The Shining (TV miniseries)

Infobox Television
show_name = Stephen King's The Shining


caption = DVD cover
format = Miniseries
runtime = 65 minutes per episode / 273 minutes, total.
creator = Stephen King
starring =Steven Weber
Rebecca De Mornay
Wil Horneff
Courtland Mead
Melvin Van Peebles

country = USA
network = ABC
first_aired = April 27, 1997
last_aired = May 1, 1997
num_episodes = 4
imdb_id = 0118460

"The Shining" is a four part television miniseries chronicling the events and actions that transpire as a family watches over a large and imposing Colorado hotel during the building's closed off season.

Adapted by director Mick Garris under the careful eye of Stephen King, the series was first aired in 1997 and starred a familiar cast of actors and actresses from across Hollywood at the time.

Cast

* Steven Weber (Jack Torrance)
* Rebecca De Mornay (Wendy Torrance)
* Courtland Mead (Daniel "Danny" Anthony Torrance)
* Melvin Van Peebles (Dick Hallorann)
* Wil Horneff (Tony, The man in Danny's Visions)
* Pat Hingle (Pete Watson)
* Elliott Gould (Stuart Ullman)
* John Durbin (Horace Derwent)
* Stanley Anderson (Delbert Grady)
* Stephen King (Gage Creed)

Plot overview

Jack Torrance has been regretting his drinking habit since it nearly destroyed his life. His alcoholism and explosive temper have led to him losing his teacher job at Stovington, a respectable preparatory school. The incident revolved around a student named George Hatfield who in revenge for being cut from a debate team slashed the wheels of Jack's car. Upon discovery Jack had attacked George and it was these dangerous outbursts that nearly led to the break up of his family when Jack injured his son Danny.

Now, nursing a life of sobriety and pulling in work as a writer, Jack and his family take on the seemingly dream job of looking after a large and rambling hotel as well as its grounds as winter caretakers. The Overlook Hotel, a large colonial building is sheltered away in a picturesque valley in the Rockies and commands impressive views of the local countryside and nearby mountains.

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 promising play.

Joining him are his wife Wendy and son Danny who also seem eager for the break from normal life and a home for the immediate future. Wendy has become strong in character due to Jack's former alcoholic mean streak, however, their child seems unsurprisingly fragile considering the emotional and physical abuse Jack unwittingly unleashed on the boy. Upon entering the Overlook and meeting its head cook, Dick Hallorann, Danny discovers that he possesses a unique power which grants him a form of clairvoyance and telepathy. Hallorann tells Danny that he "shines", and thus this gives us the title of the story.

As the plot unfolds, it becomes increasingly apparent that the hotel's ghosts are more than figurative and far from peaceful. There is a force within the building that seems intent on using Danny for a means that remains unknown, and it goes from flickering lamps and spectral voices to a full-on masked ball from the Overlook's bloody past.

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

In order to achieve its goal, the hotel will happily take over the person dearest to Danny: his father.

Inspirations

The creation of this miniseries is attributed to Stephen King's dissatisfaction with the 1980 version of the story by director Stanley Kubrick.Fact|date=February 2007

Aside for 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

*
* [http://moviejunkarchive.blogspot.com/2007/05/stephen-kings-shining.html Movie Junk Archive - Stephen King's The Shining]
* [http://www.stanleyhotel.com/ The Stanley Hotel Official website]