Lists are great. They inspire discussion, create arguments, and tend to spiral off into fun new lists. When you do a list about the “BEST” of anything it goes from being fun to becoming a hotbed for arguments. There’s no such thing as a definitive list but I’ve decided to pull from my rather extensive life of film watching and put it to good use.
This is not the “film critic’s top 100” list. There’s no guarantee Citizen Kane or The Bicycle Thief will be in the top echelon or even on the list. This is the 100 movies I would put my name on as my top 100. If I died tomorrow this would represent the 100 films I find most vital, special, or ones that bonded to whatever it is that makes me me. I’m not including documentaries, though that might make for a nice supplemental list.
The first 80 will be in no particular order. The last 20 will be in very particular order. One a day, you have my word.
#47 – The Shining
Message Board Thread Discussion.
Master Index of the 100 Best Movies Ever.
Why is it here:
Here’s how great this movie is: It’s an awful adaptation of a great book and I worship it. Though more faithful than The Lawnmower Man was to Stephen King’s source material, Stanley Kubrick’s movie shares characters and plot elements from its novel but veers off into the director’s unique world of long shots and silence and coldness, never to return.
Here’s how great this movie is: Shelly Duvall is in it for the whole running time and it’s still great.
Jack Nicholson’s performance is THE ONE for me in his stories career of great work. He’s wicked, hilarious, scary, and identifiable as Jack Torrance. You never feel like he’s normal even at the outset because he’s Jack Nicholson but it totally works. It’s not the Jack Torrance of the novel but if you watch the greatly inferior TV effort they did with Steven Weber you can get that. Nicholson is at the top of his powers here and as our tour guide into the Overlook Hotel there is none better.
So many iconic moments. So many moments that add mystique to the movie. So much that is odd more than scary yet effective. It’s an antihorror movie, really. And one of my favorites ever. And an achievement on nearly every level that counts.
Moments to savor:
That’s an ugly bather. Cosplay blowjob. The clothes. The decorum. Scatman receives an early Christmas present. “I’m gonna bash it right the fuck in!”. Philip Stone converses in the gentleman’s lounge. That last photograph.
Rewatchability:
Daily, if time allowed.
Miscellany:
We had a kickass poster commissioned for this flick didn’t we?