Taxi Driver - Hotel Shootout and Final Scene

I found the end of Taxi Driver to be the best part of the film by far. Travis barges into Iris' brothel on a mad killing spree, guns blazing. While he goes through the brothel, killing all different sorts of players in the "pimp game," he doesn't stop to think what he's doing throughout. This scene acts as sort of a boiling point for Travis, who seems to have lost his faith and confidence in humanity, as evidenced by a later part in the scene. In addition to his assassination attempt of Charles Palantine, this killing spree shows that Travis is done with the daily life of a New York taxi driver. This is proven when Travis attempts suicide. After killing the final man in the brothel, next to a desperate, sobbing Iris, Travis puts a gun to his own head, and pulls the trigger several times, only to realize he is out of ammunition. Once he realizes this, he rests on the couch, where he lies until police arrive. When the police arrive and point their guns at Travis, a high angle shot portrays Travis as a weak, powerless figure, contrary to his image throughout the film. Finally, Travis holds up a finger pistol to his own head, and pulls that imaginary trigger several times (as shown below). Travis' weakness is revealed in this scene, which is different from the strong, fearless persona Travis is shown to have throughout the movie. Also, in the taxi at the end of the film, the woman portrays Travis as a hero, while his rampage originally seemed like nothing more than cold-blooded killing. Since his actions are perceived positively, it's possible that Travis was actually able to achieve the "cleaning" of the dirty streets of New York that he felt was necessary. This is some food for thought, I guess.

On a side note, I believe the "You talkin' to me?" scene is one of the greatest movie quotes of all time, especially considering that it was improvised. De Niro's performance in Godfather II made a name for himself, and his performance in Taxi Driver solidified De Niro as a movie superstar, much due to the "You talkin' to me?" scene, and the final scene.

Room 237. Stay the hell away.

Room 237 Extra Credit
Christopher McKinney
Mr.Bauks
Period 4

I'm not even sure where to start with this. I can usually find something good to say about any movie, documentary or any piece of footage for that matter. Throughout the entirety of Room 237 I felt like I was listening to a group of stoners who had happened to get their hands on a piece of video editing software and some high quality microphones. The one thing that annoyed me the most about room 237 is how each narrator acted as if they were the only people to notice subtle discrepancies within the Shining. On top of that some of them felt like they were experts on everything. "I was a studier of the holocaust for my whole life" Ok thats great, were very proud of you for your noble pursuit of historical justice, however no matter how much you think or how hard you try, that has absolutely nothing to do with The Shining. As much as you would like to think that the people who soft dissolve into a pile of luggage is some sort of reference to holocaust victims, it could also just be a normal video transition. Even if Stanley Kubrick was attempting to mindf*ck us in some weird twisted way for god knows what reason, what societal contribution are you making by analyzing every weird quirk about about through a 2 hour documentary? I'm sorry but I just couldn't care enough to sit through another minute of it. My theory is that if any of these narrators had been on a film set before and were familiar with how movies are shot and produced, they would never have made Room 237. I grew up on film sets my whole life, removing the sort of magical 4th wall between being on set and watching something in a movie theater. I know that there is always someone behind the camera calling the shots, and that they might like to have some fun every now and then. That could mean that there is a purposely placed continuity error. Even if it wasn't purposely done, they've probably been filming for hours on end, someone might have just messed up.

Either way I don't think that these theoretical assumptions about a fictional movie deserve any more attention than a simple 250 word blog post.

Room 237

The documentary 237 was outrageously ridiculous. I’m not saying that I’m not open-minded but some people literally did not have a point and were just talking. One of the “experts” was actually interrupted by his crying baby revealing they were nowhere near a professional setting. Some of the theorist believed that the blood and the German brand typewriter represented the holocaust. Their was on theory that I could almost get on board with, which was the genocide against the Native Americans. It makes sense, considering the cause of the supernatural events was the hotel being located on an Indian burial ground. However this is still far fetched. The quality of the subject matter matches the quality of the audio. It was almost like these people who made the documentary knew their ideas were so incredibly ridiculous, so they kept the microphone that they were speaking into at such a low decibel so that you could only semi here them, and could only semi hear their wild theories. I had to turn the subtitles on because the audio was so technically bad, as if hearing the ideas weren’t bad enough.  I recommend this movie if you have hearing comparable to Daredevil’s and have a tolerance bullcrap.

