Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 Dick Hallorann: Mrs. Torrance, your husband inroduced you as Winifred. Now, are you a Winnie or a Freddy?
Wendy Torrance: I`m a Wendy.
Dick Hallorann: Oh. That`s nice, that`s the prettiest. Wendy Torrance: [crying] Stay away from me.
Jack Torrance: Why?
Wendy Torrance: I just wanna go back to my room!
Jack Torrance: Why?
Wendy Torrance: Well, I`m very confused, and I just need time to think things over!
Jack Torrance: You`ve had your whole FUCKING LIFE to think things over, what good`s a few minutes more gonna do you now?
Wendy Torrance: Please! Don`t hurt me!
Wendy Torrance: I`m not gonna hurt you.
Jack Torrance: Stay away from me!
Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I`m not gonna hurt ya. You didn`t let me finish my sentence. I said, I`m not gonna hurt ya. I`m just going to bash your brains in.
[Wendy gasps]
Jack Torrance: Gonna bash `em right the fuck in! ha ha ha
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me! Don`t hurt me!
Jack Torrance: [sarcastically] I`m not gonna hurt ya...
Wendy Torrance: Stay away! Stop it!
Jack Torrance: Stop swingin` the bat. Put the bat down, Wendy. Wendy? Give me the bat...
[Past guests at the Overlook Hotel]
Stuart Ullman: Four presidents, movie stars...
Wendy Torrance: Royalty?
Stuart Ullman: All the best people.
Dick Hallorann: Some places are like people: some shine and some don`t.
Lloyd: Women. Can`t live with them, can`t live without them.
Jack Torrance: Words of wisdom, Lloyd, my man. Words of wisdom.
[about Wendy]
Delbert Grady: I feel you will have to deal with this matter in the harshest possible way, Mr. Torrance.
Jack Torrance: There`s nothing I look forward to with greater pleasure, Mr. Grady.
Jack Torrance: You WERE the caretaker here, Mr. Grady.
Delbert Grady: No sir, YOU are the caretaker. You`ve always been the caretaker. I ought to know: I`ve always been here.
Injured Guest with Head Wound: Great party, isn`t it?
[Jack is trying to kill Wendy]
Jack Torrance: Do you have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is? Do you?
Lloyd: What will you be drinking, sir?
Lloyd: What will you be drinking, sir?
Jack Torrance: Hair of the dog that bit me, Lloyd.
Jack Torrance: Wendy, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you`re breaking my concentration. You`re distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand?
Wendy Torrance: Yeah.
Jack Torrance: Now, we`re going to make a new rule. When you come in here and you hear me typing
[types]
Jack Torrance: or whether you DON`T hear me typing, or whatever the FUCK you hear me doing; when I`m in here, it means that I am working, THAT means don`t come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?
Wendy Torrance: Yeah.
Jack Torrance: Good. Now why don`t you start right now and get the fuck out of here? Hm?
Danny Torrance: Redrum. Redrum. Redrum.
Danny Torrance: Do you really want to go and live in that hotel for the winter?
Wendy Torrance: Sure I do. It`ll be lots of fun.
Danny Torrance: Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, there`s hardly anybody to play with around here.
Wendy Torrance: Yeah, I know. It always takes a little time to make new friends.
Danny Torrance: Yeah, I guess so.
Wendy Torrance: What about Tony? He`s lookin` forward to the hotel, I bet.
Danny Torrance: [Moving his finger to speak as "Tony"] No he isn`t, Mrs. Torrance.
Wendy Torrance: Now come on, Tony, don`t be silly.
Danny Torrance: [as Tony] I don`t want to go there, Mrs. Torrance.
Wendy Torrance: Well, how come you don`t want to go?
Danny Torrance: [as Tony] I just don`t.
Wendy Torrance: Well, let`s just wait and see. We`re all going to have a real good time.
Danny Torrance: [as Tony] Danny isn`t here, Mrs. Torrance.
[last lines]
Jack Torrance: Danny!
Grady daughter: Come play with us, Danny.
Jack Torrance: What are you doing down here?
Wendy Torrance: [sobbing] I just wanted to talk to you.
