 he not only sees it but he’s also able to hear what they’re

saying outside the hotel.

Stanly Kubrick gives us plenty of evidence that people who possess the

“Shine” can hear conversations that occur out of earshot so what Dick

Hallorann tells Wendy is the truth. Dick did hear her call Danny, “Doc”

before they met and Stanley Kubrick cleverly puts this into the

dialogue so there’s absolutely no confusion as to when Dick hears her

use the

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nickname “Doc”. She says, “I honestly don't remember calling him that

since we've been with you”. His perfectionism is unbelievable as

Stanley Kubrick has all the bases covered. Wendy obviously knows she

said it earlier in the hotel before they all met.

We know Dick Hallorann can hear conversations out of earshot but do

we know for sure if he’s able to know the nickname "Doc" by reading

Wendy’s mind? Well, rigorous logic won’t work here but it seems that

Stanley Kubrick has also addressed this problem for us, and the answer

is again in the dialog he wrote. This simple line is so easy to pass up as

being unimportant. Jack says, “Mr. Hallorann, I'm Jack, and this is mywife, Winifred.” In the movie (and novel) it's her real name and Jack

never uses the nickname Wendy inside The Overlook before they meet

Dick. Not only do we never actually hear the name but Stanley Kubrick

shows us that example of how she's introduced and there’s no

evidence that Jack doesn’t introduce her to everyone they meet in

exactly the same way. Jack says, "Hey Babe" when he calls her up after


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the interview, and even Mr. Ullman never calls her Wendy as we always

hear him call her Mrs. Torrance. The nickname Wendy is simply never

heard in The Overlook until later. Knowing all this helps to explain thisseemingly meaningless fluff sentence Stanley Kubrick added to the

dialogue, “Mrs. Torrance, your husband introduced you as Winifred.

Now are you a Winnie or a Freddie? - I'm a Wendy.” It’s obvious that

Dick Hallorann doesn’t know her nickname is Wendy and there’s only

one reason for this; when he “Shined” he simply never heard anyone

call her Wendy in the hotel. He doesn’t read her mind at all. There

should be no confusion here; Stanley Kubrick alerts us to this by

bringing up the two nicknames, Doc and Wendy and Dick heard only

one, not the other; he knows Danny's nickname and doesn't know

Winifred's. "Now what kind of ice cream do you like Doc? - Chocolate. -

Chocolate it shall be." It's so obvious, he doesn't

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read Danny's mind or he would have known the answer to that

question.

The dialogue is clear. We’re talking about Stanley Kubrick, a director

who's inhumanly precise and in his movie (unlike in real life) Dick

Hallorann never lies to anyone. Not Danny, not Wendy, not the forest

rangers and definitely not his friend Larry Durkin. In asking for the

Sno-cat he doesn't have to make up any story at all for Larry as to why

he’s going up to The Overlook in a snowstorm. Not mentioning “The

Shine” to Larry means nothing; it’s not a lie. Larry's question was,

“What’s the big deal about getting up there today” and he answers


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truthfully. Larry didn’t ask about what supernatural ability Mr. Ullman

possesses.

He doesn’t lie to his friend and anyone that believes he does, is

entertaining pure un-provable speculation as any proclivity for lying

cannot be found in him in this story. He's the same as Olivia de

Havilland's character in "Gone With The Wind". The purest soul in

movies. Someone that doesn't exist in real life. But in film we find

people like this. The only person who lies in the film is Jack. Anyone

who puts forth another explanation as to why Dick Hallorann would lieby saying that his boss ordered him back to The Overlook (such as

nonsense like we never actually see him get Mr. Ullman's phone call or

he's confused or was scared to tell Larry that he “Shines”) are wrong.

These are just wild unsubstantiated guesses by people who have other

agendas to uphold. Like I said before, if you find a place where he lies

or exaggerates post it on my blog otherwise he doesn’t and I believehim at his word. We have a movie about people who possess a

supernatural ability enabling them to communicate with each other

over great distances. I can't imagine how anyone cannot see that in

“The Shining’s” reality another of Dick Hallorann’s lines"there are other

folks" is true and Mr. Ullman is included in that very small crowd (5

main characters) inhabiting this film's reality. It appears that Mr.Ullman knows something is very wrong at

