There are two versions - The famous one with Jack Nicholson, and the Stephen King-sanctioned, 1997, made-for-TV version.
Anyone seen both? How do they compare? And where can I rent the 1980 version?
I think the Kubrick version would have been good if I hadn’t have read the book first. My video store has the new one but not the old one. I watched the new one but don’t remember too much except that it was more true to the book but a huge bore.
Redrum, Redrum!
The 1980 version scared me senseless. The new version is so boring that its scary.
Haven’t seen the original for rent in Taiwan though.
I actually just rented the new one…it’s not so bad. It was made to be a three-part TV mini-series, with each episode lasting 90 minutes. So, it’s amazingly long (4.5 hours), but if you watch it on three different nights it’s bareable. The new one, being made for TV, isn’t as tripped out as the old one…no blood in the elevator or anything like that. So, yeah…it’s good to watch if there’s absolutely nothing better to rent.
I didn’t know there was a made-for-TV version so I can’t compare. But, I just can’t see how it can be as good as the Kubrick film since I assume it would have to be much tamer… I say wait until you can get your hands on the 1980 Kubrick film and watch it late at night with the lights out or low…that’s the way it should be viewed or you won’t get the full experience after watching a lousy remake.
OT, but I read The Shining during a white-out blizzard in western Kansas, looking out a window west to the Rockies about 160 miles distant, in one long evening sitting. Pretty good story, but imo Jack Nicholson was just way over the top in Kubrick’s film. That said, I thought that Kubrick used the Stanley Hotel (in Estes Park, CO, where the film’s exteriors were shot) to great effect.
Best King story, though, was It which I also read in one long blur while I was down with the flu once.
Best non-King King story: Swan Song, by Robert McCammon, an Alabaman. IMO, this story makes King’s The Stand pale in comparison (the stories are very similar). McCammon really got the ol’ red-state mojo workin’ in a Good v. Evil way; King’s story seems just blue-state bland after reading Swan Song.
I’ve been to that hotel, about 3 years ago on a road trip, that place is awesome, plus we went there at 3am just after watching the movie, wow was that spooky!