Jack Torrance: Okay, let`s talk. What do you wanna talk about?
Wendy Torrance: I can`t really remember.
Jack Torrance: You can`t remember... Maybe it was about... Danny? Maybe it was about him. I think we should discuss Danny. I think we should discuss what should be done with him. What should be done with him?
Wendy Torrance: I don`t know.
Jack Torrance: I don`t think that`s true. I think you have some very definite ideas about what should be done with Danny and I`d like to know what they are.
Wendy Torrance: Well, I think... maybe... he should be taken to a doctor.
Jack Torrance: You think "maybe" he should be taken to a doctor?
Wendy Torrance: Yes.
Jack Torrance: "When" do you think "maybe" he should be taken to a doctor?
Wendy Torrance: As soon as possible.
Jack Torrance: [mocking/imitating her] As soon as possible.
Wendy Torrance: Jack! What are.. you...
Jack Torrance: You think his health might be at stake.
Wendy Torrance: Y-Yes!
Jack Torrance: You are concerned about him.
Wendy Torrance: Yes!
Jack Torrance: And are you concerned about ME?
Wendy Torrance: Of course I am!
Jack Torrance: Of course you are! Have you ever thought about my responsibilities?
Wendy Torrance: Oh Jack, what are you talking about?
Jack Torrance: Have you ever had a SINGLE MOMENT`S THOUGHT about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers?? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the OVERLOOK Hotel until May the FIRST. Does it MATTER TO YOU AT ALL that the OWNERS have placed their COMPLETE CONFIDENCE and TRUST in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a CONTRACT, in which I have accepted that RESPONSIBILITY? Do you have the SLIGHTEST IDEA, what a MORAL AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLE IS, DO YOU? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future, if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? HAS IT??
Wendy Torrance: [swings the bat] Stay away from me!
[Repeated line]
Jack Torrance: [as he chases his son with an ax] Danny, I`m coming!
Wendy Torrance: I`m gonna go now.
Jack Torrance: Wendy?
Wendy Torrance: I`m gonna try and get Danny down to Sidewinder in the Snow Cat. I`ll send back a doctor...
Jack Torrance: Wendy?
Wendy Torrance: Yes?
Jack Torrance: You got a biiiig surprise coming to you. You`re not going anywhere. Go check out the Snow Cat and the radio and you`ll see what I mean. Go check it out.
Delbert Grady: [referring to Jack murdering his wife and son] Mr. Torrance, I see you can hardly have taken care of the business we discussed.
Jack Torrance: No need to rub it in, Mr. Grady.
Delbert Grady: [to Jack, who`s locked in the pantry] Your wife appears to be stronger than we imagined, Mr. Torrance. Somewhat more... resourceful. She seems to have got the better of you.
Jack Torrance: For the moment, Mr. Grady. Only for the moment.
Dick Hallorann: What flavor ice cream do you want?
Danny Torrance: Chocolate.
Dick Hallorann: Then chocolate it shall be.
[first lines]
Jack Torrance: Hi, I`ve got an appointment with Mr. Ullman. My name is Jack Torrance.
Stuart Ullman: When the place was built in 1907, there was very little interest in winter sports. And this site was chosen for its seclusion and scenic beauty.
Jack Torrance: Well, it`s certainly got plenty of that, ha, ha.
Stuart Ullman: ...The winters can be fantastically cruel. And the basic idea is to cope with the very costly damage and depreciation which can occur. And this consists mainly of running the boiler, heating different parts of the hotel on a daily, rotating basis, repair damage as it occurs, and doing repairs so that the elements can`t get a foothold.
Jack Torrance: Well, that sounds fine to me.
Stuart Ullman: Physically, it`s not a very demanding job. The only thing that can get a bit trying up here during the winter is, uh, a tremendous sense of isolation.
Jack Torrance: Well, that just happens to be exactly what I`m looking for. I`m outlining a new writing project and, uh, five months of peace is just what I want.
Stuart Ullman: That`s very good Jack, because, uh, for some people, solitude and isolation can, of itself become a problem.
Jack Torrance: Not for me.
Stuart Ullman: How about your wife and son? How do you think they`ll take to it?