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The Overlook. Something that could only be known if he uses the exact

same supernatural ability that enables Dick Hallorann to know the

exact same thing. There's no violation of the movie's reality in what I


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believe. Mr. Ullman "Shines" and sees the exact same vision of Jack in

room 237 with the old woman as Dick and that’s how he knows what’s

happening in “The Overlook”. Don't forget the phones are all out. Theimplications of this in the film are far reaching yet the dialogue Stanly

Kubrick wrote is precise and cannot be altered - it's part of the

explanation of this movie. It’s hard not to take Dick Hallorann’s

statements as gospel truth when you can’t point to a single lie that he

ever tells! “Ullman phoned me last night.” If he isn't lying then he's

telling the truth. If you have concrete notions and all this rocks your

perception of this movie, well that’s just to bad because you can’t

change it and you'll have to live with it, even though you might never

fully get it. But why doesn't Mr. Ullman, if he can "Shine", just talk

telepathically with Dick Hallorann rather than phoning him? Again

from the pen of the director who is ready for that question, "But there

are other folks though mostly they don’t know it, or believe it. That's

Mr. Ullman. The answers are all in the dialogue, Stanley Kubrick left

nothing out.

“Larry, just between you and me, we've got a very serious problem

with the people who are taking care of the place. They've turned out to

be completely unreliable assholes. Ullman phoned me last night, and

I'm supposed to go up there and find out if they have to be replaced.”Dick tells us exactly why he’s going back to the hotel and it isn't

because Danny called - which he never does.

“But, there are other folks though mostly they don’t know it, or believe

it”. Dick tells us that others have the same ability that he has, and some

don't know it.


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“No, I'm scared of nothing here. It's just that you know some places are

like people, some shine and some don't. I guess you could say the

Overlook Hotel here has something about it that's like shining.” He

isn't scared because he's lived there and knows of nothing (especially

in room 237) that can hurt Danny. If he did he would have told him so.

“You're scared of Room 237, ain'tcha?”

“No I ain't.”

“Mr. Hallorann, what is in Room 237?”

“Nothing. there ain't nothing in Room 237.” He never lies to anyone;

there is absolutely nothing that he knows of in room 237.

"Not things that anyone can notice, but things that people who shine

can see. Just like they can see things that haven't happened yet. Well,

sometimes they can see things that happened a long time ago.”All of

the Torrances see the same spook show because they all possess the

same "Shine". They also have the ability to see the future and the past.

“Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book,

Danny. It isn't real.” The visions they're seeing in The Overlook aren’t

real. Not one vision in particular, not every other vision, not just visionson Saturday or Thursday, but every vision they see.

“Well I guess I probably heard you call him that.” They can hear

conversations that occur well out of earshot.


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“The Overlook Hotel here has somethin' about it that's like

'shining'.""Somethin' about it that's like 'Shining' again isn't the same

thing as "Shining" - it's different. The Overlook doesn't "Shine".

Dick Hallorann is the only character in the "The Shining" that knows

anything about the special supernatural power that they

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possess. These statements are all from a board certified expert on thesubject. A person who never lies or exaggerates, and in the framework

of this movie's reality; I believe everything he says - his dialogue is not

only the explanation of the "Shine", in it is the explanation of the

entire movie itself.

Is there an explanation of the July 4th 1921 picture?

.

.

The one question everyone who views “The Shining” wants to know is

what does the black and white photo at the end of Stanley Kubrick’s

film mean?

The answer to the question of what the final July 4th, 1921 photo

represents is found in the novel. There’s only one important black and

white photo in Stephen King’s novel. It’s Jesus and you can read the

excerpt from his novel if you click here.

What he did to Stephen King’s novel is quite remarkable and has to be

understood. In the film Stanley Kubrick is showing us the reverse of


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the novel as if it were being viewed in a mirror. It's exactly like the

word, "Redrum". He was so bold in what he did that it starts in the very

first shot of the film and no one ever noticed. The most obvious clue isin the colors he chose to use. Jack has an old red VW in the novel and it

becomes a new yellow VW in the film. In the novel they’re saved in a

yellow snowmobile and in the film it becomes a red Sno-cat. Danny

plays with his red ball in the novel and it becomes Jack’s yellow ball in

the film. The colors being reversed is only the beginning of an

incredible hidden alteration of the source novel.Stanley Kubrick chose

to create a mirror image of Stephen King’s novel and he altered

Stephen King’s black and white photo of Jesus exactly the same way.

