LIZKO PRODUCTIONS

I watched behind the scenes on The Shining. The Shining was the first horror movie I ever watched, and it was before I knew anything about cinematography or how to judge a movie on anything besides purely it’s entertainment value. For a really long time, I didn’t rewatch The Shining because all I remembered about it was the scene with the old lady in the shower and being absolutely terrified of it. Then recently, I saw a documentary on Netflix called “Room 237” and, after seeing just how much went into that movie, I started to really enjoy and appreciate the movie. There are so many conspiracies about the intention behind all of the decisions Stanley Kubrick made in the making of The Shining. The documentary (okay so I’m not really talking about the behind the scenes that I watched right here, but I feel like it kind of is behind the scenes because it shows much intention is put behind every single element of a film.) mentions everything from the movie being secretly about the genocide of Native Americans (because of the placement of Calumet Baking Powder in two scenes) to claims that the use of the number “237” is referencing the mean distance from the earth to the moon. It’s so interesting to see how a movie can both be entertaining and terrifying, as well as hold a much deeper meaning.

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From the actual behind the scenes footage that I watched, I realized that there was even more behind the movie than conspiracies and entertainment value. Not only is the movie shot beautifully, but every detail was accounted for to make sure it looked perfect. The behind the scenes shows just how much effort was put into scenes such as the iconic maze scene. (I tried to find out how they did the elevator scene, because I still don’t understand how that was possible, but I couldn’t find any footage on that.)  The actors were also held to this standard of perfection, however it was taken to an extreme on Shelley Duvall, the women who plays Jack Nicholson’s wife. Jack Nicholson was occasionally frustrated by Kubrick’s frequent changes in the script, however Shelley Duvall was treated horrifically during filming. Duvall was kept isolated from the other actors, often cut her lines from the film, and made he reshoot one scene 127 times (which is in the Guiness Book of Records for “most takes for a scene with spoken dialogue). This gave me a newfound appreciation for Duvall’s despair and terror shown in the baseball bat scene, because now I am aware that it was completely genuine. There was also a moment in the behind the scenes footage that shows Duvall expressing her concern about her well being by showing Kubrick a clump of her fallen out hair. Kubrick responds by saying that he does not have any sympathy for her. As someone who tends to focus more on the acting and story related to film, rather than the technology and camerawork, it was really interesting to see exactly how not to treat your actors.