The Shining

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Stephen King's The Shining
DVD cover
Format	Miniseries
Created by	Stephen King
Starring	Steven Weber Rebecca De Mornay Wil Horneff Courtland Mead Melvin Van Peebles
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	3
Production
Running time	91 minutes per episode / 273 minutes, total.
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	April 27, 1997 – May 1, 1997

The Shining is a three part television miniseries chronicling the events and actions that transpire as a family watches over a large and imposing Colorado hotel during the building's closed off season.

Adapted by director Mick Garris under the careful eye of Stephen King, the series was first aired in 1997 and starred a familiar cast of actors and actresses from across Hollywood at the time.

Cast

• Steven Weber (Jack Torrance)
• Rebecca De Mornay (Wendy Torrance)
• Courtland Mead (Daniel "Danny" Anthony Torrance)
• Melvin Van Peebles (Dick Hallorann)
• Wil Horneff (Tony, The man in Danny's Visions)
• Pat Hingle (Pete Watson)
• Elliott Gould (Stuart Ullman)
• Ron Allen (TV Anchor)
• John Durbin (Horace Derwent)
• Stanley Anderson (Delbert Grady)
• Stephen King (Gage Creed)

Plot overview

Jack Torrance has been regretting his drinking habit since it nearly destroyed his life. His alcoholism and explosive temper have led to him losing his teacher job at Stovington, a respectable preparatory school. The incident revolved around a student named George Hatfield, who in revenge for being cut from a debate team, slashed the wheels of Jack's car. Upon discovery, Jack had attacked George, and it was these dangerous outbursts that nearly led to the break up of his family when Jack injured his son Danny.

Now, nursing a life of sobriety and pulling in work as a writer, Jack and his family take on the seemingly dream job of looking after a large and rambling hotel as well as its grounds as winter caretakers. The Overlook Hotel, a large colonial building is sheltered away in a picturesque valley in the Rockies and commands impressive views of the local countryside and nearby mountains.

Hoping to succeed and move on as a writer, Jack is happy to take the job as it will provide desperately needed funds and the time to complete his first promising play.

Joining him are his wife Wendy and son Danny who also seem eager for the break from normal life and a home for the immediate future. Wendy has become strong in character due to Jack's former alcoholic streak. Upon entering the Overlook and meeting its head cook, Dick Hallorann, Danny discovers that he possesses a unique power which grants him a form of clairvoyance and telepathy. Hallorann tells Danny that he "shines", and thus this gives us the title of the story.

As the plot unfolds, it becomes increasingly apparent that the hotel's ghosts are more than figurative and far from peaceful. There is a force within the building that seems intent on using Danny for a means that remains unknown, and it goes from flickering lamps and spectral voices to a full-on masked ball from the Overlook's past.

Danny is the first to have fully noticed the darker character of the Hotel, having experienced visions and warnings that foreshadow what he and his parents will encounter over the winter.

In order to achieve its goal, the hotel will happily take over the person dearest to Danny: his father.

Inspirations

The creation of this miniseries is attributed to Stephen King's dissatisfaction with the 1980 version of the story by director Stanley Kubrick.

The Stanley Hotel

Aside for the motive behind the creation of the miniseries, the 1997 rendition featured an important set piece that helped to inspire the original story: the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. King used the hotel that inspired him to write the book as the main exterior and the design of the interior sets. Scenes were also shot using the real interior; however, specific pieces of set dressing were used to enhance the old-fashioned feel of the building.

External links

• The Shining at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie Junk Archive - Stephen King's The Shining
• The Stanley Hotel Official website