Jack Torrance: They`ll love it.
Wendy Torrance: Hey. Wasn`t it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?
Jack Torrance: I think that was farther west in the Sierras.
Wendy Torrance: Oh.
Danny Torrance: What was the Donner Party?
Jack Torrance: They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
Danny Torrance: You mean they ate each other up?
Jack Torrance: They had to, in order to survive.
Wendy Torrance: Jack...
Danny Torrance: Don`t worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.
Jack Torrance: See, it`s OK. He saw it on the television.
Dick Hallorann: We`ve got canned fruits and vegetables, canned fish and meats, hot and cold syrups, Post Toasties, Corn Flakes, Sugar Puffs, Rice Krispies, Oatmeal... and Cream of Wheat. You got...
[then, telepathically to Danny]
Dick Hallorann: How`d you like some ice cream, Doc?
Dick Hallorann: ...a dozen jugs of black molasses, we got sixty boxes of dried milk, thirty twelve-pound bags of sugar... Now we got dried peaches, dried apricots, dried raisins and dried prunes. You know Mrs. Torrance, you got to keep regular, if you want to be happy!
Dick Hallorann: I can remember when I was a little boy. My grandmother and I could hold conversations entirely without ever opening our mouths. She called it "shining." And for a long time, I thought it was just the two of us that had the shine to us. Just like you probably thought you was the only one. But there are other folks, though mostly they don`t know it, or don`t believe it. How long have you been able to do it?... Why don`t you want to talk about it?
Danny Torrance: I`m not supposed to.
Dick Hallorann: Who said you ain`t supposed to?
Danny Torrance: Tony.
Dick Hallorann: Who`s Tony?
Danny Torrance: Tony is a little boy that lives in my mouth.
Dick Hallorann: Is Tony the one that tells you things?
Danny Torrance: Yes.
Dick Hallorann: How does he tell you things?
Danny Torrance: It`s like I go to sleep, and he shows me things. But when I wake up, I can`t remember everything.
Dick Hallorann: Does your Mom and Dad know about Tony?
Danny Torrance: Yes.
Dick Hallorann: Do they know he tells you things?
Danny Torrance: No. Tony told me never to tell `em.
Dick Hallorann: Has Tony ever told you anything about this place? About the Overlook Hotel?
Danny Torrance: I don`t know.
Dick Hallorann: Now think real hard now. Think.
Danny Torrance: Maybe he showed me something.
Dick Hallorann: Try to think of what it was.
Danny Torrance: Mr. Hallorann, are you scared of this place?
Dick Hallorann: No. Scared - there`s nothin` 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 somethin` almost like "shining."
Danny Torrance: Is there something bad here?
Dick Hallorann: Well, you know, Doc, when something happens, you can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like, if someone burns toast. Well, maybe things that happen leave other kinds of traces behind. 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. I think a lot of things happened right here in this particular hotel over the years. And not all of `em was good.
Danny Torrance: What about Room 237?
Dick Hallorann: Room 237?
Danny Torrance: You`re scared of Room 237, ain`t ya?
Dick Hallorann: No I ain`t.
Danny Torrance: Mr. Hallorann. What is in Room 237?
Dick Hallorann: Nothin`. There ain`t nothin` in Room 237. But you ain`t got no business goin` in there anyway. So stay out. You understand? Stay out.
Danny Torrance: Dad?
Jack Torrance: Yes?
Danny Torrance: Do you like this hotel?
Jack Torrance: Yes. I do. I love it. Don`t you?
Danny Torrance: I guess so.
Jack Torrance: Good. I want you to like it here. I wish we could stay here forever... and ever... and ever.
Danny Torrance: Tony, I`m scared.
[as Tony]
Danny Torrance: Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It`s just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn`t real.
Jack Torrance: The most terrible nightmare I ever had. It`s the most horrible dream I ever had.
Wendy Torrance: It`s OK, it`s OK now. Really.
Jack Torrance: I dreamed that I, that I killed you and Danny. But I didn`t just kill ya. I cut you up in little pieces. Oh my God. I must be losing my mind.
Jack Torrance: God, I`d give anything for a drink. I`d give my god-damned soul for just a glass of beer.
