The Shining

The Shining (1997) was a Stephen King/ Mick Garris collaboration. Stephen King was dissatisfied with the way Stanley Kubrick adapted his novel for the silver screen. He only retained the bare minimum of the book when he directed the film Several years later, Stephen King jumped at the chance to adapt his novel as a mini-series. The people at A.B.C. let him get away with as much as he could during the production of this series. The results are a more entertaining film that follow's more closely to the source material. But this film is either a love it or hate it kind. People will hate it because they fell in love with the theatrical production or they'll love it because it's almost like the original novel.

What I liked about the mini-series is the way the characters are portrayed in the novel. The father (Steven Weber) is more of a likable character, the kid (Courtland Mead) this time around is a much better actor, the mother's (Rebecca De Mornay) character is better written (and hotter too). The biggest improvement is the character of Dick Halloran (Melvin Van Peebles). His character from the book was sorely missing in the theatrical version. Even though the mini-series wasn't a technical masterpiece of film maker, I enjoyed it more.

Highly recommended for fans of the novel.

The 1997 version of The Shining is an excellent adaptation for fans of the book. For everyone else, it is entertaining but overshadowed by the uber-famous 1980 film (though to be honest, it's like comparing apples with Cadillacs). This film is best watched either three days in a row or all at once. Weber delivers a great performance as the haunted and tragic Jack Torrence and DeMornay surpasses Shelly Duvall in the role of Jack's patient but cautious wife, Wendy. Melvin Van Peebles is okay in the role of Hallorann but I found myself missing Scatman Crothers. Courtland Meade as Danny takes some getting used to, and I'll leave it at that. And even though it appeared on network television during sweeps, it contains a surprising amount of violence (especially during Jack's confrontation with Wendy in part three) and gore (especially in part two). Definatly worth a watch.

When I first saw this mini-series I thought it, despite being more faithful than Kubrick's film, was pointless and nowhere near as atmospheric. Watching it again, I think I was being unfair. I do consider Kubrick's film the superior and more atmospheric film overall(I shall never forget the Here Comes Johnny and Woman in the Bathtub scenes), but aside from being much more faithful to the book, which is excellent by the way but as far as King's works go I prefer It and The Stand, there are improvements made here. Jack's transformation is much more subtle, and his and Wendy's relationship is explored much further here. Rebecca DeMornay also is a far better female lead in my opinion, and Steven Weber brings a more human touch while being quite frightening too. The mini-series does look good, the photography and production values are fine, the sound and music are atmospheric, the story is compelling and the dialogue is mostly good. My complaints however are the overlong length, some of the CGI effects which were sometimes unnecessary and the pace is occasionally a little dull. Overall, it is a solid mini-series and much better the second time of viewing. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I liked the fact that the film was more faithful to the book - one of my all-time favorite books, incidentally.

However, that's about the only thing that was better. This version was long, boring and the acting was absolutely horrid. I've never seen a movie where EVERYONE overacted. Elliot Gould as Stuart Ullman was terrifying- Gould tried way too hard, and his performance was wooden.

In fact, it seemed as if all the actors were reading from cue cards the entire time. If someone without any cinematic skills like me can notice this, couldn't the people involved with the film have noticed too? There's no way they wanted people to act like this.

OH well. I didn't think anything could make me think the original Shining was a great movie once I read the book, but I have to say, I'll take the "unfaithful" version anytime.

This television series was so dreadful, so dull and cheesy, how could any intelligent person possibly endorse it? Sure it was a much more faithful adaptation of King, but, for Christ's sake, it was shot like an after-school special, suffered the WORST miscasting, had some of the most godawful CGI effects (the moving shrubs made our entire roomful of viewers crack up), and lacked any mild attempts at atmosphere or terror. How could anyone EVER be scared by Steven Weber? It's like watching Barney descend into madness. What Kubrick lacked in direct interpretation he so greatly compensated for with a beautiful, disturbing and personal film. Remember people...BASED on the book by Stephen King. There was a reason many things never made it into the original film...they would look absolutely stupid (ie the shrubs) in direct translation and would most certainly detract from the film. Earlier quote - "Kubrick was a bit of a bad director(have i made any one cry just then)" No, you just made me laugh at you!