The Shining (1980): Forward and Backward

An annual revisit with a twist.

Full disclosure: I know none of what I'm about to say was intentional on the part of Kubrick, but I just thought it'd be a fun way to spice up my watch this time around. 

This year, I watched the 2-hour-and-21-minute-long version (without the ending credits) of The Shining, with the movie simultaneously playing forward and backward, superimposed on each other (the audio track is normal). I don't really know anything about the documentary where all those Redditors spout their Shining conspiracies but I think I heard that it spawned from that. Regardless, I thought it was a cool idea — and, no, I don't think Kubrick's alleged quote “The Shining is a film meant to be watched both forward and backward” should be taken literally.

Having said that, this was maybe the best watch I've had of The Shining. I'm not going to try to make some forced sense out of something purely coincidental but it's really cool how the simultaneous forward and backward scenes actually somehow seem to reflect the characters' mindsets way more often than expected. However, I won't say it's all coincidence because Kubrick likely had some sort of bookending in mind when making the film. After all, the movie starts with the Torrances moving into the Overlook and ends with Danny and Wendy trying to escape. 

So, below is a list of happy scene pairings I noticed. Some are more meaningful than others and I tried to put them in order of how interesting the coincidences are. (It's all in good fun!) There are some images to help visualize what I’m saying, too.

• Jack’s two lusts overlap as he takes a drink at the same time he kisses the woman in Room 237. (Below)

• When Wendy is discussing Jack's drunken, violent episode with the woman who came over to examine Danny at the beginning, the later scene that overlaps with it is Jack breaking the bathroom door down, where Wendy is holding the knife and screaming in fear. (Below) This struck me the most because I think it's genuinely representative of Wendy’s mindset in the earlier scene. Domestic violence not only takes a fearful toll on someone but can also make the victim convince themself that the situation isn't as bad as it really is. When Wendy is explaining the incident, she's even smiling and playfully dismissing it, saying, "It was just one of those things, you know?" She may try to hide it (consciously or not), but inside, she's clearly still traumatized. (It may have even caused her to take up smoking. Who knows?)

• Shelly is sleeping during the REDRUM scene later in the film during the earlier part where she's being toured around the hotel, as if she's oblivious, while Danny is aware of everything going on (more or less).

• Danny's wide-eyed stare into the camera happens at the same time Wendy makes the realization that Jack might be dangerous, and REDRUM also flashes during this time. (Below)

• The scenes where Dick gives Wendy and Danny a tour of the kitchen overlaps with Jack being locked in the storage room, and he's in the center of the frame at practically the exact moment when the freezer is opened. (Below)

• Jack is talking about having writer's block when Wendy brings him breakfast in bed at the same time when Wendy confronts him with a bat at the typewriter and flips through the stack of typed pages, making for this cool shot, pasted below.

• Grady's face appears mere frames after the twins say "Hello, Danny" and their death is superimposed with the conversation Jack has with Grady, in which the former caretaker says he had to kill his family. (Below) (Side note, but I was wondering this time around if Jack can shine, too, or some variation of it. When Grady explains Danny's "power" to him in the bathroom, Jack seems a bit confused, but that could just be that Jack doesn't fully understand the shining, which doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have it himself.)

• The whole conversation in the Torrances' hotel room where Danny asks Jack, “You would never hurt mommy and me, would you,” happens all throughout the sequence that starts when Grady bumps into Jack, which is when Jack becomes compelled to "correct" his own family.

• Jack spazzes out in the hallway — which is one of his first outbursts — at the same time he explains to Wendy that Danny probably hurt himself, maybe showing that he’s the one who truly hurt Danny. You know, now that I think about it, Jack tells Lloyd that he never hurt Danny. Not that I believe everything Jack says, obviously, but why would he even lie at that moment? In fact, it actually makes sense that Danny would hurt himself to signal to Wendy that something was wrong with Jack. Then again, Danny walks into the main lobby area on the first floor when Jack is having his nightmare where he killed Danny and Wendy, maybe showing Jack was really behind it. (Side note: This time around, I think Jack was bullshitting about his nightmare.)

• Danny is holding a knife at the time of the Grady twins' first appearance.

• Danny says that Tony (who I'm still not confident I know the full nature of) "hides" sometimes at the same time as the scene where Jack jumps out from behind the pillar to kill Dick Hallorann.

• At the moment of Jack's "Kubrick stare," he's shown taking apart the radio, almost as if he were contemplating that at the earlier moment where the camera zeroes in on his dead-eyed look. To go even further, Wendy makes a call to the police station not too long after that, and the phone lines are down, almost as if Jack had conjured it. (Huh? Snowstorm? What storm? Nah, nah, Kubrick planned it all.)

Considering I had very low expectations for what is admittedly an insane way to watch this movie, it was really fun and I found it incredibly fascinating. And, just when I thought I couldn't like it more, it even enhanced my experience, regardless of how intentional any of it was (which is, again, probably none of it). I didn't love it because "Kubrick's a genius for making it work backward and forward," but it's just amazing that the film somehow works even better this way (at least for a veteran Shining fan). Blasphemous? Maybe, but I was so wrapped up in it this time around, even more than my other six watches.

(Also, this has nothing to do with this version of the movie, but I noticed that Danny is lying on a bear blanket in his bed when being examined at the beginning. Whatever the hell that means! But it reminded me of the bear suit at the end.)

10/18/24