Because – Round 3 – EYE SCREAM

Recall that Tiddley Winks is the game with the “John Lennon Memorial Shot”. Here, Jack’s passing it again, moments into Because, the last song Lennon wrote for the band that wasn’t in the final medley.
At this moment in round 2, Jack is seeing the 237 ghost for the corpse she is, and in round 1, Danny’s just been enlightened to Hallorann’s true nature as a shiner. A lot of people have said over the years (Stephen King included) that the problem with movie Jack is that he always seems unhinged. Kubrick said something similar in his Ciment interview about how Jack was “psychologically prepared” to be seduced by the hotel. But I don’t think it’s reasonable to assume until the relish he shows in the cannibalism conversation that Jack has an exploitable dark side–and this is almost 20 minutes into a 140 minute movie, and it is just a wink. So this moment also acts as the turning point for the audience’s perception of Jack. This is almost immediately reversed by PR Jack going through the motions of the tour. Jack’s first Overlook-inspired outburst is at 44 minutes in, a few minutes shy of a third of the movie.

“Because the world is round/It turns me on” – Both Jacks here look turned on in very different ways. It’s also interesting to consider what this means in light of the painting behind Jack here.

“Because the world is round” – So, yes, there are three light sources at the top of the screen during all three Here Comes the Sun iterations. And that is the “sun” song of the album, while Because was modelled after the Moonlight Sonata, making it the “moon” song. So, I guess because this shot repeats here, while backward Danny is reporting his hunger, I’m inclined to think that this light now stands for what it really looks like, which is a moon.
Also, this was the moment in round 1 when the band was last seen altogether, vanishing into Hallorann’s melon. So I like that it pairs here with the moment when the Torrances become the most divided and endangered. Until now, the most endangered Danny was was the first moment anything went seriously wrong, the 237 abuse (round 2 Jack is here escaping the 237 ghost himself). But I suppose you could make arguments for Jack’s other outbursts as moments of severe familiar endangerment.

Same lyric as last time, but I just wanted to show how the mountains behind the car are indeed Heaven’s Peak and Oberlin. So, we see Heaven’s Peak because the world is round, and Jack’s car makes a few wide turns that reveal this region of the screen to us. And because the wind is high, it blows John Lennon’s mind, and Heaven’s Peak is the highest of the high.

“Because the wind is high/It blows my mind” – The first time I did a Redrum Road analysis, seven months ago, this was one of my favourite lines. Backward Wendy is saying, “Boy, we must really be high up. The air feels so different.” Jack is saying “…chinny, chin chin? Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in.”

“Because the wind is high” – Jack gassing up to blow a house in, and this mirrorform shot of Going-to-the-Sun Road from high on the wind.
This is also the second last shot of the yellow Beatle in the film, pairing nicely with this, the last pre-medley song. We’ll see the placard CLOSING DAY (omitted here) in a second, which also speaks to this.

“Love is old, love is new” – The two Wendys here show how old and how new love can seem just two months apart from each other.

“Because the sky is blue/It makes me cry/Because the sky is blue” – All throughout this Wendy is shrieking out cries to herself, and to Jack to stop. Also, I suppose we can note that both Wendys are wearing predominantly blue.

I’m just picking this up on a watchthrough, and I feel completely idiotic that I didn’t get this the first time, but I think this is a good way to show how there’s so much going on in this beast that it’s hard to whack every mole on the head. Because the sky is blue it makes me cry. Wendy gets a black eye from the wall painting, which is of a mountain under a blue sky.

As Harrison’s Moog kicks in we cut to the shot of Hallorann (Yoko) arriving. Remember, it was Yoko’s playing the Moonlight Sonata, and then backwards, on piano (which is like a Moog) that inspired the song.

As we’ve discussed, this song is noted for the way it ends without a conventional musical resolution. And how only the opening notes of the following medley seem to bring that closure. Well, while the round 1 version of this track seems to play to the end of the Beatles, with Jack, Ullman, Watson and Wendy appearing for the last forward time together, and the round 2 version shows Jack shutting down the lights in the Gold Room, this song plays (almost) to the last instance of Jack and Wendy being two feet from each other, but definitely to the end of his active attempt to murder her. The last words he speaks to her are “Here’s Johnny”. How sad is that? Adding to that sadness is the (backward) 20 second conversation they’ll have in 4 minutes about Jack getting the job. One last tiny reminder of the love that was.
Also, Wendy’s describing Jack’s abuse of Danny here, which was the beginning of the end for them as a couple. Moreso in the book, but still.

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