Transcript: The Shining Mini-Series vs Movie: Stephen King's Best Adaptation

Greetings Classic Cinema and TV fans, this is Jason Lockett here with you once again bringing you another retro drive-in podcast. And for this month of October, it is Halloween month. Ooh, it's one of my favorite times of the year. I love the spookiness. I love all the goodies and all the craziness and all the ghosts and all that type of stuff. I love Halloween time because I love classic horror films. And so to me, this is one of my favorite times of the year. I start in September and I start watching all kinds of horror films because I just love it. Whether it be the family-friendly horror films or the classic horror films or whatever the case may be, I really, really love diving into horror. This is the only time of year I really do it. Now, some people do Halloween and do horror films year-round. I try to just keep it for Halloween time because it makes it special. That's me. But anyway, today I want to talk to you about The Shining. I love Stephen King films. My favorite Stephen King film of all time is definitely Pet Sematary. I love Misery. I think that is a tremendous film. Thinner is pretty good, too. There's just a lot of really, really good Stephen King films, right? You can go to all of them, really, in a lot of ways. But there's one specific one that we're talking about today, and it is The Shining. Now, many people remember The Shining from probably the Stanley Kubrick film that starred Jack Nicholson. And this one right here, it is in this Blu-ray set here, King of Horror Collection. It's a four-movie, if you will, set, although these are not really movies. Two of them are movies. The other two are miniseries. You get The Shining, Cat's Eye, the miniseries It, which is, in my opinion, so much superior to the newer one. But that's me. And then, of course, Salem's Lot. That's going to be up for debate. Some people will love that. And that's what I love about movies and all, is that something that you love, I may not love. And something that I love, you may not. You know, it's just, that's what makes movies so cool. So it's something for everyone. To me, I like the classical take of It. I just think it's creepy. I really do. I think it's really, really creepy, and I just like it a whole lot more than the newer It. But that's me. But we're not here to talk about It. We're here to talk about The Shining. Okay, so The Shining is based on a Stephen King novel, a big Stephen King novel, of course. and Stanley Kubrick's version found on this Blu-ray here if you're watching the video. If you're listening to the audio you can't see that but anyway. The Shining is basically about a guy and his wife and his son that go to be caretakers of the Overlook Hotel during the winter season and how he slowly goes insane and just goes crazy and all It is a really, really interesting film. Stanley Kubrick's version bears little resemblance to the actual novel. Even Stephen King himself said that he was not a fan of Stanley Kubrick's version. Now, a lot of people love it. A lot of people think it is just terrifying. I will say, Shelley Duvall is really, really good in The Shining. Jack Nicholson is just bonkers nuts as Jack Torrance. I mean, he's crazy. And I'll be honest with you, in a way that works in a lot of ways. But you can see how he starts off, Jack Nicholson has a real weird way about him, right? I mean, even when he's playing sane, he has that little thing that's a little tick off, You know what I mean? He really still looks a little tick off when he's even at the beginning of the film. He just kind of, when he's talking, he just talks so strange and he's just like, you know, like something's not quite right, you know? So I don't know. But anyway, but Kubrick's version is a lot more different than the novel, of course. Kubrick took and it changed a lot and you can there's a lot of articles up and we're not going to go through everything because you can see that for yourself there's no point in me trying to go through and and and do all that and say oh here's all the differences when you probably read them or you probably already know it so there's no point in going through all of it but I will say this that the the Stanley Kubrick version of The Shining has a lot of really great images in it scary images. It is shot in such a way that it's really terrifying in a lot of ways, the long hallway scenes and the endless thing where Danny Torrance keeps running, going around and around and around and around and around, just keeping riding that big wheel and just keeps going. It's shot in such a really unique way. I mean, Kubrick was a master when it comes to that. So it is a very, very good film. But to me, now this is me, I believe that the miniseries is a little bit more superior. That's going to get a lot of hate. A lot of Stephen King purists and people that love Stanley Kubrick and love the original Shining are going to sit there and say, no! And that's fine. If you think it's superior, that's fine. Well, you lost me quite some time. Me personally, I believe the miniseries is a little more superior. Why do I feel that way? Okay, first off, let's talk about the miniseries. Stephen