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REDRUM ROAD – ROUND ONE – SKIP TO A PAGE
COME TOGETHER ⎔ SOMETHING ⎔ MAXWELL’S SILVER HAMMER ⎔ OH! DARLING ⎔ OCTOPUS’S GARDEN ⎔ I WANT YOU ⎔ HERE COMES THE SUN ⎔ BECAUSE ⎔ YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY ⎔ SUN KING ⎔ MEAN MR. MUSTARD ⎔ POLYTHENE PAM ⎔ SHE CAME IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW ⎔ GOLDEN SLUMBERS ⎔ CARRY THAT WEIGHT ⎔ THE END
ROUND TWO START ⎔ ROUND THREE START ⎔ SPECIAL: STORY ROOM
- “And in the middle of negotiations, you break down” – Jack on the floor, sputtering. Also, Danny and Hallorann are engaged in a kind of negotiation. Both with their hands folded on the table, Danny thinking “real hard”. Danny’s also about to change subjects dramatically, from the concept of “shining” to the concept of the hotel as a scary place. This isn’t a breakdown, per se, but a breakdown in a negotiation would be a major shift.
- “I never give you my number, I only give you my situation” – Danny has to tease 237 (a number) out of Hallorann, who has only talked about shining with Danny thus far. The 237 business hasn’t started yet, but I just wanted to mark it.
- Danny’s here asking if Hallorann is scared of the Overlook. And, as elsewhere discussed, this moment in the mirrorform is showing a transition between the two spots where we saw the golden bowls earlier. From Wendy’s vantage atop the lounge stairs, the chandelier is blocking out where Jack’s typewriter now sits, and floor Jack is being dragged through the spot where the kitchen’s gold bowl was. Recall that the gold bowl is a reference to “All is vanity.” The first song of the final medley is Paul McCartney trying to bitch out the people he blames for the fall of the Beatles. So, that’s a bit vain. But the lyrics also express the vanity of the various realities the singer faces. It’s vain to ask for his number, you’ll only get his situation.
- “And in the middle of investigation, I break down” – Mirror Jack lying defeated at the bottom of the stairs. Hallorann shrugging off Danny’s investigation about the fearfulness of the hotel.
- On the major shift in the song’s tone and style, mirror Jack tumbles up the stairs, and gets whacked and goes right into taunting Wendy, which pairs beautifully with the new tone in the singing (by Lennon now, unfittingly, except in the sense that Lennon has a correlation to the devil in this film, and Jack’s face has just turned red and demon-like in the unnatural light). This is the other moment I was referring to way earlier that would get better if the timing was slightly different (2 seconds off). Right at the tone transition, Jack would be melting back into his menace.
- There’s also some great drumming here, when Wendy (Ringo) clubs Jack the two times that send him tumbling.
- “Out of college, money spent, see no future, pay no rent” – This is gloriously applicable to Jack, here.
- “Any jobber got the sack/Monday morning/turning back/yellow lorry slow/nowhere to go” – Mirror Jack is about to fret at length (and menacingly) about his job prospects, and in the MONDAY of the film, in the morning is when Danny goes to confront Jack. In fact, that’s the only event that happens on Monday, other than Summer of ’42. The bit about slow lorries speaks to the very slow pace of this pursuit. And of course the idea of having nowhere to go is dreadful here, and in a brief couple minutes, mirror Jack will be telling Wendy “You’re not going anywhere!” telling her to go check out the snowcat. Also, we’ll see a yellow lorry that Danny plays with a few times.
- “Oh that magic feeling, nowhere to go” – Hallorann describing how the shining works through the Overlook (with a halo of light in his head–is this his magic feeling?) “Say like, if somebody burns toast…” Also, mirror Jack grins devilishly, assuring Wendy she has no light at the end of the tunnel.
- There’s a choral “aahh” here that pairs well with Jack’s laughs. Also, there’s some great drumming from Ringo in this part, while Wendy (Ringo) swings the bat through the air.
- “One sweet dream” – Danny asks about 237. If this line symbolizes 237, McCartney goes on to sing “came true/today” and in the mirror world it was indeed in the last 24 hours from here that Danny was attacked by the crone in 237. And don’t forget that Jack is chasing Wendy toward 237.
- If it’s about Danny’s shines, the bloodfall, the scream face and REDRUM all come true on the final day. Also, as I’ll cover in my Inception cross-comparison, Ariadne (Ellen Page) is a dream designer, right? Well, behind Wendy’s head here is the didrachm symbol in the stained glass, which is the symbol of the minotaur. The Minotaur was defeated by Theseus, but with a little help from Ariadne. Page’s Ariadne, for the job she’s hired to do, only has to design…one sweet dream. (Just to be clear, though, I’m not going to be doing other Abbey Road comparisons to Inception; I just thought this was a neat crossover, worth sharing.)
- “Soon we’ll be away from here/Step on the gas and wipe that tear away” – Both these scenes are seconds away from ending, in the forward motion sense. But also, Wendy is crying as she says she just wants to go back to her room. Also, she’s saying “Stay away from me!” a lot in this scene.
- “1234567/All good children go to heaven” – Right on “5”, Jack is waving his pointer finger (at his receding hairline?) and saying “May the 1st?!?!” May is the fifth month. In case you didn’t know. And Jack is forever trapped in the 7th month, July. Hmm. Not exactly “a month later”, but two. Anyway, the Beatles are here referencing an old British circle song from around 1899. And it’ll keep going as we see Wendy pass with the breakfast cart and Danny triking in a giant circle around this same room that Wendy and Jack are charting in a giant W.
- I just thought I should point out that Jack’s yellow VW appears onscreen here for also two full rounds of the circle song. Doesn’t seem significant.
- What does seem significant is Jack’s dialogue here. All throughout the circle song he’s asking Wendy a series of rhetorical questions, with minimal variation: “And you are concerned about him.” “And are you concerned about me?” “Of course you are…” “Have you ever thought about my responsibilities?” “Have you ever had a single…moment’s…thought about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the Overlook Hotel until May the 1st?” I have other thoughts about the mirroring, self-mirroring, and copycating that Jack does here, but just note those three refrains of the “responsibilities” line. That’s like Jack’s little jump-rope song with himself.
- On the subject of circle games and repetition, Wendy will cut this exact same path in the lobby when searching for Danny at the end. Except there she’ll run straight into the skeleton ball, a kind of grotesque afterlife. Also, Hallorann, who we just left in the kitchen, will chart this course as his final walk on earth (all because Danny didn’t stay out of 237). And while all good children go to heaven, what happens to Hallorann? Well, when Wendy runs into the skeleton ball, Hallorann’s body is gone, as if he’d evaporated straight through the walls. So, maybe Hallorann went to…the Overlook.
- The audible repeats of the circle song cut just as triking Danny is turning into the path that will cross his parents’. As he crosses their path, all we hear on the track is weird wind-chime kinds of sounds, and something like a chirring referee whistle. This seems to be blocking out Danny’s awareness of his parents’ discord in this moment, like he’s got whimsy-goggles on (though, in a few seconds, we’ll see that backward Danny is streaming everything loud and clear in shineland). Also, just as the repeats cut, mirror Jack is saying “You think his health might be at risk?” So the subject of Danny’s health begins where the talk of children going to heaven ends.
Click here to continue on to Redrum Road: You Never Give Me Your Money – Round 1
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OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 