Work Over Family in THE SHINING

“In the book, he’s a guy who’s struggling with his sanity and finally loses it. To me, that’s a tragedy. In the movie, there’s no tragedy because there’s no real change.”--Stephen King interview Deadline 2016 

It’s well known that King doesn’t like Kubrick’s movie. King mentioned that, because Jack was always crazy in the movie, it destroys Jack’s redemption arc in King’s story. That would make sense if Kubrick intended his version to be a redemption story. But it isn’t. It clearly isn’t. Kubrick told a totally different story with a different message. 

The Shining 1980

The film is about choosing work over family.  

King can be mad all he wants, but, in my opinion, it’s a good idea to have the movie differ greatly from the book. It brings something new to the table, other than a beat-for-beat retelling of the novel. We get to experience a different message.  

Jack Torrance, in the book, is symbolic of Stephen King himself. No question. King’s been very vocal about his alcohol abuse throughout the 70s and 80s. 

And he taught English at a public school and creative writing at college for a while to make ends meet until his literary career blossomed, just as Jack says during the interview with Ullman. 

And it’s in these similarities that The Shining novel means something special to him. It’s a form of personal redemption for King through literature.  

Jack, in the book, comes to his senses for a short bit and saves Danny so he and Wendy can escape. Jack blows up the Overlook Hotel. He sacrifices his life so his family can live. It’s very personal for King. Very Christ-like. 

In Kubrick’s movie, you could say that the villain wins. Jack gets what he wants, right? He was in and out of jobs. No real direction for a career or a way to support his family. The only option was to be absorbed by the Overlook and let Wendy and Danny move on with their lives. 

That’s why the final shot of Jack among the crowd of guests is the most important moment in the movie. He’s smiling. He’s happy. Jack found a career with a community of psychos and deviants at the Overlook Hotel.  

By making the movie version of The Shining, which highlights family values more than the job theme and the alcoholism of the Jack Torrance character in the novel, it, to King, transforms, destroys, and disfigures the personal attachment he had when writing the novel.