Room 237 Post (Extra Credit)

Listening to the different conspiracy theories regarding the unique choices Stanley Kubrick made for this film, I am both intrigued and curious. When one interviewee' talks about a scene between Jack and Wendy in which a chair in the background is shown in one frame and then gone in the next, I am led to believe that it must have either been a continuity error, or an approach by Kubrick to add some suspicion in a non obvious way. However, I was confused when the interviewee' went on to say that his belief is that maybe Kubrick did this on purpose as a way of parodying horror films, and that "this isn't just a horror film." I too agree that this isn't just a horror film because of the deep rooted history Kubrick ties into the hotel and Jack, however, I do think that one of the overall purposes of this film is to stand out as a "horror"story, but with a deeper meaning as well. One view I find myself supporting is when the same interviewee points out that the Dopey sticker on Danny's bedroom door is clearly shown while he is in the bathroom, however gone as he is laying down on his bed. The idea that Danny is "Dopey" as he has his first vision of the hotel room filling with blood, is representative of his character. Furthermore, as Wendy and the doctor are exiting Danny's room as he is laying down and his bedroom door comes into frame, he is no longer a "dope about things," but he "has been enlightened." Another theory I found to be very intriguing and something I hadn't thought of while watching the film, was the idea that Danny is indirectly controlling what goes on between Wendy and Jack. For example, as Jack is threatening Wendy and she is defending herself with a baseball bat while walking up the stairs backwards, Danny is shown sitting in the bedroom "shining". Could Danny have been helping his mother get away from Jack in order to save her? This is a theory I found to be very interesting because it would allow for many different interpretations and reasonings to stem from it, if it were found to be true. While listening to each of the different conspiracy theories about this one particular film, I became even more curious as to what sorts of hidden meanings other films potentially have.

The Shining: Danny’s Point of View

The Shining: Danny
’s Point of View

In Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, the camera acts like an observer, carefully watching the scene and the characters from a distance.  The camera also appears to stalk characters from the side as they are walking.  Kubrick made the choice to often place the camera behind Danny, almost like we are seeing scenes from his point of view.  When he first sees the ghosts of the two dead girls in the game room, we quickly see his face but then we instantly see everything from his point of view again.

  An explanation of Kubrick’s technique may be due to Danny’s ability to sense the hotel’s strange past.  Danny “shines” and is able to see visions during the movie.  As he pedals through the halls of The Overlook, we adopt his view, allowing the audience to gain greater insight into the situation around him throughout film.  

Of the many shots of Danny riding his tricycle around the Overlook Hotel, the camera is in many different locations. Sometimes it seems as if we are stalking Danny from behind. Other times it was located over his shoulder or even on the ground near the wheels.

Kubrick employs a powerful POV shot when Danny approaches room 237.  It puts Danny’s interest and curiousness into perspective.

The Shining: The Cinematography of Isolation

The Shining: The Cinematography of Isolation

Why is The Shining so successfully unnerving? Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is renowned for being a psychological thriller, and it certainly is, but it doesn’t seem to create the same sense of sheer terror conveyed by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece. There are a lot of answers to this. One of the solutions I find the most prominent is one of the most prominent visually, as well: the striking cinematography and aesthetics of the setting of this film. The visuals in this film portray significant feelings of isolation, discomfort and hopelessness. Long, slow sweeping dolly shots of empty space and stationary shots of symmetrical, vertical hallways create a sense of eeriness and almost abandonment. Kubrick is known well for his use of the “one point perspective” which tends to evoke not only an isolated, distant feeling but also a fear of the almost dreadful inevitability of what you’re looking at. 

Paired with either creepy, suspenseful music or total silence, the fear of the unknown is unavoidable. The hypnotic lull of the gliding shots build only further on the disturbing quality of the film. Furthermore, the presence of certain colors and bold color choices are repeated throughout the entire film. This happens with red, especially: red carpet, red walls, red tuxedo of the bartender, red in the family’s wardrobe throughout, and, of course, red the color of blood. Even the bathroom in Room 237 is executed very specifically in both the framing of the shot and color choice. But perhaps the most important effect that the cinematography in this film has is creating the sense of utter isolation. With empty rooms, empty hallways, empty ballrooms and great halls, and the almost pressing presence of empty space and silence, being alone and closed off in this huge space is rattling to watch as a viewer, even if subconsciously.

