Product Description

Jack Torrance and his family move into the sprawling, vacant Overlook Hotel to get away from it all. Away from the alcoholism that derails Jack's writing career. Away from the violent outbursts that mar Jack's past. But Jack's young son Danny knows better. He possesses a psychic gift called the shining. - a gift the hotel's vile spirits desperately want.

DVD Features:
Additional Scenes:11 additional scenes
Audio Commentary:Feature-length commentary by Stephen King, cast members Steven Weber and Cynthia Garris, Director Mick Garris and select crew
Interactive Menus
Scene Access

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3936 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2003-01-07
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 273 minutes

Amazon.com
Stephen King's The Shining is a new adaptation from the author himself, made for television, that bears very little resemblance to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. That's not surprising since Kubrick threw out most of King's novel and presented his own version of the story. Here King redresses the balance in a miniseries that follows his original almost to the letter, and manages to be effectively creepy despite the budget and censorship limitations of the TV format.

Stephen Weber takes over the role of Jack Torrance, the caretaker who slowly descends into madness in the haunted Overlook Hotel. His performance is as far from Jack Nicholson as you could get, with his insanity building slowly and menacingly rather than being virtually mad from the get-go. Rebecca De Mornay is superb as Wendy Torrance, struggling to hold her fragile family together amid the spooky goings-on. Young Courtland Mead plays Danny, whose unique gifts give the story its title, as one of those infuriating TV brats who overacts left, right, and center. Fortunately, there are enough creepy moments and a number of frights to hold the whole thing together, the woman-in-the-bathtub scene being a standout shocker. Sure, there is nothing quite like Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" moment, but this is the story King wanted to tell and it still shines brighter than most of the other recent screen adaptations of his work. --Jonathan Weir

DVD features
Stephen King's The Shining is a nicely packaged set, with the film spread over two discs complete with a commentary featuring Stephen King himself, instantly making this set a must-have for his fans. There are also several deleted scenes which add some interest to parts of the movie. The transfer is good, considering its TV origins, and the crisp sound captures every spooky moment on this well-thought-out and presented set. --Jonathan Weir

Customer Reviews

A whole new experience!
As someone who has always loved the Stanley Kubrick interpretation of this story, I have to say that I REALLY enjoyed this one. Having never read the book, I never knew that the Kubrick version was so different from Stephen King's original story. The two films are definitely two completely different stories.

The charactors in this version are so much more developed and believably realistic.

Steven Weber's Jack Torrence is a normal guy that is trying hard to deal with his alcoholism and anger, and also keep his family together, while at the same time being slowly consumed by the forces of the Overlook Hotel. He is much more that just a babbling Psycho.

Rebecca De Mornay's Wendy is a more believable, strong wife also struggling to maintain her marriage and protect her son. This is definitely not the whimpering and submissive Wendy of the Kubrick version.

I rcommend this film to any fan of Stephen King. This DVD makes a great addition to any good horror library.

If you liked the Stanley Kubrick version of this story, I think you will be pleasantly suprised.

TV vs. Kubrick
The Stanley Kubrick version of this story was a classic in its own right, but IMO should not be considered to be a movie version of the book at all. Stephen King's book, and the miniseries version on this DVD, are a "haunted house" story. Kubrick's film is a psychological thriller. They are not even in the same genre.
That said, the Kubrick film is better in terms of sheer filmmaking - when Kubrick was on, he was really, really good, and it shows in his version of this story. Sadly, that fact is often missed by the legions of fans who get so caught up in "it's not like the book"-itis that they don't enjoy the film for what it is. Jack Nicholson is a far better actor than Steven Weber, and it shows.
The miniseries, however, has one HUGE advantage - with a total of nearly 8 hours of "movie" to work with, they were able to keep the storyline virtually untouched. Although I am typically not a believer - there are just not very many movies made from novels that even remotely resemble their original source material ( "Exit To Eden," originally an erotic novel by Anne Rice, turned into a Dan Aykroyd comedy, just LEAPS to mind for some reason...) - this movie is as close to a perfect conversion of a novel as I've seen.
The creepy moments are really, really creepy - the scene with topiary animals moving closer every time the camera pans away absolutely makes your skin crawl, even if you're prepared for it. Although Steven Weber isn't Jack Nicholson, the character he's playing isn't a "Jack" kind of guy - and Weber fills the role admirably, even though occasionally the touching family scenes teeter RIGHT on the edge of being maudlin.
If you have the patience for it, which I notice at least one other viewer didn't, this is in fact an excellent film. Just don't consider this and the Stanley Kubrick movie to be different versions of the same story - they're not, and the comparison will make both films suffer. You're better off to enjoy them both as distinct, separate entities, with very different agendas.

Oh, and do NOT turn your back on any hedge lions.

Heh.

The Way It Was Meant To Be!
I have been waiting for this one. This mini-series is, by far, the best of the King epics. A great story woven around very interesting, and very human, characters. Slick Steven Webber proves to be much more than just cocky Brian Hackett from Wings, and really delivers the goods. Whereas Nicholson was crazy from the get go (King's major objection to the Kubrick film version), Webber's incarnation of Jack Torrance runs the gambit of human emotions throughout. Even in the depths of his psychosis, he is is a tragically compassionate figure, fighting evil and himself as best he can. Also, the Overlook hotel never looked better. This mini-series was actually filmed at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, the much fabled place where King stayed one weekend with his family that inspired him to pen the Shining in the first place. This is the Shining the way Stephen King wanted it made and, frankly, it puts the Nicholson version in it's place.