The Shining Essay
Bathroom Scene
During the bathroom scene in room 237, our main protagonist
Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) is confronted with a naked woman. While watching
this scene i became increasingly more uncomfortable. The overall
abnormality and of the situation is represented by a slightly canted angle when
the woman glides closer to Jack.
When Nicholson first enters room 237 it is shot with a hand held
camera, this gives the feeling of being Jack and entering this dangerous
situation, which in turn creates a feeling of fear or anxiety. This entire
scene is ruled by non-diegetic sound which emphasizes that this
encounter is a a fragment of jack sick and twisted mind. The
non-diegetic sound differs between that of a fearful heart beat and a
high pitched screeching noise. The incident lighting in
the bathroom comes straight from the light above the woman's head
this creates a very cold and clinical atmosphere within the scene.
When we first see the woman she is climbing out of the
bathtub from behind a shower curtain which is a common horror
convention of something hiding behind in a shower, which has
been seen in slasher films like Scream.
There are reaction shots between a mid shot of jack and a long-mid
shot of the woman as she gets increasingly closer to jack. This reaction shot shows
how Nicholson's face gets increasingly more sinister as the shot
changes between the two characters. Also you can
spot crucifixes in the mirrors of the bathroom which shows how there
are many different unholy acts occurring in this scene,
like unnecessary nudity and inferences of Adultery and
Necrophilia. These unholy acts add to the overall disgust of the scene. Also
the Mise-en-Scene in the bathroom imitates the feeling of disgust and
illness through the walls being painted green.
When Jack embraces the woman character he closes his eyes and when
he opens them the woman has changes into a rotting and decaying living
corpse. Jack opening his eyes and seeing the dark and twisted side of
his 'reality' refers to how someone can wake up from a dream by closing
and opening their eyes. Also when jack opens his eyes he first see's the
decaying woman in the mirror which throughout the film has shown when jack is
looking into his own mind.
Also within this scene whenever the camera is on jack he never
appears to be in the middle of the shot. The fact that Nicholson is never in
the center of the shot and does not keep the rule of three’s causes me to get
slightly irritated every time Nicholson is in the shot. The fact that there is
always something off with his and his surroundings causes me to get agitated
and reflect on how Jack’s character is tainted and is made out to be completely
obscure and affect his surroundings. In turn this may be a reason why Kubrick
has chosen for jacks shot to be tainted and slightly irritating to create a
nervous and agitated response.
Finally once Jack starts to evacuate room 237 the camera tracks
back from the decaying woman which once again makes me feel as though I am
Jack's character and I’m in that situation. The only diegetic
sound within the the entire scene is the sinister cackling of
the grotesque woman which echoes through the last moment of the scene when jack
runs down the hallway away from the room.
The Ballroom Scene
At the beginning of this scene the camera tracks from left to
right, which transports Jack from a lonely corridor empty of people to a
ballroom packed full of people dressed in 20's style clothing. The theme of the
20's in this scene linking to the zooming shot of a photo of jack in the in the
20's themed ballroom in 1921 at the end of the film.
During this scene a woman walks past Jack and appears to have a
hand print on her dress. this hand print reflects of the extreme sexism and
subjection of women during the 1920's and even still in today American society.
Also the sly and sneaky way in which the hand print is shown in this shot makes
it so it will often go un-noticed, which echoes on how the miss treatment of
women often wasn't reported or cared about in this time period.
There is a constant debate on what type of horror film the shining
is as it has different aspects of many. During this scene Jack talk to Lloyd a
waiter behind the bar, but it appears the Jack is in facts talking to the mirror
behind Lloyd, This either tells us that Jack is once again talking to a figment
of his imagination or he is talking to a ghost which in turn adds to the belief
that The Shining is a ghost film.
Within the ballroom there are many splashes of the colour red
which foreshadows bloodshed and may also link to how in the next scene Jack's
character is convinced to murder his wife and child. The colour red may
also infer that Jacks mental state is at a critical and
dangerous state and may push him to commit dangerous acts.
As well as this scene giving references to The Shining
being a ghostly horror it also gives clues that is it a 'haunted house' horror.
This is enforced when Lloyd says "Orders from the house", which tells
me that the hotel is a alive and causing all of the trauma for jack
and his family.
Throughout this scene there are also interpretations of the
class system. The ballroom appears to only be available for people
of higher or upper class status, as well as this the butlers and
service men appear to go completely un-noticed by anyone in
the ballroom apart from Jack. Finally when Delbert Grady bumps into
jack and spills his drink on him he says "you’re the important
one" which reflects on how people where taught that they were
not important until they were of high class.