In the film we’re

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viewing the opposite of Jesus. In the July 4th, 1921 photo StanleyKubrick has Jack posed as the devil (click here).

The photo is a purposeful paradox; a true visual enigma on the screen

and audiences have been wondering about it for a very long time.

Without looking at Stephen King’s source novel it’s an enigma with no

possible correct explanation, and when you first view “The Shining”

you'll leave with the impression that Jack Torrance has been in The

Overlook before. But this assumption is way to simple and it’s also

quite wrong. The July 4th photo is the most perplexing image in the

history of cinema and everything we’re looking at in it is the opposite

of what’s true. Not only is it the mirror image of the photo in the novel

but several things about it must be pointed out and addressed before

you realize the true extent of what’s been done here. The key line that


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Stanley Kubrick took from Stephen King’s novel about the photo is this,

“It was a big fake...”.

Click on each line for a more detailed explanation.

1) Stanley Kubrick has it say “Overlook Hotel” but the photo obviously

is somewhere else. It’s not The Overlook Hotel.

2) The picture is not a July 4th party like it says. It’s a New Years Eve

party.

3) The final photo simply doesn’t exist until after Jack’s death. Stanley

Kubrick has it magically appearing, “Shined”, on the wall only in the

last shot of the movie. It’s not there at any other time in the movie.

4) Jack Torrance is not the caretaker in the picture, he’s the manager.

5) Jack doesn’t belong in that picture.

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6) Delbert Grady must also be there with Jack in the final photo; but he

isn't.

7) Jack Torrance is not a reincarnation of the person in the photo.

8) The party in the 1921 picture can't possibly have anything to do with

the party Jack imagines in the Gold Room.


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9) Jack and Charles Grady were obviously both alive at the same time

in 1970. You can’t be the reincarnation of someone who is alive at the

same time you are.

10) Where are all the other caretakers?

11) Stanley Kubrick has Jack singing a special song from the year 1921

just before he dies.

12) Who are the people in the photo with Jack?

13) The photo is a vision.

Stanley Kubrick took Stephen King’s quote and has truly created, “a big

fake...” in that final July 4th photo. Jack isn’t the caretaker and

shouldn’t be there, and what’s printed on the photo is totally wrong; it

isn’t The Overlook we’re looking at, it isn’t July 4th, it isn’t 1921 and Jack isn't the caretaker. The entire photo was produced as a fake and

we know this from Stanley Kubrick’s interview with Michel Ciment.

Jack Nicholson's face was airbrushed onto someone else’s body. To

quote Danny's imaginary friend Tony again, “it's like pictures in a book

“, "it isn't real".

The July 4 photo is exactly the same as the most famous fake photo in

history. Lee Harvey Oswald with his face purported to be airbrushed in

by the CIA. When someone's face is airbrushed onto another body

there’s only one way to describe

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the photo; it's an obvious fake and this is what Stanley Kubrick did.

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Examples of how meticulous Stanley Kubrick was in altering the

novel.


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Here’s a closer look at how meticulous Stanley Kubrick is as he inverts

the entire scene with Danny and the pediatrician. It’s from chapter 17

“The Doctor’s Office” in Stephen King’s novel and it’s easy to spot howeven the smallest details are reversed.

• 1st off, in the novel Danny blacks out in their bathroom in The

Overlook, Stanley Kubrick reverses this and now it’s the bathroom at

their apartment in Boulder before they get to The Overlook.

• Tony tells Danny to lock himself in the bathroom. In the movie hedoesn’t.

• Danny’s pediatrician has a name, Doctor Bill Edmonds where in the

movie this is reversed and we have an unnamed female Doctor.

• The three have to go down to Sidewinder to see Doctor Edmonds in

his office. In the movie this is reversed and the Doctor makes a housecall.

• Danny is “Stripped to his underpants, lying on the examination

table”. In the movie Danny wears his “Bugs Bunny, what’s up Doc”

sweatshirt.

• Doctor Edmonds gives Danny a thorough examination with an EEG

and TB test. In the movie the Doctor does the reverse and just asks him

a few simple questions.

• Doctor Edmonds seems to know something about “Shining” as he

asks Danny if he smelled, "a funny smell, maybe like oranges”. In the

movie the Doctor seems to know nothing about “Shining”.


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• Danny tells Doctor Edmonds all about Tony. In the movie this is

reversed and he will not talk about Tony to the Doctor.

