We 've all seen the “REDRUM” scene hundreds of times in movies, however this clip is where that classic scene made it 's first debut, in Stanley Kubrick 's movie adaptation of Stephen King 's novel The Shining. The Shining is a movie about a family that lives in the Overlook hotel one winter. The father, Jack goes mad and attempts to murder his wife and son, Wendy and Danny. Stanley Kubrick 's The Shining is packed full of subtext, which many people have developed theories about from speculation. Today I will be discussing just three themes people have expanded on within the movie,the genocide of native Americans, the Holocaust, and the apollo space program. The first theme in the film I will be discussing, is the genocide of Native Americans. …show more content…
Allusions to the holocaust can also be found throughout the movie. For example, in the very opening scene we see Jack driving in his yellow Volkswagen. According to William Blakemore in his article “‘Room 237’ Subject Bill Blakemore Writes About His ‘The Shining’ Theories.” this is important for three reasons. First, Volkswagen is a German brand. Second, Jack 's car is yellow, the color of the badges Jews were forced to wear. Lastly, that particular model car is thought to have been designed by Hitler himself. Another subtle reference can be seen while watching a transition between two scenes, where tourist fade into suitcases, an item very relevant to the holocaust due to so many of them being the only things remaining of masses of Jews that had been killed. In addition to that, we are shown Jack 's type writer. Also made by a German brand, this speaks about the very bureaucratic and industrial way the Nazi 's had carried out the extermination. A repetition of the number 42 can also be found throughout the movie. I have provided three examples, right before Danny 's first vision the number 42 is seen on his sleeve, Wendy is seen watching 'The Summer of '42 ', and the product of room 237 is 42. The number 42 is significant because it is the year the Nazi 's decided to go ahead with their extermination plans. There is also a scene containing an interaction between the cook, Halloran and …show more content…
A full blown theory has been developed around this theme in the film. Some people believe Stanley Kubrick helped stage the apollo moon landings (I am not trying to tell you this is true) and The Shining is his way of telling the world. Jack and Danny are thought to represent two sides of Kubrick. Jack represents his more practical side while Danny represents the artist in Kubrick and his child-like nature. The things that happen to Jack and Danny are relative to experiences Kubrick had while working on the moon landings. The first hour of the movie, Wendy, Danny and the manager are wearing red, white, and blue, our nations colors. The Overlook Hotel symbolizes America, and the manager is the face of America, better known as the government. During his meeting with Jack we can see a little flag on his desk in addition to an eagle behind him, not only a symbol of America but the lunar lander for apollo 11 that was referred to as “The Eagle”. In Jay Weidner 's interpretation The oncoming snow storm is symbolic of the cold war, one of the driving forces for the space race. In relation to the cold war, the bears that appear in the film are symbols of Soviet Russia. Oddly, in Stephen King 's novel the room number was originally 217. However, Kubrick changed this rooms number to 237. 237 Thousand miles is the average distance between the Earth and Moon. In this way room
The film, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, documents the annihilation of the American Indians in the late 1800s. The film starts out in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, a land sacred to the Sioux Native Americans. The Sioux claimed the land and their population flourished due to the good resources in the area. The white people want to gain control of the land and force the natives to relocate to another area. They want the natives to assimilate and believe that this strategy will improve the nation. Senator Henry Dawes comes up with the plan to relocate the natives to several reservations, where they can learn the ways of the white people. Dawes uses an americanized native named Ohiyesa, or Charles, as proof of the success of assimilation. The Sioux are forced to assimilate in order to protect their lives.
By 1945 over 6 million Jews were killed as a result of the genocide launched by Nazi Germany. The Holocaust has been documented and depicted by various visual images revealing the atrocities of this tragic period. The film posters of Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful produced in 1997 and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List produced in 1993 utilize various rhetorical appeals to present starkly different visual arguments about the Holocaust. For the purpose of this rhetorical analysis, viewing these images from the standpoint of a viewer who is exposed to these posters for the first time, with the acute knowledge that these posters are related to the holocaust is necessary. From this standpoint, it is clear to see how images that depict that
However, creating a scale of genocides like this with the Holocaust at the top undermines the severity of all other genocides. Some historians have used the term “America’s Holocaust” for the Native American Genocide, but this indirectly invalidates it by inferring that it has to be comparable to the Holocaust to be a legitimate genocide. By considering it the Holocaust of America, it disregards the differences between the two genocides and indirectly erases the Native American Genocide from history. Although equivalent in magnitude and destruction, characterizing the Native American Genocide as “America’s Holocaust” is historically inaccurate and disrespectful.
The Hero and Villain Paradigm in The Shining Kubrick’s film The Shining is a loose adaptation of King’s novel with different implications and themes. When comparing Kubrick’s variations on themes and plot with King’s, the conclusions drawn from both the novel and the film are more meaningful. One of the most important differences is how the hero and villain paradigm is presented and how it influences the source of anxiety in both versions.
Through its remarkable breakthroughs in film and what the camera could do, Birth of a Nation can be explored as a film that set the standards for future film development and masterpieces. However, one can never look past the way that African-Americans were horribly represented and depicted on film. This has caused this film to be such a great film to explore when studying film and especial minorities in film. This debate will continue way past my life and beyond. One must hope and believe that the ignorance of the few that still see this as a positive image of reality can be overturned and that this film can only be seen as a studying device for all those that look to explore the art of film and the sad realities that can come from the ideals of those who create film and movies.