Delbert Grady: Did you know, Mr. Torrance, that your son is attempting to bring an outside party into this situation? Did you know that?
Jack Torrance: No.
Delbert Grady: He is, Mr. Torrance.
Jack Torrance: Who?
Delbert Grady: A nigger.
Jack Torrance: A nigger?
Delbert Grady: A nigger cook.
Jack Torrance: How?
Delbert Grady: Your son has a very great talent. I don`t think you are aware how great it is. That he is attempting to use that very talent against your will.
Jack Torrance: He is a very willful boy.
Delbert Grady: Indeed he is, Mr. Torrance. A very willful boy. A rather naughty boy, if I may be so bold, sir.
Jack Torrance: It`s his mother. She, uh, interferes.
Delbert Grady: Perhaps they need a good talking to, if you don`t mind my saying so. Perhaps a bit more. My girls, sir, they didn`t care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn it down. But I "corrected" them sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I "corrected" her.
Lloyd: How are things going, Mr. Torrance?
Jack Torrance: Things could be better, Lloyd. Things could be a whole lot better.
Jack Torrance: [typed] All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
[Smashing the door to bits with an axe]
Jack Torrance: Wendy, I`m home.
Jack Torrance: Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I`ll huff and I`ll puff, and I`ll blow your house in.
[axes the door]
Jack Torrance: Mr. Grady. You were the caretaker here. I recognize ya. I saw your picture in the newspapers. You, uh, chopped your wife and daughters up into little bits. And then you blew your brains out.
Grady: That`s strange, sir. I don`t have any recollection of that at all.
Jack Torrance: Here`s to five miserable months on the wagon, and all the irreparable harm it has caused me.
Grady daughter: Hello Danny. Come and play with us. Come and play with us, Danny. Forever... and ever... and ever.
Jack Torrance: Come out, come out, where ever you are.
Jack Torrance: I`ll just set my bourbon and advocaat down right there.
Jack Torrance: Heeere`s Johnny!
Stuart Ullman: The police thought that it was what the old-timers used to call cabin fever. A kind of claustrophobic reaction which can occur when people are shut in together over long periods of time.
Jack Torrance: I like you, Lloyd. I always liked you. You were always the best of them. Best goddamned bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine. Or Portland, Oregon, for that matter.
Dick Hallorann: Larry, just between you and me, we got a very serious problem with the people taking care of the place. They turned out to be completely unreliable assholes.
Jack Torrance: Hi, Lloyd. Little slow tonight, isn`t it? HAHAHAHA!
Trivia
During the making of the movie, Stanley Kubrick would occasionally call Stephen King at 3:00 a.m. and ask him questions like "Do you believe in God?"
Stephen King was first approached by Stanley Kubrick about making a film version of `The Shining` via an early morning phone call (England is five hours ahead of Maine in time zones). King, suffering from a hangover, shaving and at first thinking one of his kids was injured, was shocked when his wife told him Kubrick was really on the phone. King recalled that the first thing Kubrick did was to immediately start talking about how optimistic ghost stories are, because they suggest that humans survive death. "What about hell?" King asked. Kubrick paused for several moments before finally replying, "I don`t believe in hell."
The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon was used for the front exterior, but all the interiors as well as the back of the hotel were specially built at Elstree Studios in London, England. The management of the Timberline requested that Stanley Kubrick not use 217 for a room number (as specified in the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.
The book that Jack was writing contained the one sentence ("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy") repeated over and over. Stanley Kubrick had each page individually typed. For the Italian version of the film, Kubrick used the phrase "Il mattino ha l` oro in bocca" ("He who wakes up early meets a golden day"). For the German version, it was "Was Du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen" ("Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today"). For the Spanish version, it was "No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano" ("Rising early will not make dawn sooner."). For the French version, it was "Un `Tiens` vaut mieux que deux `Tu l`auras`" ("A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush").
Stanley Kubrick decided that having the hedge animals come alive (as they do in the book) was unworkable due to restrictions in special effects, so he opted for a hedge maze instead.