“A Fancy Car Without an Engine"

When Stephen King, author of the book on which The Shining is based, saw director Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his story, he disliked the film and called it “A fancy car without an engine." Although I have not read the his original story, I agree with King’s reaction to the film. Although the cinematography in the film is absolutely astounding, the film has little merit beyond its technical achievements.

 

Use of symmetry is one example of where The Shining shines. Typical composition in films abides by the rule of thirds, which recommends points of interests fall on the intersections of four lines placed in an even grid. Placing a subject in the center of the frame often results in a displeasing composition, but an exception exists if this composition is symmetric. In this case, the center placement is pleasing because of the beauty in symmetry. The Shining utilizes center placement and symmetry often, and this leads to a unique and interesting style. The film juxtaposes the chaos of insanity and horror with the order of its composition.

Another technical achievement in this film is its lighting. A notable example is that in the scene near the end in which Jack chases his son throughout the maze. Here, lights are practical light sources, the floodlights within the maze which output extremely cool, bright light. Jack and Danny are often kept between the lights and the camera; therefore, they are silhouetted against a blooming indiscernible vanishing point. The resultant image is beautiful in that it has high contrast and is monochromatic. This extreme lighting brings the film to a culmination and the heavenly glow suggests that Jack is near his death.

 

While the film is technically impressive, it has little substance. The film is horrific, but to no end. King says that the adaptation of his book lacks the significance he put on the disintegration of family and the dangers of alcohol. The film might have been more successful had Kubrick developed these themes further. For example, the theme that alcohol is a dangerous substance was only touched upon twice, once when Wendy explains to the doctor that Jack once hurt Danny when he was drunk and once more when Jack takes a drink at the bar. Perhaps if the story put more significance on this subject and the subject of the disintegration of family the film would be more successful in providing the audience a substantial message.

Composition within The Shining

Matthew Collins

Composition in The Shining

In the film The Shining written and directed, by Stanley Kubrick not only demonstrates near cinematic perfection, it is also has one of the best scores in any horror movie. Kubrick created a terrifying piece for his horror masterpiece. It is so innovative because most the music used was not written for the film itself. Stanley has used music in this way before in such movie as Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick worked closely with score and used music from such composers as Bartok, Penderecki and Ligeti. The music created jarring and frantic feelings for the viewer. Some of the most notable scenes where the music fits perfectly are the scenes where Wendy is running up the steps and Jack has the bat. Kubrik uses Penderecki’s Utrenja, which is a very fast paced piece with disembodied vocals. The use of this piece creates a disturbing scene that is very intense as it represents unwanted guests within the hotel and amplifies Jack’s actions with the bat. Penderecki's The Awakening of Jacob used in the scene where jack finds the rotting woman shows how terrifying the moment is for Jack. The build up in the song is used immensely well within the scene from the beautiful naked woman to rotting old corpse. Kubrick is a Master at composing a score for films and this is shown throughout his horror masterpiece The Shining.

The Shining foreshadowing

In a film like the Shining where events in the plot at the end of the film maybe unclear during viewing, foreshadowing becomes very important for the audience to go back to earlier in the film to see why something occurred. Kubrick has little things in the beginning of the film that set up major parts of the film at the end. For instance, when Jack is told that the previous owner of the hotel went absolutely mental at the start of the movie. A little seed is planted in the story and it is then developed over time throughout the film. Then later in the film, you can tell that Jack is on the verge of losing it when Wendy visits him in his office and Jack yells at her and tells her never to interrupt him again. From then on you are constantly paying close attention to Jack and his behavior. Jack eventually goes off the edge and if you go back to the start of the film, an idea that was planted early in the movie now is prevalent. There are plenty of other examples of this that Kubrick foreshadowing things that play a big role in the end.

