Stephen King Movie Review- The Shining (1997)

Here is my last review of The Shining saga (or is it? **cough** Doctor Sleep). There won’t be much detail to this review as it the same story but this one actually follows the book real close.

We have our usual setup. A recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Weber) after been fired from his teaching job from beating a kid gets a job at a hotel. He brings his family along with his wife Winifred Torrance (Rebecca De Mornay) and son Danny Torrrance (Courtland Mead). His son of course has a power called the shining.

Jack Weber plays a pretty decent Jack Torrance in this. He does a lot of actions as the character does in the book and he is believable as a recovering alcoholic and someone that does seem to care for his family. He has some wooden moments in there but he pulls it off very well. He portrays the book Jack Torrance very well.

The wife is played well also by Rebecca De Mornay and is pretty strong. It matches also the book’s counterpart. I thought she held her own pretty well. The son did well also although he got on my nerves sometimes. He wasn’t the best actor but he did good catching the character from the book.

Basically what I am saying this was a good mini-series and I can see why it is called Stephen King’s The Shining as it has almost everything in the book from it. Of course it is toned down because it was on broadcast TV and could not show the more intense violent or sexual parts but the creepiness is there and follows the vision of what Stephen King’s story. They included such scenes as the beehive scenes, the hedge animals and the ending to the actual book. SPOILER—-You saw when the dad snapped out of it and wanted to redeem himself—–END SPOILER. It was a good representation and if you read the book you will enjoy this movie mostly. Yes it is mini-series quality but it expresses the best of what has been made what Stephen King wanted in the story.

As I said before this show is about a beacon of evil being the hotel where bad things have happened which seems to pop up in some Stephen King stories. However, the heart of the story is addiction, obsession, abuse, and family. You can see the journey of Jack Torrance as he tries to fight his demons both literally and inside of him. This movie could be a metaphor for addiction and what it does to your life even if there are evil things trying to get at you and your family. The supernatural element is there but it is the addiction that is the true horror.

Sorry these last two reviews have been short but it has been a few months since I watched these movies as I didn’t have time to blog them. Hope you enjoyed the little I did put there. Next up I will stray from Stephen King and review a book by Richard Bachman (who is that guy and what does he have to do with Stephen King?) called The Rage. It is a very controversial book.

Did you watch the mini-series of The Shining? What did you think about it? Did you like it better than the 1980 version of The Shining? Do you feel this is the true version? Let me know with your comments below. I want to hear from you. Since this movie was close to the book and had decent acting and creepiness to it I give it three and half stars. Here is a trailer for the movie in case you want to check it out.

Like I said in the past I will have a tracker of the final ratings of each book or movie I reviewed to show what I liked or didn’t like. It is a rating based out of five stars. For previous reviews if you missed it you can click on the title and it will link to that review for you to read.

Books Reviewed:
Carrie ***
Salem’s Lot ***1/2
The Shining *** 

 
 Movies Reviewed:
 Carrie (1976) ****
The Rage: Carrie 2 ***
Carrie (2002) ½* (Yes a half of a star out of five) 
Salem’s Lot (1979) **
A Return to Salem’s Lot *
Salem’s Lot (2004) ***1/2
The Shining (1980) **
The Shining (1997) ***1/2

Leave a Reply