Psychological Maze of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining

	Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same title, was released in 1980 and cast Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance and Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance. Kubrick utilizes new technologies in filmmaking and deliberately creates dualities and parallels to entangle the audience within the film allowing numerous interpretations to exist for this film and many carry validity since so much is ambiguous unlike the novel. The Shining tells the tragic story of the breakdown of the “American Family” and the inevitability of repeating past mistakes.

	Garrett Brown’s invent of the Steadicam in 1976 came just in time for Kubrick’s vision of The Shining, enabling him to create scenes in which the audience seems to chase or run away from some sort of danger and thus giving a more intimate relationship between character and audience member for the first time. Before the Steadicam came into use moving shots had to be taken with a dolly which was rigged up on rails—which was very inconvenient—or use a person with a trained hand at being steady, yet even the steadiest hand couldn’t smooth out all the bumps. Both of those options were also limited in aspects of terrain. On the other hand, the Steadicam required one crew member to have a camera harnessed to him and the equipment to the camera itself. Then the member could run, walk, or even jump along with the actor without interruptions in the shot which disturbed the audiences’ willing suspension of disbelief. Kubrick apparently loved the invention, using it in Danny’s tricycle scenes, the maze scenes, the hallway scenes, and in various other places.