Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #627 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-10
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is less an adaptation of Stephen King's best-selling horror novel than a complete re-imagining of it from the inside out. In King's book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretaker and provokes him to murderous rage against his wife and young son. Kubrick's film is an existential Road Runner cartoon (his steadicam scurrying through the hotel's labyrinthine hallways), in which the cavernously empty spaces inside the Overlook Hotel mirror the emptiness in the soul of the blocked writer settled in for a long winter's hibernation. As many have pointed out, King's protagonist goes mad, but Kubrick's Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is Looney Tunes from the moment we meet him--all arching eyebrows and mischievous grin. (Both Nicholson and Shelley Duvall reach new levels of hysteria in their performances, driven to extremes by the director's fanatical demand s for take after take after take.) The Shining is terrifying--but not in the way fans of the novel might expect. When it was redone as a TV mini-series (reportedly because of King's dissatisfaction with the Kubrick film), the famous topiary-animal attack (which was deemed impossible to film in 1980) was there--but the deeper horror was lost. Kubrick's The Shining gets under your skin and chills your bones; it stays with you, inhabits you, haunts you. And there's no place to hide... --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

Special Features
1.33 Full Screen
DVD 9
French
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English French
Dolby Digital 5.1
Vivian Kubricks Behind The Scenes Documentary The Making Of The Shining With Optional Commentary By Vivian Kubrick
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Trailer
Arabic\Dutch\English\French\German\Italian\Spanish

Synopsis
Opening with spectacular aerial shots of a beautiful, mountainous landscape, Stanley Kubrick's horror classic THE SHINING, based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, sucks the viewer into his frightening tale with quiet, relaxing visuals - but the ominous soundtrack warns that all is not right at the gorgeous Overlook Hotel. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson at his eyebrow-raising best), a Vermont schoolteacher, accepts a job as the winter caretaker of the glorious early-20th-century resort that operates only in warm weather because the snowy roads deny access in the colder months. Jack brings his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), with him, as well as his young son, Danny (Danny Lloyd)--who brings with him a little boy named Tony who lives in his mouth. As the Torrances settle in for the long, lonely months ahead, strange, unexplainable things start occurring in the hotel--and in every scene Jack seems to be growing a little more evil and dangerous...
With superb camerawork (the Steadicam follows the evil through narrow hallways and ornate rooms), extraordinary sound detail (the scene in which Danny rides his Big Wheel across the Overlook's hardwood and carpeted floors is an aural classic), and a terrifying score (based on the work of Bela Bartok), THE SHINING is an unforgettable masterpiece, a psychological supernatural thriller featuring outstanding performances from Nicholson and Duvall--and a cast of dead twin girls and suicidal ax-murdering ghosts, among other bloodcurdling figures.

Customer Reviews

who cares about the book...its one of the greatest films ever made
this is a stunning piece of film making that is certainly needed on everyones shelves.
i saw this on telly last christmas and it gave me the chills...my whole family enjoyed it which is rare in our household...my dad is a great Stanley Kubric film was petrified by this film as a teen and now he finally conquered his fear.
it is extremely atmospheric and stunningly acted by Nicholson.
i frequently use(my own spin) the line@here's Johnny' with 'heres Joshie'(as thats my name haha)and it is a favourite film of mine.
honestly film makers cant mke a decent horror these days can they there have only been five that really were stand outs but THE SHINING is the template that every horror should follow.
another that i would recommend is Misery..another class act but this is a stunning horror.

Not a film for King fans
The Shining is my favourite of Stephen King's books, and I have to say, this is a truely aweful vertion of it.
Kubick once said that he thought The Shining was about "A man who went mad in the mountains and blamed it on ghosts"
This is not what The Shining is about at all, as any fan of the book will know. This focuses on how Jack Torrence looses his mind, rather than on the personal struggle he faces to save his wife and son.
This is a good suspence film, but it's not The Shining.
To a fan of the book I recomend this version: Stephen King's The Shining [1997] it is much more faithful to King's masterpiece, and the "true Shining"

"All work and no play...
...makes for 29 minutes of extra footage!" (compared to the UK version of a shameful 115).

This is surely one of my favourite movies of all time! The Blu Ray transfer is superb! The sound could have been a bit louder but it's still great anyway.

The disc is indeed "region free". I played it on my Playstation 3 here in the UK. Buy this US version instead!

Just love the soundtrack. It blends in supberbly.

One of those movies you'll love watching over and over again... Love falling asleep to it late at night...