11/13/2004

i just finished reading the shining for the second time today. i read it for the first time a few years ago after having seen the movie with jack nicholson. the ending.. well, the whole second half of the book was a shock to me, as it was completely different from the movie. much, much better.

a few weeks (months?) ago (i don't remember), jess and i rented the made-for-tv movie version, with a bunch of people i didn't recognize. since the thing was a miniseries, it was about five hours long. yes, we actually watched the entire thing from beginning to end in one sitting. jess, never having read the book, thought it stupid (and inferior to the jack nickolson version). i, on the other hand, loved it because of its true-to-the-book-ness. upon some explanation, she came to better understand what happens to jack torrance's mind during his stay in the overlook hotel.. and that the hotel contains certain malevolent spirits.

anyway, there were some differences in the miniseries from the book that i liked, perhaps even better than the way it was done in the book. this may be boring to some of you, probably never having read/seen either, but i want to get this down. call it clarity through writing. i am going to divulge certain details about either the book or the miniseries, so if you plan on reading/seeing one or both, consider this your spoiler warning.

in the jack nicholson version of the shining, jack always looks like jack. a little more maniacal, to be sure (but that's jack nicholson for you), but still same ole jack. the book, however, describes him, when the overlook takes over his body, as a monster, as an it, looking similar enough in appearance like jack but obviously not the real jack. the miniseries accomplishes this nicely. i'm not sure how to descibe it: it's mostly in the actor's eyes, but his grin as well - not human. not the way a person would smile, even a malicious smile. it was very creepy, and very well done.

here is the major distinction between the book and the miniseries. when jack/overlook confronts danny, danny tells it that he knows what it really is: a false mask, that it's not really his daddy, it's the overlook controlling him. here the book and miniseries are the same: jack, the real jack, peeks through for a moment. he tells danny that he still loves him and to run away, run away. then it takes control again. before danny then reveals that which had been forgotten (i didn't like the miniseries' early revelation of that thing, but that's a different topic for another time) is where the two split. in the book, jack/overlook smashes in jack's face with its mallet, completely obliterating him (jack) from existence. masks off, then, it says to danny. in the miniseries, however, this does not happen. danny just makes known the secret of the overlook's destruction, and off runs jack/overlook to save it. in the last moments of its life, the book depicts no struggle whatsoever. jack/overlook has no bit of real jack left - just the evil. but in the miniseries, there is struggle. ultimately, in the miniseries, the overlook's destruction is not due to being too late (as in the book), but to jack's struggle with the evil. i think i prefer this, the miniseries' take on it, much better.

there was a phrase throughout the miniseries (not in the book at all, i looked), repeated in different situations:

kissin, kissin
that's what i been missin.

in the beginning, of course, it is said with love by jack to his wife and son (danny). when the overlook controls him, he says it with obvious evil intent. but in the very end, in his struggle with the overlook, jack (though looking very bloodied) says it again, thinking in his struggle of his wife and son - most of all, it's his love for them which keeps up his struggle against it. maybe i'm just a hopeless romantic (jess would say i am), but the heartache and love in jack torrance, revealed in the end, seems to me a much more proper way of ending the life of a haunted man. to know he still loves - still is capable of love - is sadder but somehow nobler. i think, then, that is the end i prefer.

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