Weber from Wings, who didn't love that, plays Jack Torrance. I love that. Now Courtland Mead plays Danny Torrance I tell you why I like the miniseries more than the movie First off, it's more true to the actual book, okay? But I will say this. Number one, I like the idea that it stayed more to the book, where Jack Torrance uses the mallet instead of the axe. I think that's – it's a little more – I don't know. It lends itself a little more to horror to me instead of just slasher. You know what I mean? So I like that. Number two, the one thing that I really liked is – and that I didn't like about the movie. The movie by Stanley Kubrick had Danny Torrance talking to Tony like this, and Tony was doing this number when he would talk. I didn't – it didn't make sense to me. I didn't get what this – I mean, I know what it's supposed to be. I'm just saying this was kind of stupid to me, at least to me it was. In the miniseries, Danny Torrance actually sees a vision of Tony. And he sees this ghost-like apparition, if you will, of Tony. And Tony speaks to him. And I like that. It kind of lent itself to, to my opinion, like Pet Sematary, where you had Pascal. Louis Pascal. I love that. And it kind of lent itself to that idea a little bit to me. So I like that a lot. Also, I like the miniseries because it's four and a half hours long. Okay, now some people sit there and say, I ain't sitting for four and a half hours. This is done so well. I got this thing done in no time flat. Boom. I mean, I just sat down and it was gone and it was over. And I had it done in no time flat because it does so well. It just rolls. It just rolls. Now, let's be honest. The special effects in the miniseries are not the most spectacular in the world, of course. You're talking a TV miniseries. You're not going to have a huge, humongous budget for this. So the miniseries doesn't have as much of the quality that you might want. But I do like that. I like the miniseries. I like the fact that when it's all said and done, I like the heart that is in The Shining that is missing from the original, the Stanley Kubrick's version. Stanley Kubrick's version, there's no heart. It's just a man that goes insane and that's it. where the miniseries has more of the heart at the end where Jack Torrance wants to save his family, but he's conflicted by the ghosts that inhabit the Overlook Hotel. And I love that. I even found myself shedding a little tear at the end of the film when there's that thing as Danny is graduating with honors and all this, and he sees a vision of his dad and his dad says he proud of him and all that I thought that was just perfect It actually had me shed a little tear that I had to wipe away It was really cool I enjoy that. I enjoy the more the happy ending than just everybody dies at the end. It doesn't have the effect. Horror's good, but you want a happy ending. At least I do. I don't want that downer of an ending that makes you just sit there and go, well, doggone. I don't like that. I like the happy ending. That's me. I'm a little bit of a classical guy. I grew up on the classic horror films and stuff where there was always that happy ending, and that's kind of what I like. And I love the fact that we find, and this is spoiler, people, if you haven't read the book, if you haven't watched the miniseries, this is a spoiler ahead, so just realize it. But in the miniseries, I love the fact that it brought forth the fact that Tony, that Danny Torrance is seeing and is hearing from, is actually Danny from the future. I love that. actually the Danny or the Tony that we see in the miniseries here talking to Danny actually becomes Danny at the end of the film, which is just perfect. I like it. I like it. One final thing that I would like to say is I think it's terrible that the companies do this. See, you get Salem's Lot, It and The Shining. And to get the miniseries, you've got to rebuy It and The Salem's Lot. Why couldn't they just make this? I don't know. But anyway, I guess it's that you've got a backup. We've got backups. But anyway. Okay, so that's why I love the miniseries so much more than I love the classic Stanley Kubrick's version. I just think it's a more superior version. That's me. Now, I don't know how you feel, but that's how I feel. So let us know what you feel about The Shining. Whether you think the book is the most superior or Kubrick's version or do you like the miniseries. Which do you like? Let us know in the comments. We'd love to hear from you. We would also want to remind you to go to Classic Cinema Plus every single day. We have tons and tons of articles up there and Blu-ray and DVD reviews and videos and podcasts all archived up there. And you'll be there for days and days and days and days. So definitely go there. We would definitely appreciate it. Be sure to like, share, and subscribe. It helps out so much. And I thank you so much for watching this podcast or listening to the audio version, whichever you did. We appreciate it. And until we see you next time with another Retro Drive-In Podcast, this is Jason Locker reminding you that if you want to see a great film, check out a classic, and we will see you next time. Have a spooky Halloween. We'll see you. Bye.