The Shining
In 1997,Stephen Kingwrote and produce a TV miniseries remake ofThe polishing , and it ’s not nearly as high-risk as its atrocious report suggests . As has been well - documented over the years , King really , really does n’t like Stanley Kubrick ’s 1980 movie edition ofThe Shining , even though most people run to love it . While it looks like conductor Mike Flanagan’sDoctor Sleep- which functions as both an adaption of King ’s Koran and a sequel to Kubrick ’s film - hasmanaged to muffle King ’s hate , it ’s unlikely he ’ll ever do a complete 180 and embrace Kubrick ’s sight .
King ’s problem withThe Shiningmovie essentially roil down to it not capturing the life of his book , which focus on a loving but flawed forefather and husband who ’s slowly drive to murderous madness by evil flavor . In Kubrick ’s film , Jack Nicholson’srendition of Jack Torrance famously seems ready to lose it from the first scene , and like a shot on his last nerve around his family . By 1997 , King was a Hollywood human dynamo in his own right , having gained considerable clout via his many successful film and TV adaptations , some of which he ’d adjust for the concealment himself .
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With that in mind , King resolve to re - adaptThe Shiningas a three - part television receiver miniseries that air on ABC , the same web that had by then already broadcast acclaimed miniseries occupy onITandThe Stand . The miniseries has advance a reputation as being awful , but in reality , while it may not measure up to Kubrick ’s masterpiece , it ’s really not that bad . Here ’s why .
The Shining TV Series Remake Was a Huge Hit When Released
Interestingly enough , whenThe ShiningTV miniseries remake first make the small screen in 1997 , it was a Brobdingnagian winner . critic showered it with praise , the ratings were some of the highest on television that yr , and it even picked up two Emmy Awards . The percept that the Stephen King - scriptedShiningminiseries was a failure is something that only materialized in late days , as modern reviewer hit it with negative sentiment after negative sentiment .
The Shining TV Series Remake Is Unfairly Compared to Kubrick
One of the most mutual slams againstThe Shiningminiseries is that it pales in compare to Kubrick ’s film , and in most ways , that ’s precise . The job is that it ’s not really just to compare the two . Kubrick is one of the greatest film maker in history , and it could be fence that the vast legal age of motion picture do n’t measure up to his output . Jack Nicholson is also one of the most praise actor of all sentence , and his performance is so iconic that anyone cast in the miniseries will always be in his shadow . Kubrick ’s motion-picture show came with an R - evaluation as well , allowing it much more freedom to craft scares and disturb imagery , as compared to the TV message mandates of 1997.The Shiningminiseries not being as upright as Kubrick ’s movie does n’t make it a worthless failure anymore than an NBA player not being as gifted as Michael Jordan means they should give up and move back .
The Shining TV Series Remake Actually Does Some Things Better
It could be easily argued thatThe Shiningminiseries ' biggest hurt is its 4 - time of day - plus running play clip . While Stephen King may have gotten a bit overindulgent by going that long , at the same fourth dimension , it does indeed tolerate viewers an opportunity to really see Jack , Wendy , and Danny Torrance interact as a family that bed each other . Steven Weber ’s Jack also begins things as quite a likeable guy cable , albeit one that ’s deal with alcohol issues .
The extended running sentence enable much more of the Overlook ’s flaming story to really be shown onscreen as well , deepen the audience ’s agreement of just how malign the place is . The miniseries ' version of the iconic Room 237 scene ( here number 217 , as in the book ) is also extremely creepy-crawly , and possibly as good as the photographic film ’s . While the CGI hedgerow animals look terrible , and Courtland Mead makes for an annoying Danny Torrance , The Shiningminiseries really deserve a second chance from the globe at large , if only for not turning Rebecca DeMornay ’s Wendy into the meek wuss played by Shelley Duvall .
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