The Shining 4K UHD (1980)

[gates70]

Originally Posted by ROSS.T.G.

I’m going to try and reserve a copy from Sunrise.

Let me know how it goes. I might do the same after.

[dannycj]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2003

I only stated I didn’t like her performance, not her appearance.
Then I later asked why they didn’t replace her with a better actress not a prettier one. That’s actually one aspect I enjoy about older films is that the actors look like regular people not models.

[dcx4610]

I think Duvall is awesome in this. I think her appearance is what turns some people off because she's slightly homely and goofy looking in the movie.

I think her acting is super realistic. You can tell she is a caring mom but is in an abusive relationship and hides the fact that Jack may not be good to her or Danny.

There are a lot of people in abusive relationships that put on happy faces and want to pretend like they have the ideal family life while struggling with the fact things aren't well. The nurse scene is really crucial. You can tell that she is conflicted and knows that what Jack did to Danny was wrong but rationalized it as Danny was pestering him or was due to his alcoholism.

She keeps making excuses for Jack's behavior so that she and Danny can have a family life.

I dunno, I think she does a wonderful job and when she finally realizes Jack has lost and isn't coming back, she protects Danny until the end.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by dannycj

I only stated I didn’t like her performance, not her appearance.
Then I later asked why they didn’t replace her with a better actress not a prettier one. That’s actually one aspect I enjoy about older films is that the actors look like regular people not models.

Sorry, looks like other people brought up her unconventional Hollywood looks after your comment started the general discussion about her in the film. I still disagree with your assessment of her acting however. She delivers one of the few emotionally affecting performances by an actor in any Kubrick film and her convincing hysteria and terror is one reason The Shining has become an iconic horror film.

[KcMsterpce]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

Duvall was perfectly cast IMO given the changes Kubrick made to her character when adapting from the book. She totally works as the kind of woman who would stay with Jack, namely someone who's relatively homely, less educated and generally lacking in confidence.

I don't remember where I read it, but King mentioned that he hated Shelley Duvall as a casting choice for the movie as much as he did Jack because they were nothing like what he intended from his book.
Yes, it's well known that he notoriously despised Kubrick's movie (although I think he's warmed up to it and appreciates it more these days).

King's primary complaint about Jack was that Nicholson was unsettling and pretty "loony" right off the bat, thus the gradual descent into madness was missing - which King felt was a key ingredient to the story he was telling.

As for Wendy... King liked the idea of her being a pretty woman, that was a head cheerleader in her school, from a well-to-do family, and never really had to struggle in life. Thus, being stuck at the Overlook as Jack starts losing his mind and her son is in peril forces her to come to terms with situations that she was never confronted with in the past. It made her fight for survival more frightening, because she lived a semi-charmed life up to that point.
Shelley Duvall doesn't fit that profile at all. It really pissed King off because it completely undercut the themes and hardships (and terror) of Wendy's need to actually fight for something, without help from outside forces (or her looks).

"The Shining" is one of my favorite movies, but I could understand how frustrated Stephen King must have been when he saw the movie. To see the two primary characters that he wrote end up being nothing like what he envisioned and worked to achieve must have been disheartening.

I like both concepts. It just makes the characters' motivations drastically different.

[bradnoyes]

It's like my grandpa used to say: "Movies...they sure ain't books!"

They sure ain't, gramps. They sure ain't.

[English Patient]

Originally Posted by KcMsterpce

As for Wendy... King liked the idea of her being a pretty woman, that was a head cheerleader in her school, from a well-to-do family, and never really had to struggle in life. Thus, being stuck at the Overlook as Jack starts losing his mind and her son is in peril forces her to come to terms with situations that she was never confronted with in the past. It made her fight for survival more frightening, because she live a semi-charmed life up to that point.
Shelley Duvall doesn't fit that profile at all. It really pissed King off because it completely undercut the themes and hardships (and terror) of Wendy's need to actually fight for something, without help from outside forces (or her looks).

"The Shining" is one of my favorite movies, but I could understand how frustrated Stephen King must have been when he saw the movie. To see the two primary characters that he wrote end up being nothing like what he envisioned and worked to achieve must have been disheartening.

I like both concepts. It just makes the characters' motivations drastically different.

Good insights. I've read an interview with co-screenwriter Diane Johnson and she said she made Wendy much stronger in her script, but Kubrick eliminated much of that material.

I never had a problem with Shelley Duvall's performance. She had a sweetness and innocence about her that's almost heartbreaking - like a kindly kindergarten teacher. The fact that she doesn't exude strength and a take-charge attitude kind of increases the suspense, because I bet few people in the audience expect she'll be able to escape the horror.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by OgamiittoMcJ

J Law wasn't even born then though

....Then explain how she appears in the production stills for this movie..

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by TXMoviebuff77

Well the baby boomers created those millennials.

Gen X is in between.

Originally Posted by Filmmaker

And are kicking themselves for it daily.

Kick themselves to death.


I should add that was sarcasm...unless?

[bradnoyes]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

....Then explain how she appears in the production stills for this movie..

Yes. Explain this!

[KcMsterpce]

Originally Posted by English Patient

I never had a problem with Shelley Duvall's performance. She had a sweetness and innocence about her that's almost heartbreaking - like a kindly kindergarten teacher. The fact that she doesn't exude strength and a take-charge attitude kind of increases the suspense, because I bet few people in the audience expect she'll be able to escape the horror.

