THE SHINING

1980 ***** 142 mins. (International version runs 119 mins.)

Let me start off by saying to all of you nitpickers out there who think books are better than movies, you need to open your eyes and open your minds. This film is hardly anything like Stephen King's source novel. Does that automatically make the book better? NO!!! If anything, this film, directed by the great Stanley Kubrick, improves greatly upon Stephen King's highly predictable story. In the book, one knows from the third chapter how it's going to end. The third chapter, in a nutshell, is like this: "You've got to dump the boiler three times a day. If you don't, it'll creep and creep until it blows. When it blows, this whole place is going to go 'Rocky Mountain High.' Make sure you dump the boiler. Say it with me, 'I will dump the boiler three times a day.'" Get the point? Not to spoil the ending of the book, or anything. With Stanley Kubrick's beautiful, haunting, and chilling tale, there is no boiler. It's never mentioned. There is a scene with Wendy (Shelley Duvall) in the basement fiddling with what looks like it might be a boiler, but that's it. So, the ending is a much better one that takes the viewer by surprise.

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has been hired as the winter caretaker of a hotel in the Colorado mountains. He brings with him his wife Wendy and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd). Danny has "The Shining" - the ability to see things that have already happened or that could happen in the future. Once they arrive at the hotel, the hotel's true face begins to show. The result is a highly entertaining, thrilling, and chilling horror film that scares through implication and suspense rather than cheap scares. This is horror as an art form.
Rated R for language, violence, gore, and nudity.

• Original theatrical aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Original theatrical release date: May 23, 1980
• The international version has around 20-25 minutes of footage cut.
• "When first released, the film had an alternate ending: the party photos shot (now the last shot in the film) dissolves to a scene in a hospital, where Wendy is resting in a bed and Danny is playing in a waiting room. Ullman tells her that they have been unable to locate her husband's body anywhere on the property. On his way out, Ullman gives Danny a ball -- the same one that mysteriously rolled into a hallway earlier in the film, before Danny was attacked in room 237. Ullman laughs and walks away while Danny "shines" the Overlook Hotel. Stanley Kubrick had the scene removed a week after the film was released." - IMDb.com

• ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS AWARD: Best Supporting Actor (Scatman Crothers)
• ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS AWARDS NOMINATIONS: Best Director (Stanley Kubrick), Best Horror Film, and Best Music (Bela Bartok)
• RAZZIE AWARDS NOMINATIONS: Worst Actress (Shelley Duvall) and Worst Director (Stanley Kubrick)

• The film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• Original mono soundtrack

• The film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• Hi-Fi mono soundtrack
• Closed Captioned for the hearing impaired

• Poster reprint card contained in box
• Vivian Kubrick's Behind-the-Scenes Documentary The Making Of The Shining
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• The film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• Original mono soundtrack
• Closed Captioned for the hearing impaired

• Vivian Kubrick's Behind-the-Scenes Documentary The Making of The Shining
• Theatrical Trailer
• The film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• English Dolby Digital Mono
• English Subtitles
• French Subtitles
• Closed Captioned for the hearing impaired

• Vivian Kubrick's Behind-the Scenes Documentary The Making of The Shining
• Original theatrical trailer
• The film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• The film digitally restored and remastered
• Dolby Digital Surround
• Closed Captioned for the hearing impaired

• Behind-the Scenes Documentary The Making of The Shining with Commentary by Director Vivian Kubrick
• Theatrical Trailer
• The film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• The film digitally restored and remastered
• English Dolby Surround 5.1
• French Dolby Surround 5.1
• English Subtitles
• French Subtitles
• Spanish Subtitles
• Closed Captioned for the hearing impaired

• Behind-the Scenes Documentary The Making of The Shining with Commentary by Director Vivian Kubrick
• Theatrical Trailer
• The International Version of the film presented in its original camera negative aspect ratio (approx. 1.33:1)
• The International Version of the film digitally restored and remastered
• English Dolby Surround 5.1
• English Subtitles
• Mandarin Subtitles
• Cantonese Subtitles