Something – Round 1


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REDRUM ROAD – ROUND ONE – SKIP TO A PAGE
COME TOGETHERSOMETHINGMAXWELL’S SILVER HAMMEROH! DARLINGOCTOPUS’S GARDENI WANT YOUHERE COMES THE SUNBECAUSEYOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEYSUN KINGMEAN MR. MUSTARDPOLYTHENE PAMSHE CAME IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOWGOLDEN SLUMBERSCARRY THAT WEIGHTTHE END

ROUND TWO STARTROUND THREE STARTSPECIAL: STORY ROOM


  • “Something in the way she moves/attracts me like no other lover” on “attracts me like” we see mirror Jack’s chasing killer stare moving through Danny’s forehead. Are Danny and Jack experiencing a dual attraction to Wendy? I doubt it. The stronger subtext throughout is that Wendy is putting an undue pressure on Danny to replace Jack. Also, Tony is here telling Wendy he doesn’t want to go to the Overlook. So he’s not so attracted either. Also, Danny never looks Wendy in the eyes in this scene.
  • But Jack’s violence against Danny is attached to a larger running theme of his feeling cut off from, or deprioritized by Wendy thanks to Danny’s existence. And there’s also the argument to be made about Jack’s transitioning his attractions to the hotel. The hotel moves for Jack, and it attracts him like no other lover.
  • “Don’t wanna leave her now” – Bridges the two moments of Tony saying he doesn’t want to go to the Overlook.
  • The song has a cool shift in tone right here which perfectly syncs with backward Danny transitioning between creeping and running. His creeping movements flow perfectly with the music.
  • Also, Watson is just entering the interview at this point, and Watson correlates to George Harrison in the Abbey Road Tour, and this is one of Harrison’s two tracks on the album, the other being Here Comes the Sun, which will end a minute before Watson leaves the film.
  • “Somewhere in her smile, she knows/That I don’t need no other lover” – Watson’s cartoonish grin goes in and out across this line. I have a theory that Watson is the ultimate shiner, which pairs well with this.
  • The second “Don’t wanna leave her now” – Mirror Jack getting stumped by Danny in the maze.
  • Also, we’re now getting the first shot of the photo beside Jack’s head here, which is the one that hangs over his photo at the end of the movie. So if Jack doesn’t “wanna leave [the Overlook] now” what better symbol?
  • Also, this song of “don’t wanna leave her” refrains plays completely over backward Jack out lost in the maze. Jack did leave the hotel. And it spelled his doom. Forward Jack is explaining how he’s “formerly a schoolteacher”. In the novel, the writing Jack comes to the hotel to do is a play based off the altercation that lost him his job. So it’s as if he was trying to hold on to some scrap of that life while his forward life progressed. He didn’t want to leave the past.
  • “You’re asking me will my love grow?” – Ullman makes something of a ridiculously fond comment at Jack about how he’s the once-in-a-blue-moon applicant who doesn’t suck. How did his love grow so quickly? What’s really going on is Ullman realizes Jack is Grady 2.0, and he’ll do the deed on Hallorann.
  • “I don’t know, I don’t know” – Backward Jack confused in the heart of the labyrinth. And in the refrain of this line, forward Jack is expressing puzzlement about why the Overlook doesn’t stay open through the winter for the fantastic skiing.
  • The chirpy guitar solo here is just delightful against the bloodfall splashing around on Ullman.
  • “Something in the way she knows” – Wendy approaching the bloodfall. Wendy wears a look of knowing all the way up this hall, and even slows as she gets to the corner, and waits while the bloodfall unfolds. Remember, she’s frantically searching for Danny, and comes to a dead end. Five seconds pass between her seeing through the windows, and the blood first spurting out. Why would she wait for anything, unless she sensed something was coming?
  • “Something in the things she shows me” – Almost perfectly with the crash of a drum in the music, backward Danny springs through the air, from his knees to his feet. This and one other moment (both which can be corrected the same way) is why I’ve wondered if I have the sync right. I think probably it’s a win-some-lose-some kinda thing. It’s also a split-second-difference kinda thing.
  • This lyric also speaks well to the lessons and escapes. This moment correlates to Danny passing through room 237, where he’s shown the final key to understanding how to beat the labyrinth. There’s a nice parallel between that and how Wendy’s about to be “shown” the bloodfall (and all the four horsemen). Mother and child are either seeing or processing the final thing the hotel showed them.
  • As for the 237 sequence itself: we see that sequence not knowing if it’s something Danny is showing Hallorann in a shine, or if it’s Jack’s-eye-view. It turns out it’s something Kubrick’s showing us. But it’s also part something Danny is showing Hallorann.
  • I don’t know if Danny Lloyd was brilliant enough to remember to make this little pointer finger while he backward walked, but all through this sequence of him moonwalking, the timing between the music and the movement is right on point. The song even ends right as the film cuts away from what I call “Danny’s backward disco”.

Click here to continue on to Redrum Road: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – Round 1


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THE MIRRORFORMTHE BEATLESTHE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ARTOVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHSGOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDSPATTERNSVIOLENCE AND INDIGENAABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOMANIMAL SYMBOLSTHE ANNOTATED SHINING

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