The Shining (TV miniseries)

For other uses of this term, see Shining (disambiguation).

Stephen King's The Shining
Intertitle
Format	Miniseries
Created by	Stephen King
Starring	Steven Weber Rebecca De Mornay Wil Horneff Courtland Mead Melvin Van Peebles
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	3
Production
Running time	91 minutes per episode / 273 minutes, total.
Production company(s)	DawnField Entertainment
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	April 27, 1997 – May 1, 1997

DVD cover

The Shining is a three-part television miniseries based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Directed by Mick Garris from King's teleplay, the series was first aired in 1997.

Plot

Jack Torrance's alcoholism and explosive temper have cost him his teaching job at Stovington, a respectable prep school. He is also on the verge of losing his family, after attacking his young son Danny in a drunken rage. Horrified by what he has become, Jack tells his wife Wendy that should he ever start drinking again, he will leave them one way or another, implying that he would rather commit suicide than continue living as an alcoholic.

Now, nursing a life of sobriety and pulling in work as a writer, Jack and his family take on the job of looking after the Overlook Hotel, a large colonial building in a picturesque valley in the Colorado Rockies. Hoping to succeed and move on as a writer, Jack is happy to take the job as it will provide desperately needed funds and the time to complete his first play.

Upon entering the Overlook and meeting its head cook, Dick Hallorann, Danny discovers that his psychic powers grant him a form of telepathy. Hallorann tells Danny that he too "shines", and that Danny can contact him telepathically whenever he needs help.

It gradually becomes apparent that the hotel's ghosts are more than figurative and far from peaceful. There is a force within the building that seems determined to use Danny for an unknown, possibly sinister purpose. This force manifests itself with flickering lamps and spectral voices and eventually a full-on masked ball from the Overlook's past.

Danny is the first to fully notice the darker character of the hotel, having experienced visions and warnings that foreshadow what he and his parents will encounter over the winter.

In order to achieve its goal, the hotel takes over the person dearest to Danny: his father. Toward the end of the film Danny telepathically communicates with his father, and encourages Jack to free himself from the hotel's ghosts. Jack does so, and sacrifices himself to destroy the hotel. Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann (to whom Danny sent a telepathic message) escape to safety.

Cast

• Steven Weber…Jack Torrance
• Rebecca De Mornay…Wendy Torrance
• Courtland Mead…Danny Torrance
• Melvin Van Peebles…Dick Hallorann
• Wil Horneff…Tony
• Pat Hingle…Pete Watson
• Elliott Gould…Stuart Ullman
• John Durbin…Horace Derwent
• Stanley Anderson…Delbert Grady
• Stephen King…Gage Creed

Inspirations

The creation of this miniseries is attributed to Stephen King's dissatisfaction with director Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film of the same name. In order to receive Kubrick's approval to re-adapt The Shining into a program closer to the original story, King had to agree in writing to eschew his frequent public criticism of Kubrick's film, save for the sole commentary that he was disappointed with Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Jack Torrance as though he had been insane before his arrival at the Overlook Hotel.

The Stanley Hotel

Aside from the motive behind the creation of the miniseries, the 1997 rendition featured an important set piece that helped to inspire the original story: the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. King used the hotel that inspired him to write the book as the main exterior and the design of the interior sets. Scenes were also shot using the real interior; however, specific pieces of set dressing were used to enhance the old-fashioned feel of the building.

External links

• The Shining at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie Junk Archive—Stephen King's The Shining
• The Stanley Hotel Official website