Yes, I agree. I'm fine with Kubrick's version of Wendy, but for entirely different reasons. Much like you state; she isn't pretty, and it doesn't seem like she had an easy life in which she didn't know she had it better than most. At the same time, she is pretty grounded, and relatable. She has a tender kindness and gentility that makes you hope she is able to overcome the movie's obstacles.
It works for the movie.

Originally Posted by bradnoyes

Yes. Explain this!

All I can say is, she has most definitely aged better than the rest of the cast and crew. I mean dang... is it Oil of Olay?

[rocknblues81]

There is nothing wrong with Duvall’s performance. The hate she gets for it is absurd.

[Filmmaker]

Originally Posted by Snicket

Kick themselves to death.

I’m so TRIGGERED!

[Wtdk]

Originally Posted by KMR

Regarding The Exorcist:



I'm glad you mention this. Because this particular scene is the one thing about the movie that I have been bothered by since I first saw it in early 1974. I had read the book, and this passage was one (of many) that really gave me the creeps, and I was wondering how it was going to end up looking on film. And as I was watching it, I was thinking, "Friedkin's approach is all wrong." It was too matter-of-fact, too straightforward. We were seeing it from a bystander's point of view, not Chris McNeil's. There was no attempt to communicate Chris's experience of seeing what Regan was doing, which was the whole point of the scene.

Also: Thank You for saying Regan was "twisting" her head around. I get so tired of people saying her head was "spinning"...

The matter of fact quality is what makes it so effective.

[English Patient]

Originally Posted by rocknblues81

There is nothing wrong with Duvall’s performance. The hate she gets for it is absurd.

Yeah, and since Kubrick had such control over all aspects of the film, doing take after take after take, her performance is pretty much EXACTLY what he wanted, so if anyone dislikes her performance then they're second-guessing what Kubrick himself wanted.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Her performance is odd to be sure but it works so well for the film. It’s true, many people forget that a certain type of director can extract a performance out of an actor. But I never saw Kubrick as an actors director. Much like Hitchcock.

[English Patient]

I think a lot of the dislike for her performance might stem from the role as it was written for her. Diane Johnson said that a lot of her stronger lines were cut and Duvall was pretty much left with dialogue that was either chirpy and banal or whiny and terrified (with one exception - when she angrily calls Jack a son-of-a-*****).

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by KcMsterpce

I don't remember where I read it, but King mentioned that he hated Shelley Duvall as a casting choice for the movie as much as he did Jack because they were nothing like what he intended from his book.
Yes, it's well known that he notoriously despised Kubrick's movie (although I think he's warmed up to it and appreciates it more these days).

King's primary complaint about Jack was that Nicholson was unsettling and pretty "loony" right off the bat, thus the gradual descent into madness was missing - which King felt was a key ingredient to the story he was telling.

As for Wendy... King liked the idea of her being a pretty woman, that was a head cheerleader in her school, from a well-to-do family, and never really had to struggle in life. Thus, being stuck at the Overlook as Jack starts losing his mind and her son is in peril forces her to come to terms with situations that she was never confronted with in the past. It made her fight for survival more frightening, because she lived a semi-charmed life up to that point.
Shelley Duvall doesn't fit that profile at all. It really pissed King off because it completely undercut the themes and hardships (and terror) of Wendy's need to actually fight for something, without help from outside forces (or her looks).

"The Shining" is one of my favorite movies, but I could understand how frustrated Stephen King must have been when he saw the movie. To see the two primary characters that he wrote end up being nothing like what he envisioned and worked to achieve must have been disheartening.

I like both concepts. It just makes the characters' motivations drastically different.

Personally, I think Kubrick saw through King like an X-Ray machine, and realized the book was about alcoholism. If I was an alcoholic and someone made a movie out of my book exposing the truth about me, I imagine I wouldn't be happy. King said when he was firmly in the jaws of his substance illness, he'd be invited over to someone's house and he'd raid the medicine cabinets and even drank their cough syrup.

[KcMsterpce]

What I love about Duvall's performance is how well she encapsulates the embodiment of terror. For the final act of the movie, she's completely unhinged, wide eyed and desperate. She's barely keeping it together, and that sense of hysterical panic is further compounded by what the viewers learn of her as a person before all that.
Yes, a lot of the conversation/scenes are banal and slightly uninteresting. However, I feel that the intentionally plodding scenes reveal Wendy's inner strength of trying to keep a broken family together due to her husband's alcoholism.
I feel that she desperately loves her son, and has a deep commitment to her husband. She isn't pessimistic to past events, but he also doesn't have rose-tinted glasses (which is well established during her discussion to the nurse).
The "boring" CB radio conversation helps me get the sense that she's a little nervous, but hopeful for the job at the Overlook.
I also like how she gradually becomes unhinged, knowing that there is some freaky shit going on, and Jack's darker side is reaching the surface. Duvall also portrays the sense that something more than Jack is causing discomfort and discordance at the Overlook.
The scene with her weak swings with the bat at Jack as he finally goes "full crazy" on her may be the only thing that kinda annoys me. However, her vulnerability, her desperation during that scene - it's on point.

So yeah... I love this movie, and if anything, Duvall's portrayal of Wendy (and Kubrick's approach to her character) is a big part of what I love about it.

[dcx4610]

Hopefully Kubrick's family will release "The Shining: Final Cut - Shine On" with Jennifer Lawrence or Scar Jo's face CGI'ed over Shelly Duvall's face along with dubbed dialogue. Maybe then I can truly appreciate this supposed masterpiece of horror.