Staircase Scene

In my opinion, the most memorable scene from The Shining is when Jack chases his wife up the stairs, threatening her while she swings a bat to defend herself.  Some of the lines in this scene are pretty fantastic, but the best of them all has to be when Jack says "I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm just gonna bash your brains in!"  The obvious contradiction he makes here shows how insane he has become.  The high angle shot of him walking up the stairs symbolizes his mental inferiority to his wife.  A really interesting dynamic of this scene is that he never runs after her.  He slowly walks up the stairs, screaming threats at her the entire way.  Director Stanley Kubrik was largely responsible for the fear instilled in the audience by this scene.  In order to get actress Shelley Duvall (Wendy), to seem terrified by Jack, he would scream and throw things while they filmed this scene.  This unorthodox approach created the realistic fear that terrified the audience.  Additionally, Jack Nicholson's performance is phenomenal in this scene.  His precise annunciation and crazed expressions throughout, really get under the viewer's skin.  The whole movie centers around Jack's descent in to madness, and I think this is where it is unequivocally clear that he is crazy enough to murder his family.  Th is all occurs just after Wendy discovers that all Jack has written is the line "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over again. Overall, this scene is my favorite from the shining because of the acting, writing and camera work.

It's called Shining

What surprises people the most? Typically in horror movies nowadays, jump scares, quick cuts and lots of surprises are what make up a horror/thriller movie. The Shining seems to take it’s time when scaring the living crap out of us. The scariest scenes I found were the ones that seemed to drag on for minutes on end. The use of heavy, ear piercing background music naturally causes the anxiety and stress we feel when scared; but so often nothing bad ever happened. There are scenes of dialogue, for example when Danny is talking to his father in their bedroom when looking for his firetruck. There is no gore, no dead people walking around; just a seemingly psychotic father, his psychic son, and the most intense, stress inducing music you have ever heard in your life. The combination of this type of music, Jack Nicholson’s devil stare, and the audiences high blood pressure levels make for a movie that leaves people in a constant state of fear. It is only when we see our friendly twin girls, or old lady in a bathtub do we really get sent over the edge. Thinking bigger picture, the haunting and ghost appearances don’t immediately follow the Torrence’s arrival at the hotel; rather there is a slow progression that takes place, and continuously grows throughout the whole movie. Contrary to what we usually see in the progression of horror movies, the instances of scary scenes are far more spread out occur far less often. This type of story progression seen in the Shining would not work with most other horror movies, but in this case it is maintained by an impeccable performance by Jack Nicholson. Another great example where Methodical acting can carry an entire film.

The Overuse of Loud Noises in The Shining

The Shining, by all accounts is a pretty terrifying movie. It's one of the quintessential horror films that is heavily referenced and many other films looks towards it for inspiration. Among the many tactics the film uses to convey itself as scary, the film has a heavy emphasis on sound. Very frequently, music is loud, obnoxious and in your face. Quite frankly, this is my biggest gripe with the film. Well, that, and Danny Lloyd had a very punch-able face as a kid.

Anyway, back to the sound. I understand why the director decided to use this sort of loud and meaningful music and whatnot, but I found that it more got in the way than anything. Every meaningful scene just seemed to be dominated by the massive amount of, well, for lack of a better term, ear rape. I hated every scene where the loud music and sound effects were blasting from the speakers.

The loud music was always something that, at least for me, took away from the scene as a whole. It always seemed to be a hindrance, rather then being beneficial.

I f*cking hate kids

Will Mennie
In Alfred Hitchcocks The Shining, the use of a false sense of innocence played a large role in the scariness of the film. from the beginning, we see a happy family moving into a hotel, all getting along, caring for, and loving one another - one would never expect these individuals to turn on one another. This magnifies the  as soon as the hotel grasps  Along with the family connection, Danny himself looks like the furthest thing from evil - with an adorable face and huge head of hair - yet he is (to an extent) possessed. Children are the prime form in which a false sense innocence is projected,  These factors combined psychologically trick the audience, so that when we see Jack and Danny turn on their loved ones over nothing, it seems 100x scarier than just your average insane person attacking them. Point is, had this been a movie about a killer who hid out in the hotel, it would not have been nearly as frightening. As well as Danny, we have those two twin girls who appear occasionally earlier in the movie. Without a doubt, these are the scariest characters/plot devices in the whole film, simply because they appear so innocent while they are clearly the opposite. People are more vulnerable to children, as we would generally assume a child has done nothing wrong. This way, It comes as a little more of a shock when see them haunting Danny and turning into dismembered limbs.