With the setting in a hotel in the snowy Colorado Mountains, it is about a man taking a job as a sitter for the Overlook Hotel throughout the winter time frame. The father and husband Jack took his wife Wendy and son Danny with him to live while he takes care of the place even after finding out about the pass events that happened there. The film provides a visual output for the text of what the author was trying to say. Which could be the way the way that the readers could not have seen the text, even if they have read the book before. Carr said “The Shinning doesn’t necessarily come off as a horror film” (Critical Genre). It may be that way because of the beautiful scenery in the film, but many claim for the time that is being created it is better than the book. Which is for everyone to decide based on their own perspective. Faye Carr states that King “directs the audience towards a psychological explanation for the apparitions” (Critical Genre). The Shining is not like other horror films during its time. In the movie when Wendy said “It wasn’t your daddy trying to hurt me” and that it was “the Overlook has gotten into [him]”(The Shining). During his time at the hotel while trying to write his novel, Jack mind slowly starts to be submissive to both auditory and visual hallucination. That soon started to make him act in irrational ways to, showing why Jack went on the rampage in the hotel to kill his wife and
In the story Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, by Ray Bradbury, a great story that he develops themes of fear, change and symbol and label. The author uses techniques of similes, metaphors and personification that explain and convey them to the reader very powerfully.
...ze and hotel were a maze for Jack, Wendy, and Danny. It will always be a wild journey in and out, and “The Shining” will always provide something new to mystify viewers. The movie will not quell the fears that Kubrick pulled out of the audience, but viewers are left to ponder and reflect on their meaning. And the Overlook Hotel is an embodiment of immortality and all the fears and unknowns associated with it.
Looking back on the Native American time period, I've come to a realization that the way all of them adapted to life with how they lived was much different then than how things are today. Going from the way they talked, how they dressed, how education was done, to how they live everyday, etc. I think it's all somewhat different with how people are today in those categories. But some of those things that the Native Americans were used to doing everyday, were being forced to change by different kinds of people. The Native American experience was a genocide act.
What is horror? Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as "a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay." It stands to reason then that "horror fiction" is fiction that elicits those emotions in the reader. An example of a horror film is "The Shining", directed by Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick was a well-known director, producer, writer and cinematographer. His films comprised of unique, qualitative scenes that are still memorable but one iconic film in his collection of work is The Shining. Many would disagree and say that The Shining was not his best work and he could have done better yet, there are still those who would say otherwise. This film was not meant to be a “scary pop-up” terror film but instead, it turned into a spectacular psychological, horor film in which Kubrick deeply thought about each scene and every line.
Many people today have read Stephen King’s horror novel The Shining and enjoyed his use of literary devices, but what about the techniques that transferred into Stanley Kubrick’s film? First, The Shining is about an already dysfunctional family, that move into a hotel because the father, Jack Torrence, has gotten a job as the caretaker of the hotel. Before taking the job, Jack is informed that the previous caretaker got “cabin fever” and killed his entire family. His son, Danny Torrence, is psychic and telepathic and begins to see and be bothered by the spirits living in the hotel. These spirits eventually possess Jack and he too tries to kill his family, which also includes his wife, Wendy Torrence.
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the most controversial movies ever made in Hollywood, some people even consider it the most controversial movie in the long history of Hollywood. Birth of a Nation focuses on the Stoneman family and their friendship with the Cameron’s which is put into question due to the Civil War, and both families being on different sides. The whole dysfunction between the families is carried out through important political events such as: Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Kan. D.W. Griffith is the director of the movie, and him being born into a confederate family in the South, the movie portrays the South as noble and righteous men, who are fighting against the evil Yankees from the North, who have black union soldiers among them, whom overtake the town of Piedmont, which leads the KKK to take action and according to the movie become the savior of white supremacy. During this essay, I would focus on the themes of racial inequality, racism, and the archetypical portrayal of black people in the movie, which are significant especially during the era when the film was released.
[1] Why would a person in 1992 make a historical film about Christopher Columbus’ discovery that completely ignores the then current debates that question whether or not it precipitated genocide? Director Ridley Scott set out to produce the be-all-end-all depiction of Columbus, yet he blatantly neglected to address the most heated issue: Native American genocide. In Scott’s film, the native voice is unheard, their identity is muted, and their culture is disregarded. The quincentennial celebration of Columbus’ voyage triggered a proliferation of literary criticisms addressing the controversy over the traditional Columbus myth. 1492: Conquest of Paradise, however, is silent about these issues. Having full knowledge of this multi-faceted debate, did Scott simply take the easy way out by providing another typical Columbus story? Under the pretense of a historical film, did Scott sacrifice historical truth and intellectual integrity for mass appeal at the box office? In his silence, Scott decides to avoid the genocide debate. Whether or not the discovery of the New World indeed precipitated genocide is still under debate, but it is an important one and should not be ignored. We still have a lot to learn from our heritage and need to address the important issues in order to better learn and evolve. The two strong arguments below represent the two sides of a heated debate that was not represented in the film 1492. They contain harsh truths which aren’t marketable to the American public but are vital to the understanding of the moral implications of cultural conquest.
In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, Morrison uses universal themes and characters that anyone can relate to today. Set in the 1800s, Beloved is about the destructive effects of American slavery. Most destructive in the novel, however, is the impact of slavery on the human soul. Morrison’s Beloved highlights how slavery contributes to the destruction of one’s identity by examining the importance of community solidarity, as well as the powers and limits of language during the 1860s.
Allies of the Native Americans advocated to “kill the Indian and save the man (Smith 36).” It was far more cost effective to commit “cultural rather than physical genocide (Smith 37).” Native Americans were denied the right to their culture, children were forced to attend boarding schools that would rid them of their cultural practices and “civilize them.” Native Americans were to be civilized in theses boarding schools and taught American culture, with the supposed goal to assimilate to mainstream society but “because of racism in the U.S., Native Peoples could never really assimilate into the dominant society (Smith 37).” Native Americans were dispossessed from their own culture, one door being closed without the other door ever being opened.