The Shining 4K UHD (1980)

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I was Team Euro for the longest time but I've warmed up to the US cut quite a bit. You're absolutely right that most of the stuff trimmed is just exposition bits, which is my #1 gripe with most extended versions (they take longer just to say the same thing, or stuff that's easily inferred), but when I watched the shorter cut again I found myself missing a lot of it. Halloran isn't even introduced in the Euro cut IIRC, he just turns up during the walk and talk around the hotel. And instead of the extra scenes feeling like it padding it's more about establishing the bland domesticity of their situation, so when the horror kicks in it actually amplifies the dread.

The Euro cut doesn't even feel organically faster paced either, it feels artificially faster. Sure it wraps up the story quicker, but in exchange you miss out on the Halloran introduction,

[Show spoiler]the doctor scene where it's revealed Jack previously injured Danny in a drunken rage (I know a lot like the "shock reveal" that the Euro cut has regarding this subplot towards the third act but honestly I don't think it works and again feels artificial), and the scene whenever Tony fully takes over Danny and behaves erratically until the very end, which is a minor plot hole in the Euro cut since the scene that established that issue isn't present.

All of these scenes I think were necessary to better tell the complete story. Plus as I said before, the way that Kubrick just chopped off the slow fades feels very crude and abrupt. I think it's good that the US cut has become the default in European/UK territories since 2016 with that infamously named "extended edition" BD that was really just a fancy repackage of the 2007 US BD.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by yukito

I wouldn't mind the longer cut if the skelintons were not a part of it...

She's having a mental breakdown, she's not really seeing that stuff it's in her head in her headddddd. ZOmbie...Ever had a panic/anxiety attack think your dying and all kinds of stupid shit goes through your head.

[bigbadwoppet]

Leon Vitali is dead now. Warner should finally include the original theatrical release with the hospital epilogue.

[Kyle15]

I don't just like the skeletons, I love the skeletons. They're a tongue in cheek party trick like a devious little joke pulled on poor Wendy by another force she and her family cannot understand. It's metaphorical but also is not. It's the duality. I love every single frame of this film to pieces. Every last second is a riveting joy to look at and feel.

[sidetracked1]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

I don't just like the skeletons, I love the skeletons. They're a tongue in cheek party trick like a devious little joke pulled on poor Wendy by another force she and her family cannot understand. It's metaphorical but also is not. It's the duality. I love every single frame of this film to pieces. Every last second is a riveting joy to look at and feel.

I always felt Wendy's visions were very influenced by the fact that she's a horror movie fan (which the dialogue makes a point of earlier). Whether they are actually only in her head or the house molding the reality to her brain.

Indeed, I feel like all the characters' visions and experiences are to some extent subjective not objective truth. Jack's manufactured reality is a bar, Danny the classic father as monster, or little girls his age. Everyone's horror is at least a touch personal.

So the fact that some of what Wendy sees look like images from 1960s horror films seems specific and intentional.

And, of course, I could be wrong.

[Olmo]

Originally Posted by bigbadwoppet

Leon Vitali is dead now. Warner should finally include the original theatrical release with the hospital epilogue.

I don’t think it exists anymore, like the missing A Clockwork Orange footage or any other extraneous material, it was always stipulated by Kubrick to be destroyed.

I think Warners would have milked that particular cash-cow by now if the materials were available.

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by Olmo

I don’t think it exists anymore, like the missing A Clockwork Orange footage or any other extraneous material, it was always stipulated by Kubrick to be destroyed.

I think Warners would have milked that particular cash-cow by now if the materials were available.

It exists it's just the Kubrick estate won't allow its release, just like the extra footage from 2001. Honestly I could care less if the extended ending was ever released, I think that it sucks and would detract from the vibe the movie actually does end on.

[JoelGoodsen]

If you like AI, you will love this. The extended ending recreated with AI.

The Shining - Hospital Scene AI Reconstruction - YouTube

[FatherDude]

Originally Posted by SpacemanDoug

It exists it's just the Kubrick estate won't allow its release, just like the extra footage from 2001. Honestly I could care less if the extended ending was ever released, I think that it sucks and would detract from the vibe the movie actually does end on.

My understanding is that the missing 17-ish minutes from 2001 survive in the form of separation masters that exist in the Warner Bros. vaults, so that's a little more of a fluke, owing to the eleventh hour nature of the cuts and Kubrick not quite yet wielding the exceptional level control he would reserve from the 70s onward. Kubrick was probably successful in destroying the negative of the 2001 trims, but then it's always an exception when trims from a movie of that age survive, even in the absence of an outright agenda to junk them.

It seems unlikely THE SHINING epilogue exists anywhere. The negative of the footage would have gone into the inferno Leon Vitali testified to. That leaves the prints in circulation for that first week of general release, which was very limited. It sounds like they were quite diligent in having projectionists excise the frames and return them to the studio, and it wouldn't have been difficult to account for everything since the movie was only playing in a few cities at that point.