Joey's blog

This movie does a great job keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat with a haunting soundtrack that is especially effective. Also, there is a great job of using colors symbolically to express a character’s emotions or to foreshadow the coming moments. The overall effect is one which keeps you guessing what is going to pop out around the next corner (especially when riding a tricycle around a haunted hotel!). This was on of the parts that really freaked me out, the one with the twins.  Sound alone would be enough to express the suspense and emotion of the film. From the first scene, driving up the mountains the buzzing sound motif starts. That buzzing is repeated in a few scenes and hits a frightening pitch when doc tells Danny about the hotel shining. The other motif is definitely more musical and the intensity and sound of it is constantly changing throughout the film. It’s particularly effective how Kubrick can lull you by controlling the tempo and then really startle and scare you with what happens or doesn’t happen next. There are not many visual effects in the movie, this film was more than capable of horrifying you without them. From the beginning of the movie you become aware of Jack’s past abuse of Danny and the car scene reemphasized his tough attitude when telling Danny about the dinner party. I thought that helped to keep the viewer somewhat unsure of Jack’s madness being caused totally by the hotel at first. It becomes obvious before long that Jack is under the hotels spell and he is quite intent on staying there.
He becomes more and more animalistic as the film goes on and it seems that like an animal he will fight to defend his territory. I think that Jack killed his role in this movie.

The Shining: Heavy Music

Throughout The Shining, the most influential aspect of the film was the music. Used to dramatize scenes, keep the audience alert and also to give the film the category of horror. The film takes off on a slow start plot wise, but it is met with certain intervals of sound that are creepy enough to startle your attention and make you scared. Like in, There Will be Blood, there are times in the film when the music seemed completely irrelevant to what was going on in the scene. Both films used creepy music, and in some parts of The Shining the music actually sounded like type of music played in There Will be Blood,   loud banging noises with screeching strings in the background. The music in a horror movie is arguably the most important aspect, it has to hold the attention of the audience and be sure to catch them when they weren't expecting it. For example, during the movie when it would transition to cuts of black screen with just text of what day it was, there would either be no music, or completely startling music that came out of no where. The starling music is what held your attention and made you think that something important was going to happen at that time. The director of Citizen Kane did something similar, but instead of a transition of a day it was a bird at the end of the film that squawked in your face and jumped you off your feet. This technique certainly works when it comes to getting the audience to pay attention. But apart from that, the heavy music in The Shining held thick with the viewers, it gave the film more suspense and a more dramatic feel.

The Shining: Score, Symmetry, and Insanity

Stanley Kubric's The Shining, is a memorable horror film, filled with iconic references, and contain scenes that are iconic in itself. What really sets the mood to this film is its score. It is filled with disturbing and off-putting sounds, and there is one particularly jarring tone that plays whenever something supernatural, creepy, or foreboding happens. It serves as a build up at times in the movie, setting the viewer up to expect something, and sometimes the payoff is purposefully anticlimactic. Sometimes the sounds are unexpected, popping in as the characters are simply doing mundane, ordinary tasks such as writing or walking down the halls, and serve as a kind of jump scare, without even having any scary images included.

A lot of the camera shots, although standard, also serve well to show off the grandeur of the Overlook Hotel, and at times, it almost seems to be too large of a hotel, to the point where it seems to be overwhelming the characters. The shots are used to scale how large the rooms are in comparison to the three people inside them. Symmetry also seems to be a staple of the camera shots in The Shining. In many of the shots showing off the hotel, there is symmetry involved. Characters are in the middle of the shots, and the view is balanced out equally on both sides. This only serves to reinforce the unnaturalness found in the hotel by using such surreal shots that are so neatly symmetric, that they off-put the insanity of the plot.

The only thing I found really strange about the movie was Jack's progression into insanity. And by that, I mean that there was little progression at all. The transition into his madness wasn't that gradual, or that subtle. It was more or less a few shots of him yelling, screaming, and being generally angry, and then staring off into space with some creepy background music, and bam, we just have to assume that he's crazy now. There was no real reason given as to why he was targeted by the ghosts, and there was no indication that he was more susceptible to being insane than any other person. It doesn't help that we know little about this man, other than that he is an ex-alcoholic, and a writer who is down on his luck. It also doesn't help that even at the very start of the movie, he didn't seem like an amicable, stable-looking person to begin with. The changes to Jack's mentality could've been done a little better, rather than just suddenly making him crazy all of a sudden. I guess the excuse for that could be that he was driven insane by the solitude of being stuck in the hotel with only two other people, but that argument isn't very solid, seeing as both Wendy and Danny exhibited absolutely no signs of the same discomfort despite being in the same situation as Jack.