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.