re: Just read and watched The Shining for the first time

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Ask anyone on the street about The Shining and it’ll be about Kubrick’s version.

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True but part of that is because most people in this country don’t read books so the movie is all they know.

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Kinda hard to depict that on screen cause he has already terrorized his family

My take is that king doesn’t like the mirror of himself the movie gives

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Plus, don't you have to at least speed things up for a movie (though I like what pevetohead said about it - the Overlook was the aspect of the novel SK used to make the film; guy was already bad, the hotel made him crazy bad).

I saw the movie before reading the book and enjoyed them both. I remember seeing the ads on late night TV (couldn't show them before 10 or something) and it scared the hell out of me.

Of King’s early works (say pre-1990), The Shining is the weakest IMO. The movie is a modern freaking classic. There is nothing in that book that comes close to the intensity of those scenes with Jack and the bartender and Jack and Grady

Kubrick is one of the best directors of all time. Every movie he made from Lolita to Eyes Wide Shut is a classic. Which other directors have gone nearly 40 years without a dud?

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Call it what you want but Kubrick was a genius and is rightly praised. The Shining is book ended by Barry Lyndon and Full Metal Jacket.

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Barry Lyndon is an an average to decent film. Full Metal Jacket's first half is brilliant.

I think the love for The Shining was built around an inherent bias that the guy who made 2001 and A Clockwork Orange made a horror movie based on a best-selling Stephen King book, so it has to be good.

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"Officious little prick..." I'll never forget the opening line of the book. I wish Kubrick could have found a way to incorporate this into the beginning of the movie.

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See... I thought Kubrick DID incorporate this, although not word for word.

That ominous yo-yo-ing, almost annoying soundtrack. The seemingly endless winding road. Tiny arse little car. Olive Oil's irritating voice.. then the dumbass kid in the back asking questions.

Jack's putting on a nice face, but then shuts the little a-hole up by telling him a story about some people getting stuck in the snow and resorting to eat each other.

From opening credits you know that Jack has a couple screws loose. Hell, the very next scene he's sitting in the lobby reading a Playgirl -- and Kubrick would NEVER allow a detail like that to go on film if he didn't want it. (Turns out that issue of Playgirl contained an article about parents molesting their kids)