If the reports are true Kubrick was insanely over bearing on her, told the crew not to console her at all, made her do an insane about of takes, all to pull out the shattered wife she played. So not much more than a prop to him. I feel the "wasn't true to the book" as a valid argument people can make but every aspect of the film is 50 cuts above just about every other horror movie ever made, it just doesn't matter. The tv movie truer to the book or not, wasn't very good. TV acting, TV direction (which still tried to copy the style with the long steady cam shots), tv child actor kid looks like a fucking total boner.
Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with you Crown on this one. And here's why: If I watch 'The Shining' while holding it to the book that it is based on, I find it very lacking - specifically for the reason King cited. In the book, you gave a shit about the characters. There was a depth there that is wholly missing in the movie. So from an 'adaptation' standpoint, Kubrick sucked the big one here. If I watch 'The Shining' with no expectation or comparison to the book, then I like it very much. It's a good story (though different from the book) and the 'coldness' really really works for this genre. It's a bona fide great movie. It's just not a great adaptation.
I don't know, a lot of purists get hinky about the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. I enjoyed it, and after having reread all three subsequent to seeing the movies (I read them for the first time in high school, long before there were 'moving pictures' or whatever you youngin's call them today), I didn't think they were too far off. But I have to reveal a bias: when it comes to books, I am really sensitive to the 'feel' of a book. I will forgive digressions from the original text if I think the 'feel' is the same. If I think the 'feel' of it is off, you could probably do a scene for scene exact remake and I'll still not find it good from an adaptation standpoint, a la 'Psycho' remake. So I felt that Jackson really preserved the feel of the originals, but not always the story. Like I said, just a personal bias of mine when it comes to adaptations. I think 'The Green Mile' was a fantastic adaptation. Hanks really nailed it, as did Michael Duncan Clark. Rockwell was amazing as always. I can read that book keeping the actors in my mind and I lose no enjoyment, and if anything, it actually enhances the enjoyment of the serial.
Fucking Shelley Duvall. What a horrible miscast. What in the hell did Kubrick ever see in her? She did not look well in that flick. She naturally looks like a trailer park wraith, but in The Shining she looked as though the only thing keeping her alive was a piece of cheese tied around her neck in case she got peckish. "You're mumbling, Shelley. Shut up and eat your cheese!" Whoever that kid in The Shining Miniseries was earned every ounce of my enmity. I swear to god he could have been Shelley Duvall reincarnated if she was dead. He looked like one of those sucker fish and every time he was on screen I was hoping Wings dude would take his method acting a little too far and beat the kid to death. That goddamn baby voice drove me bonkers. I was rooting for the ghosts. No wonder Wings guy was pissed. His only son is obviously gay and a fucking retard. On top of that he's trapped in a blizzard with Rebecca DeMornay who does not want to have sex. I felt for him. Tell me this is not the most punchable face. I don't give a fuck if he's 10. Fuck him, little shit. I hope someone pisses on his corpse.
So, how do you feel about the "feel" of Game of Thrones? It's about as close to the feel as Ive ever seen an adaptation of the print to media translation. Speaking only of the first three books. It hits all of the major high points with the human interactions and drama. Some of the feel of the more fantasy stuff has been downplayed or ignored, even though the books are supposedly light on the fantasy elements for the genre. With Kubrick he'd create his own story and feel out of a framework of ideas of source material on every movie he did, outside of 2001 which was written in tandem with the movie as more of a collaboration. Shitty thing for the original authors is Kubrick was on an entirely different level of story telling through the film medium. Sorry Steven, Stanley created a piece of art out of your work that has really left a bigger mark on society and pop culture than your book did.
To me, Kubrick's The Shining has all to do with his masterful grip on cinematic technique. He is a monolithic perfectionist who would shoot hundreds of thousands of feet of film to get it just the way he wanted. That is vivid in The Shining, the horror atmosphere, sets and music score give vise-grip tension even with how slow the film moves. And the climax of the movie with the hedge maze is a HUGE improvement over the book's. The problem with it is the characters. Duvall and the kid who plays Danny are nothing short of appalling, and Nicholson's character begins to go shit-nuts in 48 hours of staying at the hotel. Not weeks or months, but hours. Had they rid the film of those dumb weekday captions it wouldn't be so ridiculous. And his nutbag is doggedly Nicholson-ish. If you want to take a "Shining Tour" there are two places to visit: The Stanley Hotel in Colorado is the "haunted" hotel where King got his inspiration for the novel, and The Timberline Lodge (on its own its incredible inside) which is the hotel used in the movie for the outside shots which is at the base of Mount Hood in Oregon.
Some tits are just not attractive, this is a pretty solid example of that. Definitely bonus points for this happening at Home Depot though.
I hear seeing a child born really takes the fun out of vagina too, thankfully I'm still haven't seen that.
And it's funny... the older you get, the less you really give a shit, and the more you look at chicks as entertainment, not emotional attachment. When I see a young chick, I don't think "oh my God I love her and want to make love to her!", I think, "how fucking hilarious would it be if she let me, an old fat fuck, fuck her... so let's see just how much I can degrade and objectify her and get her to let me stick my dick up her ass while trying not to laugh too loud". You would be absolutely amazed at how many younger women just eat that shit up, and love to be used as a sex toy by older guys.
My wife and I have pretty firmly decided that should we have children, I will not be watching below the waist during the birth. Just no upside to it.
I said that to myself, too. Then I saw it by accident and all of a sudden I'm making unfortunate girth comparisons.