There is a great deal of confusion regarding this film and the number of retakes of certain scenes. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the scene where Wendy is backing up the stairs swinging the baseball bat was shot 127 times, which is a record for the most takes of a single scene. However, both Steadicam operator Garrett Brown and assistant editor Gordon Stainforth say this is inaccurate - the scene was shot about 35-45 times. Brown does say however that the scene where Hallorann explains to Danny what shining is was shot 148 times, which is a world record.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [Bathroom] Jack speaks to the ghost of Delbert Grady in the men`s room.
When first released, the film had an alternate ending: after the shot of Jack`s body, the film dissolves to a scene of policemen outside the hotel. It then cuts to a scene in a hospital, where Wendy is resting in a bed and Danny is playing in a waiting room. Ullman arrives and 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 and the film dissolves to the move through the corridors towards the photo. Stanley Kubrick had the scene removed a week after the film was released.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [three-way] Danny vs. the Overlook vs. Jack
Stanley Kubrick considered both Robert De Niro and Robin Williams for the role of Jack Torrance but decided against both of them. Kubrick didn`t think De Niro would suit the part after watching his performance in Taxi Driver (1976), as he deemed De Niro not psychotic enough for the role. He didn`t think Williams would suit the part after watching his performance in "Mork & Mindy" (1978), as he deemed him too psychotic for the role. According to Stephen King, Kubrick also briefly considered Harrison Ford.
Stephen King tried to talk Stanley Kubrick out of casting Jack Nicholson in the lead suggesting, instead, either Michael Moriarty or Jon Voight. King had felt that watching either of these normal-looking men gradually descend into madness, would have immensely improved the dramatic thrust of the storyline.
The scrapbook that Jack finds in the novel makes a brief appearance next to his typewriter in the scene when Jack tells Wendy never to bother him while he`s working.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [faces] Jack, as he chases his son through the maze.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [faces] Danny, when he sees the twins in the hallway.
Director Trademark: [Stanley Kubrick] [zoom] when Halloran is on his bed watching TV.
Jack Nicholson ad-libbed the line "Here`s Johnny!" in imitation of announcer Ed McMahon`s famous introduction of Johnny Carson on U.S. network NBC-TV`s long-running late night television program "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). Kubrick, who had been living in England since before Carson took over "The Tonight Show," had no clue what "Here`s Johnny!" meant. Carson once used the clip of Nicholson as the introduction to one of his annual anniversary specials.
During the scene where Wendy brings Jack breakfast in bed, it can be seen in the reflection of the mirror that Jack`s T-shirt says "Stovington" on it. While not mentioned in the film, this is the name of the school that Jack used to teach at in the Stephen King novel.
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# Stanley Kubrick, known for his compulsiveness and numerous retakes, got the difficult shot of blood pouring from the elevators in only three takes. This would be remarkable if it weren`t for the fact that the shot took nine days to set up; every time the doors opened and the blood poured out, Kubrick would say, "It doesn`t look like blood." In the end, the shot took approximately a year to get right.
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# During filming, Stanley Kubrick made the cast watch Eraserhead (1977), Rosemary`s Baby (1968) and _The Exorcist (1979)_ to put them in the right frame of mind.
All of the interior rooms of The Overlook Hotel were filmed at Elstree Studios in England, including The Colorado Lounge, where Jack does his typing. Because of the intense heat generated from the lighting used to recreate window sunlight (the room took 700,000 watts of light per window to make it look like a snowy day outside), the lounge set caught fire. Fortunately all of the scenes had been completed there, so the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and the same area was eventually used by Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled Well of the Souls tomb in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
The Louisville Slugger baseball bat with which Wendy Torrance bludgeons Jack is signed by Carl Yastrzemski, Hall of Fame Red Sox player. Author Stephen King is a huge Red Sox fan.
Every time Jack talks to a "ghost", there`s a mirror in the scene, except in the food locker scene. This is because in the food locker scene he only talks to Grady through the door. We never see Grady in this scene.
# According to Stephen King, the title is inspired by the refrain in the Plastic Ono Band`s song, "Instant Karma" (by John Lennon), which features the chorus: "We all shine on."
The movie Wendy and Danny are watching on the opening of Monday is Summer of `42 (1971).