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• Danny “Shines” and reads Doctor Edmonds’ mind. In the movie this

doesn’t happen.

• Danny even tells Doctor Edmonds about “Redrum”. In the movie this

is reversed and he doesn’t tell the Doctor or anyone else about“Redrum”.

• Jack discuss Danny with Doctor Edmonds. In the movie only Wendy

does.

• Jack tells Doctor Edmonds the story about how Danny, “spilled some

beer on a bunch of papers I was working on”. In the movie it’s Wendywho tells the Doctor that Danny, “had scattered some of his school

papers all over the room”.

• Jack, “broke his arm turning him around to spank him”. In the movie

he doesn't break his arm he, “dislocated his shoulder”.

• When they talk to Doctor Edmonds they both realize that Danny isable to read their minds as they never discussed “divorce” in front of

him. In the movie this never happens and neither Wendy nor Jack has

the faintest clue about his ability.


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• Doctor Edmonds points out to Wendy and Jack why Danny’s

imaginary friend is named Tony (his middle name). In the movie the

Doctor doesn’t do this.

• Wendy knows that Danny has “second sight” and he demonstrates it

to Doctor Edmonds. In the movie we have a total inversion as Wendy

doesn’t know much and Danny doesn’t demonstrate anything to

anyone.

• Doctor Edmonds says this, "Does the phrase 'the shining' meananything to you?" In the movie the Doctor doesn't say anything about

it as only Dick Hallorann knows about or utters that word.

• In the novel Jack tells Doctor Edmonds that he hasn’t had a drink in 3

months. In the movie Wendy tells the Doctor that Jack hasn’t had a

drink in 5 months.

What did Stanly Kubrick do to Stephen King's novel.

..........“A film is not a book.” - Roger Vadim

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What important visual message was Stanley Kubrick telling us in this

shot filmed in the same mirror that Wendy later sees "Redrum" in?

The fictitious town of Stovington, Vermont is mentioned in 4 of

Stephen King’s novels, and it’s the only direct visual link in the movie

to his novel. What’s printed on Jack’s t-shirt is meaningless to

moviegoers but it’s a well-known name in Stephen King circles. What’s

interesting is that for some strange reason Stanly Kubrick shows it to


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us backwards, “NOTGNIVOTS”. It’s reversed because we’re looking at it

in a mirror. The inverted word is a metaphor because as I will show you

we’re viewing Stephen King’s entire novel the same way, in a mirror;Stanley Kubrick’s special mirror, his version of “The Shining” where

everything may turn out to be the opposite of what you think.

I can’t think of any other movie where reading the source novel was so

enlightening. You cannot have a through understanding of Stanley

Kubrick’s “Shining” without looking at what he did to Stephen King’s

story. Viewers have often wondered why so much was changed fromthe novel but just exactly what did he do to alter the story? After

reading it myself I discovered something else that’s been cleverly

hidden in the same fashion as the numbers I spoke about in the last

section. Something Stephen King has never said anything about even

though he must have noticed right away. Stanley Kubrick, being one of

the most intense perfectionists in modern cinema, didn’t justrandomly alter things from the novel as many viewers think. He’s

inverted them. It’s like looking at the image of Jack in the mirror, the

image we see is the reverse of what’s real. I realized this with the colors

of the two main vehicles in the story, and that's just the beginning.

Stanley Kubrick meant for these color changes from the novel to be

obvious and noticed and they’re a crucial part of the explanation ofwhat’s

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happening in this movie. In the novel it’s not that easy to find the color

of their VW as it is only mentioned once but just look at the VW in the

opening credits of the movie; you’ll never forget that color. In the


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novel they’re brought to The Overlook in a red VW and have a yellow

snowmobile at The Overlook. In the movie they’re brought to The

Overlook in a yellow VW and have a red Sno-cat at The Overlook.They're also saved in a red Sno-cat. In the movie Jack plays with his

yellow ball and in the novel Danny plays with his red ball. The colors

Stephen King uses in the novel for these major props have been

inverted by Stanley Kubrick.

