The way 'The Shining' changed from book to movie still bugs me...

I read the book first back in 2019 and then watched Kubrick's movie right after. The biggest shift for me was how Jack Torrance goes from a sympathetic guy fighting his demons in the novel to basically a ticking time bomb from scene one in the film. The book spends pages on his internal struggle and his love for Danny, but the movie skips almost all of that to focus on the creepy visuals. I get that it's a different medium but it feels like two completely different stories with the same names attached. Has anyone else felt like the movie version of Jack lost all his humanity for no good reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_mitchell25d ago

Wait, did you watch the same movie? Jack's got that scene with Wendy in the ballroom where he talks about his temper and the school incident. That's his humanity right there, struggling with it.

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morgan51225d ago

Yeah, that scene gets me every time. "Struggling with it" is exactly the right word. The way he talks about hurting Danny before and then that little pause before saying he would never hurt him or Wendy? That pause says so much. He's not a monster at the start, he's a broken guy who knows he's got this anger problem and is terrified of it.