Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

From a script he co-adapted from the Stephen King novel, Kubrick melds vivid performances, menacing settings, dreamlike tracking shots and shock after shock into a milestone of the macabre. In a signature role, Jack Nicholson ("Heeeere's Johnny!") plays Jack Torrance, who's come to the elegant, isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd). Torrance has never been there before - or has he? The answer lies in a ghostly time warp of madness and murder.

A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotel's ghosts. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining".

Protagonist Alex is an "ultraviolent" youth in futuristic Britain. As with all luck, his eventually runs out and he's arrested and convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, Alex learns of an experimental program in which convicts are programed to detest violence. If he goes through the program his sentence will be reduced and he will be back on the streets sooner than expected. But Alex's ordeals are far from over once he hits the mean streets of Britain that he had a hand in creating.

UK collection that is comprised of musical selections from Kubrick's central masterpieces, complimented by pieces which the director used as 'temp tracks' during the production and by all accounts with every intention of using these in the film, only to decide to replace them late on. In 2001, the scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' (used for scenes of weightlessness) and Vaughan Williams 'Antarctica Suite' (for the Stargate effects and scenes on the moon) were both used in preview showings of the film before being discarded. While on Eyes Wide Shut, Wagner's 'Lieder I'm Triebhaus' ('In the Greenhouse') from Wesendonck Lieder was a significant theme in the production for more than a year before being replaced. We have also assembled the complete vintage ballroom music from The Shining. The final movement from Berlioz's 'Symphonie Fantastique', with it's epic use of the chant from the Roman Catholic Requiem mass, the 'Dies Irae', and a Sibelius piece, 'Valse Triste'. Both were important to the evolution of the film. Finally, as a young man, Stanley Kubrick fell in love with Sergi Prokofiev's score for the Sergei Eisenstein's first sound film, Alexander Nevsky. He played it to death, and it would inspire him later in his own use of dramatic music. From the scintillating recording by Fritz Reiner with the Chicago SO, we include the movement, 'Battle On the Ice'.

UK collection that is comprised of musical selections from Kubrick's central masterpieces, complimented by pieces which the director used as 'temp tracks' during the production and by all accounts with every intention of using these in the film, only to decide to replace them late on. In 2001, the scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' (used for scenes of weightlessness) and Vaughan Williams 'Antarctica Suite' (for the Stargate effects and scenes on the moon) were both used in preview showings of the film before being discarded. While on Eyes Wide Shut, Wagner's 'Lieder I'm Triebhaus' ('In the Greenhouse') from Wesendonck Lieder was a significant theme in the production for more than a year before being replaced. We have also assembled the complete vintage ballroom music from The Shining. The final movement from Berlioz's 'Symphonie Fantastique', with it's epic use of the chant from the Roman Catholic Requiem mass, the 'Dies Irae', and a Sibelius piece, 'Valse Triste'. Both were important to the evolution of the film. Finally, as a young man, Stanley Kubrick fell in love with Sergi Prokofiev's score for the Sergei Eisenstein's first sound film, Alexander Nevsky. He played it to death, and it would inspire him later in his own use of dramatic music. From the scintillating recording by Fritz Reiner with the Chicago SO, we include the movement, 'Battle On the Ice'.

Narrated by Tom Cruise, "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures" goes through each one of his movies and talks to various participants about their memories of working with Kubrick. For those who know very little about Kubrick, the documentary is an excellent career overview. Kubrick film clips include "Fear and Desire," "Killer's Kiss," "The Killing," "Paths of Glory," "Spartacus," "Lolita," "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," "Barry Lyndon," "The Shining," "Full Metal Jacket" and "Eyes Wide Shut." Those appearing include: Arthur C. Clarke, Keir Dullea, Shelley Duvall, James B. Harris, Richard Schickel, Michael Herr, Nicole Kidman, Anya Kubrick, Christiane Kubrick, Gert Kubrick, Katharina Kubrick, Paul Mazursky, Jack Nicholson, Malcolm McDowell, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Douglas Trumbull, Marie Windsor, Matthew Modine, Sydney Pollack and Peter Ustinov.