He even does it with the sets. Except that they’re in the same hotel (or

are they?) Stanley Kubrick was very meticulous in changing all theplaces from the novel where the scenes in the movie occur. The

location of The Overlook has even been altered. In the novel the

Torrance’s are in Colorado. In the movie The Overlook is in Oregon as

we see early on when we’re shown The Timberline Lodge, which is

located on Mount Hood in Oregon. Don’t let the Colorado State Flags

all over the Colorado Lounge fool you. What we see in the beginningof the movie and when Dick Hallorann returns near the end is in the

state of Oregon, not Colorado. Not one major thing happens in the

movie’s Overlook in the same place it did in the novel’s Overlook

(room 237 and 217 are different in each, the VW’s are different and

change from red to yellow, Jack works in the basement in the novel

and in the movie there is no basement, there’s no Gold Room in thenovel and Jack meets Grady and Lloyd in the Colorado Lounge not The

Gold Room. In the end of the novel Wendy and Jack have their knock

down fight in the hallway not in the apartment. The final chase takes

place inside The Overlook in the novel, not outside like the movie.

Even Mr. Ullman's office was changed. In the novel Jack has his

interview in the Manager's office and the story starts there, in the


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movie Mr. Ullman has been changed to the General Manager and the

story starts in Jack's VW.). When he didn’t change the exact location,

like Larry Durkin’s Conoco or

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the pantry, he alters something else about it. He did a perfect job and

these inversions can’t be ignored. As I’ll discuss later, he’s also done

this with the plot. He’s turned the novel inside out. Stanley Kubrick has

taken Stephen King’s work and held it up to a mirror, and what we’reseeing in the movie is that reflection. A reflection where, in typical

Kubrick fashion, just enough obvious changes are puzzlingly

noticeable (The Hedge Maze and colors) and just enough is left alone

(names and places), not being so obvious as to give it all away; the

alterations are hidden exactly like the numbers he wants us to notice.

If you're interested in looking at more of the differences I've noticed

between the novel and the movie, and how closely they relate to each

other click here.

If you have preconceived ideas the reversals I’ve noted that he made to

the novel are shocking. Especially when you think of how he was able

to hide all this in plain site. But if you “go check it out” what I’ve writenis quite correct. It’s not only correct but it can’t be debated, altered or

most importantly dismissed. It is what it is. In the novel he noted that

readers would never know what “Redrum” meant without looking at

the word in a mirror and he created a movie that can’t be truly

explained without looking at it in a mirror. Red is yellow and yellow is

red, a true reversal of the source material and, as I show throughout


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this article, these reversals are crucial to understanding many of the

mysteries this movie holds.

Perfectionism without attention to detail can be a real train wreck but

when a true perfectionist works average people look on in wonder at

the world wind of intensity they create. When you think about the

scope of the reversals here, the minute details that were altered and

the time it must have taken, it’s a marvel to see and should be

appreciated by all. Stanley Kubrick’s “Shining” may truly be The Eighth

Wonder of the world of cinema. Here’s an interesting example of the

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inversions (and doubling) Stanley Kubrick made to the novel. The

Grady girls, the most famous twins in history, never appear in the

novel. This can't be ignored. Danny only meets up with the lonely

invisible spirit of one single child in the playground in Chapter 34

(page 197). “... Now, in spite of the snow-dazzle, he thought he could

see something there. Something moving. A hand. The waving hand of

some desperately unhappy child, waving hand, pleading hand,

drowning hand. (Save me O please save me. If you can't save me at

least come play with me... forever, and forever, and forever.)” In the

movie instead of one unseen child we now see two children who

repeat the line together, twice, “Come and play with us. Come and play

with us, Danny, For ever and ever, and ever.” Here’s another interesting

example of the inversions. In the novel Danny sees but doesn’t

understand what “Redrum” means and he mentions it to several

people throughout the story. In the movie this is all reversed and

Danny never sees “Redrum”. If you look closely at the movie it’s Tony


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meticulous, even the person who pulls the shower curtain in the

bathroom is reversed, in the novel it’s Danny but in the movie he never

touches it, it’s the woman who does. The movie’s dialogue is alsoinverted. In the novel Dick Hallorann says this, “People who shine can

sometimes see things that are gonna happen, and I think sometimes

they can see things that did happen. But they're just like pictures in a

book.” In the movie this line is very cleverly reversed because when

Danny, after the beating, is in his catatonic state it’s Tony who says,

“Remember what Mr. Halloran said. It's just like pictures in a book,

Danny. It isn't real.” We never hear Dick Hallorann speak this line in

The Overlook’s kitchen. In the novel the place where Danny and Dick

Hallorann have this conversation is outside of The Overlook in Dick’s

car, it's now been reversed to inside The Overlook’s

Documents

shining.pdf