The most interesting-sounding deleted scenes from THE SHINING are cuts that got made before the premiere, and those are surely gone. Kubrick was ahead of his time in trying to mitigate the risk of studios preparing "alternate cuts" for a quick buck. See: The disastrously paced "unrated" cut of DUMB AND DUMBER somehow becoming defacto on home video.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by FatherDude

It seems unlikely THE SHINING epilogue exists anywhere. The negative of the footage would have gone into the inferno Leon Vitali testified to.

I thought the 146 min version was supposed to get a screening a while back, but the Kubrick estate pulled it at the last minute? Did I dream that?

[SpacemanDoug]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

I thought the 146 min version was supposed to get a screening a while back, but the Kubrick estate pulled it at the last minute? Did I dream that?

It was a mistake by whoever made that press release, it was never intended at any point to release the actual 146 minute cut. I remember that announcement and it occurred around the time the 4K release was announced.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by SpacemanDoug

It was a mistake by whoever made that press release, it was never intended at any point to release the actual 146 minute cut. I remember that announcement and it occurred around the time the 4K release was announced.

Ohhhhh, my bad.

[Kyle15]

The original cut ending is probably the single 'lost' movie footage I want to see the most next to The Magnificent Ambersons director's cut and the entire bedroom scene from The Lost World.

[FatherDude]

Originally Posted by JackForrester

I read somewhere that it was Kubrick's favorite cut too, not sure if it's true.

It gets repeated a lot by those who need their preference validated, but I am familiar with no actual evidence that Kubrick preferred the shorter cut of THE SHINING. It's been established by Jan Harlan that the movie was shortened at Warner Bros. suggestion after the box office performance was softer than hoped for in the U.S. That its origins are business-oriented doesn't preclude the possibility that Kubrick liked it better, but there's no statement to support it.

Personally, the U.S. cut is the only one I watch, but I would like to see a 4K master of the UK version prepared because it was still cut by Kubrick himself, and thus has historical value.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

The original cut ending is probably the single 'lost' movie footage I want to see the most next to The Magnificent Ambersons director's cut and the entire bedroom scene from The Lost World.

I'd love to see the additional trims from The Devils (even the director's cut is missing stuff). Obviously the spider pit scene from King Kong would be an amazing find. Also the fully uncut version of Last House!

[JohnCarpenterFan]

Originally Posted by FatherDude

My understanding is that the missing 17-ish minutes from 2001 survive in the form of separation masters that exist in the Warner Bros. vaults, so that's a little more of a fluke, owing to the eleventh hour nature of the cuts and Kubrick not quite yet wielding the exceptional level control he would reserve from the 70s onward. Kubrick was probably successful in destroying the negative of the 2001 trims, but then it's always an exception when trims from a movie of that age survive, even in the absence of an outright agenda to junk them.

It seems unlikely THE SHINING epilogue exists anywhere. The negative of the footage would have gone into the inferno Leon Vitali testified to. That leaves the prints in circulation for that first week of general release, which was very limited. It sounds like they were quite diligent in having projectionists excise the frames and return them to the studio, and it wouldn't have been difficult to account for everything since the movie was only playing in a few cities at that point.

The most interesting-sounding deleted scenes from THE SHINING are cuts that got made before the premiere, and those are surely gone. Kubrick was ahead of his time in trying to mitigate the risk of studios preparing "alternate cuts" for a quick buck. See: The disastrously paced "unrated" cut of DUMB AND DUMBER somehow becoming defacto on home video.

It would have existed in other forms too, and I've heard rumblings that the footage still exists as with the excised 2001 footage. I just don't expect to see it anytime soon because of whatever the agreement is with Kubrick's estate and WB. As with a lot of other stuff like preserved preview versions of films and LoC's archival scans of prints; they'll still exist although just won't be easily accessible to the public for a very long time, if ever.

[MifuneFan]

I have this weird memory of actually having seen the hospital scene at the end. I don't know if this is mandela effect nonsense, but it's a weird feeling. I have to imagine I saw pictures of the scene, and my brain just put them back into the film or something.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

I'd love to see the additional trims from The Devils (even the director's cut is missing stuff). Obviously the spider pit scene from King Kong would be an amazing find. Also the fully uncut version of Last House!

Woops, The Devils is up there as well. I DREAM!

[SleazyForWeasley]

Originally Posted by dlbsyst

I would love the mono track for archival purposes, but to be honest I love the DTS-MA 5.1 track. It sounds fantastic. A new transfer would be nice if it improves things, but I didn't really have a problem with the existing 4k Blu-rays transfer.

Was the previous 4K from an old master? The current 4K is reference quality glorious. I can't imagine it looking any better.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by SleazyForWeasley

Was the previous 4K from an old master? The current 4K is reference quality glorious. I can't imagine it looking any better.

Nope, it's not an old master.