At the time of release, it was the policy of the MPAA to not allow the portrayal of blood in trailers that would be approved for all audiences. Bizarrely , the trailer for The Shining is comprised entirely of the shot of blood pouring out of the elevator. Stanley Kubrick had convinced the board the blood flooding out of the elevator was actually rusty water.
Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. During the shooting of the movie, Lloyd was under the impression that the film he was making was a drama, not a horror movie. He only realized the truth seven years later, when, aged 13, he was shown a heavily edited version of the film. He didn`t see the uncut version of the film until he was 17 - eleven years after he`d made it.
The throwing around of the tennis ball inside the overlook hotel was Jack Nicholson`s idea. The script originally only specified that, "Jack is not working".
Outtakes of the shots of the Volkswagen traveling towards the Overlook at the start of the film were plundered by Ridley Scott (with Stanley Kubrick`s permission) when he forced to add the `happy ending` to the original release of Blade Runner (1982).
The "snowy" maze near the conclusion of the movie consisted of 900 tons of salt and crushed Styrofoam.
Stanley Kubrick`s first choice to play Danny Torrance was Cary Guffey, the young boy from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Guffey`s parents apparently turned down the offer due to the film`s subject matter.
Billie Gibson, the old woman in the tub, has been falsely rumored to be Ann Gibson, Mel Gibson`s late mother.
Neither Lia Beldam (young woman in bath) nor Billie Gibson (old woman in bath) appeared in another movie before or after this one.
Cameo: [Norman Gay] The injured guest who frightens Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) by saying "Great party, isn`t it?" was played by film editor Norman Gay.
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# There were so many changes to the script during shooting that Jack Nicholson claimed he stopped reading it. He would read only the new pages that were given to him each day.
Stanley Kubrick composed and shot the film in the negative ratio (1.37:1) format so that in TV we see it in 1.33:1, but in the cinemas we see it in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio). When a film is shot in 1.37:1, the top and the bottom of the frame are intended to be masked off in the cinemas to create a widescreen version, but are not masked off in the TV/VHS/DVD versions.
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# Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind wrote and performed a full electronic score for the film, but Stanley Kubrick discarded most of it and used a soundtrack of mostly classical music. Only the adaptation of Hector Berlioz`s "Symphonie Fantastique" during the opening credits, the music during the family`s drive to the hotel, and a few other brief moments (such as Halloran`s plane trip) survive in the final version. Wendy Carlos once noted that she`d like to see the original score released on CD, but there were too many legal snags at the time. As of 2005, Carlos` score for the film has been remastered, and is a part of "Rediscovering Lost Scores Volumes 1 and 2".
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# For the scene in which Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department built a door that could be easily broken. However, Jack Nicholson had worked as a volunteer fire marshal and tore it apart far too easily. The props department were then forced to build a stronger door.
Anjelica Huston lived with Jack Nicholson during the time of the shooting. She recalled that, due to the long hours on the set and Stanley Kubrick`s trademark style of repetitive takes, Nicholson would often return from a day`s shooting, walk straight to the bed, collapse onto it and would immediately fall asleep.
Prior to hiring Diane Johnson as his writing partner, director/producer Stanley Kubrick rejected a screenplay written by Stephen King himself. King`s script was a much more literal adaptation of the novel, a much more traditional horror film than the film Kubrick would ultimately make. He was considering hiring Johnson because he admired her novel "The Shadow Knows," but when he found out she was a Doctor of Gothic Studies, he became convinced she was the person for the job.
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# The making-of documentary shot by Vivian Kubrick shows that the hedge maze set, while nowhere near as large as the maze in the film (which was mostly a matte painting), was still large and complex enough to require a detailed map. In the commentary for her documentary, she notes that many crew members really got lost in the maze, dryly noting that it now reminds her of the lost-backstage scene in This Is Spinal Tap (1984).
There was no air conditioning on the sets, meaning it would often become very hot. The hedge maze set was stifling; actors and crew would often strip off as much of the heavy clothing they were wearing as quickly as they could once a shot was finished.
Tony Burton, who had a brief role as Larry Durkin the garage owner, arrived on set one day carrying a chess set in hopes of getting in a game with someone during a break from filming. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had in his youth played for money, noticed the chess set. Despite production being behind schedule, Kubrick proceeded to call off filming for the day and engage in a set of games with Burton. Burton only managed to win one game, but nevertheless the director thanked him, since it had been some time that he`d played against a challenging opponent.
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# Stanley Kubrick wanted to shoot the film in script order. This meant having all the relevant sets standing by at all times. In order to achieve this, every soundstage at Elstree was used, with all the sets built, pre-lit and ready to go during the entire shoot at the studios.
To construct the interiors of the Overlook, Stanley Kubrick and his production designer, Roy Walker purposely set out to make it look like an amalgamation of bits and pieces of real hotels, rather than giving it one single design ethic. Kubrick had sent many photographers around the country photographing hotel rooms and picking his favorite. For example, the red men`s bathroom was modeled on a men`s room in the Biltmore Hotel in Arizona designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Colorado lounge was modeled on the lounge of the Ahwanee Hotel in the Yosemite Valley. Indeed, the chandeliers, windows and fireplace are nearly identical, so much so that people entering the Ahwahnee often ask if it`s "the Shining hotel".
Steadicam operator Garrett Brown accomplished many of the ultra-low tracking corridor sequences from a wheelchair on which his invention was mounted. Grips would either pull backward or push forward the wheelchair, depending on the requirement of the shot
Vivian Kubrick makes a cameo in the party scene. She wears a black dress and sits on the right side of the sofa closest to the bar.
In the party scene, Stanley Kubrick told the extras to mouth their words and not to nod their heads.
One of the shots in the part where Jack is bouncing a ball against a wall took several days to film. This was because the shot entailed the ball bouncing from the wall onto the camera lens as it filmed. As Stanley Kubrick was so determined to get this precise shot, the camera kept rolling while the ball was continually hit against the wall in the hope of it bouncing back and hitting the lens. It took everyone on the entire unit having a go at it in between other shots before the shot was finally achieved after several days.
The Torrance`s car is a Volkswagen Beetle.
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# The famous opening scene was shot in Glacier National Park in Montana just north of St. Mary`s Lake. The road seen in the scene, Going-to-the-Sun Road, does actually close down during winter and is only negotiable by snowcat. Kubrick initially sent a second unit to the Rockies in Colorado, but they reported back that the area wasn`t very interesting. When Kubrick saw the footage they had shot, he was furious, and fired the entire unit. He then sent Greg MacGillivray, a noted helicopter cameraman, to Montana and it was McGillivray who shot the scene.
This was voted the ninth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
The movie`s line "Here`s Johnny!" was voted as the #68 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
The movie`s line "Here`s Johnny!" was voted as the #36 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
Much like the casting of the "Jack" character, Stephen King also disliked the casting of Shelley Duvall as "Wendy." King said that he envisioned Wendy as being a blond former cheerleader type who never had to deal with any true problems in her life making her experience in the Overlook all the more terrifying. He felt that Duvall was too emotionally vulnerable and appeared to have gone through a lot in her life, basically the exact opposite of how he pictured the character.
The film was released in the United States on star Scatman Crothers` 70th birthday.
The role of Lloyd the Bartender was originally to have been played by Harry Dean Stanton, who was unable to take the part due to his commitment to Alien (1979).
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# Scatman Crothers was a friend of Jack Nicholson`s, and when he heard about the Halloran role, he asked Nicholson to talk to Kubrick about casting him.
The role of Lloyd the Bartender was originally to have been played by Harry Dean Stanton, who was unable to take the part due to his commitment to Alien (1979).
Scatman Crothers was a friend of Jack Nicholson`s, and when he heard about the Halloran role, he asked Nicholson to talk to Kubrick about casting him.
The two tracked vehicles in the movie are the Activ Fischer VW Powered 4 Speed Snow-Trak (referred to and labeled on the vehicle as a "SnowCat") and a Thiokol Imp Snow-Cat (this is the vehicle Wendy and Danny escape in).
During an interview for the UK`S The 100 Greatest Scary Moments (2003) (TV), Shelley Duvall revealed that due to her role requiring her to be in an almost constant state of hysteria, she eventually ran out of tears from crying so hard. To overcome this she kept bottles of water with her at all times on set to remain hydrated.
The image of the two girls in the hotel corridor was inspired by the photograph "Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967" by Diane Arbus.
First film of Manning Redwood.
Approximately 5000 people auditioned for the role of Danny over a six-month period. The interviews were carried out in Chicago, Denver and Cincinnati by Stanley Kubrick`s assistant Leon Vitali and his wife, Kersti. Aspiring actors were asked to send in photographs of themselves, and from the photographs, a list was made of the boys who looked right, who were then called in to interview. Vitali would then have the boys do some minor improvisation on camera, and Kubrick would review the footage, gradually narrowing the list down.
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# According to Variety magazine, the film took almost 200 days to shoot. However, according to assistant editor Gordon Stainforth, it took much more, nearly a year. The film was originally supposed to take 17 weeks, but it ultimately took 51. Because the film ran so long, Warren Beatty`s Reds (1981) and Steven Spielberg`s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) were both delayed as they were both waiting to shoot in Elstree Studios.
When Steadicam inventor/operator Garrett Brown was hired to work on the picture, he was assured that there was no way the shoot would run over six months, as he had to be back in the US in six months time to shoot Rocky II (1979). Six months into the shoot, less than half the film had been shot, and for several months, Brown worked one week in London on "The Shining," one week in Philadelphia on "Rocky," commuting by Concorde every Sunday.
To achieve the smoothness of the opening shots, cameraman Greg MacGillivray secured a wide angle Arriflex camera to the front of a helicopter, then balanced the blades to remove any vibrations. Even the shot where the camera comes down behind the car, passes it out, and goes over the edge is done via the helicopter.
The idea for Danny Lloyd to move his finger when he was talking as Tony was his own; he did it spontaneously during his very first audition.
For the scenes when we can hear Jack typing but we cannot see what he is typing, Kubrick recorded the sound of a typist actually typing the words "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Some people argue that each key on a typewriter sounds slightly different, and Kubrick wanted to ensure authenticity, so he insisted that the actual words be typed.
The maze was constructed on an airfield near Elstree studios, by weaving branches to chicken wire mounted on empty plywood boxes. The maze was shot using an extremely long lens (a 9.8mm, which gives a horizontal viewing angle of 90 degrees) which was kept dead level at all times, to make the hedges seem much bigger and more imposing than they were in reality.
The only shot in the film not achieved in-camera was the slow zoom in on the model of the maze, with the tiny figures of Danny and Wendy walking around at the center. To achieve this shot, a model of the maze was shot from six feet above. Then the small central section of the maze was built to scale next to an apartment complex. Actors Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd then walked about in the central section whilst the camera crew filmed it from the roof of the apartment building. The two shots were then simply composited together.
The shot of the tennis ball rolling into Danny`s toys took 50 takes to get right.
The scene of Hallorann approaching the hotel in the snow-cat was shot in real snow approaching the real Timberline hotel in Oregon.
The scene towards the end of the film, where Wendy is running up the stairway carrying a knife, was shot 35 times; the equivalent of running up the Empire State Building.
The 1921 photograph at the end of the film was a genuine 1920s photo, with Jack Nicholson`s head airbrushed onto the body of another man. Stanley Kubrick originally planned to use extras and shoot the photo himself, but he realized he couldn`t make it look any better than the real thing.
Despite receiving generally unfavorable reviews upon its initial release, the film is today regarded as one of the best horror movies ever made. In 2001, it was ranked 29th on AFI`s `100 Years...100 Thrills` list. In 2003, Jack Torrance was named the 25th greatest villain on the AFI`s `100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains` list. The film was named the scariest film of all time by Channel 4 in 2003, and Total Film had it as the 5th greatest horror film in 2004. Bravo TV placed it 6th on their list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments in 2005. In addition, film critics Kim Newman and Jonathan Romney both placed it in their all-time top ten lists for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.
The snow used for the film was really salt.
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Jack Nicholson
(as Jack Torrance)
with Shelley Duvall
(as Wendy Torrance)
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