A14

One of the last things we hear Jack utter at the end of the film is so important. Stanley Kubrick has him singing "California, Here I Come" at the very end of the film (2:18:09) for a reason. It’s a song he knew was written for a “1921” Broadway musical. It’s the correct song for the correct year (July 4th, 1921) just to drive home his point. The photo does not depict any hotel found in Oregon, as a huge California palm tree is dead center in the photo of the lobby Stanley Kubrick chose to show us right after we hear Jack sing that song. The photo and the song go hand in hand. It's California, not Colorado, and that's where Jack Torrance as well as Jack Nicholson are both headed - literally and figuratively.

The Caul – The Old Wives Tale.

The Caul – the old wives tale (click here)

Then the doctor told her quite sternly that she must PUSH, and she did, and then she felt something being taken from her. It was a clear and distinct feeling, one she would never forget-the thing taken. Then the doctor held her son up by the legs-she had seen his tiny sex and known he was a boy immediately- and as the doctor groped for the air mask, she had seen something else, something so horrible that she found the strength to scream again after she had thought all screams were used up:
He has no face!
But of course there had been a face, Danny's own sweet face, and the caul that had covered it at birth now resided in a small jar, which she had kept, almost shamefully. She did not hold with old superstition, but she had kept the caul nevertheless. She did not hold with wives' tales, but the boy had been unusual from the first. She did not believe in second sight but —

Did Daddy have an accident? I dreamed Daddy had an accident.
Something had changed him. She didn't believe it was just her getting ready to ask for a divorce that had done it. Something had happened before that morning. Something that had happened while she slept uneasily. Al Shockley said that nothing had happened, nothing at all, but he had averted his eyes when he said it, and if you believed faculty gossip, Al had also climbed aboard the fabled wagon.
Did Daddy have an accident?
Maybe a chance collision with fate, surely nothing much more concrete. She had read that day's paper and the next day's with a closer eye than usual, but she saw nothing she could connect with Jack. God help her, she had been looking for a hit-and-run accident or a barroom brawl that had resulted in serious injuries
or ... who knew? Who wanted to? But no policeman came to call, either to ask questions or with a warrant empowering him to take paint scrapings from the WV's bumpers. Nothing. Only her husband's one hundred and eighty degree change and her son's sleepy question on waking:
Did Daddy have an accident? I dreamed ...

The Black and White Photo in the Film.

Stanley Kubrick has Jack posed in the final photo of "The Shining",


as the devil.










































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The Black and White Photo in Stephen Kings Novel.

Here is the only clue to the final July 4th picture you can find in the novel. It's mentioned on page 191 (Chapter 33).

“In that instant, kneeling there, everything came clear to him… In those few seconds [Jack] understood everything. There was a certain black-and-white picture he remembered seeing as a child, in catechism class… a jumble of whites and blacks… Then one of the children in the third row had gasped, "It's Jesus!" …. "I see Him! I see Him!" … Everyone had seen the face of Jesus in the jumble of blacks and whites except Jacky… when everyone else had tumbled their way up from the church basement and out onto the street he had lingered behind… He hated it… It was a big fake… [But] as he turned to go he had seen the face of Jesus from the corner of his eye… He turned back, his heart in his throat. Everything had suddenly clicked into place and he had stared at the picture with fearful wonder, unable to believe he had missed it… Looking at Jack Torrance. What had only been a meaningless sprawl had suddenly been transformed into a stark black-and-white etching of the face of Christ Our Lord. Fearful wonder became terror. He had cussed in front of a picture of Jesus. He would be damned. He would be in hell with the sinners. The face of Christ had been in the picture all along. All along.”

He's describing this very popular black & white photo that floated around in the seventies where you have to find the hidden image of Jesus. Either you see it or you don't.


































.

A13

Jack has no business in that final picture, as he's an utter failure in all of his endeavors. The Overlook's walls are reserved for, “all the best people” and him being in the center of the July 4th photo is the opposite of what you would expect. He didn't "correct" his family the same way Grady did.

What we are looking at in the July 4th photo is another vision like Grady's daughters, “Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It's just like pictures in a book, Danny. It isn't real.”










































.

A12

“They were in a photograph taken in 1921 which we found in a picture library…. I very carefully photographed Jack, matching the angle and the lighting of the 1921 photograph, and shooting him from different distances too, so that his face would be larger and smaller on the negative. This allowed the choice of an image size which when enlarged would match the grain structure in the original photograph. The photograph of [Jack's face] was then airbrushed in to the main photograph, and I think the result looked perfect…."

The photo of Jack is not real. His face was airbrushed onto someone else's body.













































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The Black Frames.

Most of the hints that Stanley Kubrick gives us as to an exact date when the action in "The Shining" takes place are shown to us on the 12 black frames of the movie. We know that the Torrance’s first full day alone in The Overlook is Halloween as Mr. Ullman tells Jack the hotel closes on 10/30, and they arrive on closing day. The 4th black frame says, "One Month Later" and this is November 30, the 11th month. No year is given in the film or in the novel but it was published in 1977 and the film was released in 1980. If we literally go by the black frames the date of Wendy and Jack"s fight in 1980 would be 12/11. In Stephen King's novel we're told it's December 2 (page 209 chapter 37 "The Ballroom" and page 251 chapter 46 "Wendy"). "Suddenly a huge clock in a glass bowl materialized in front of it. There were no hands or numbers on the clock face, only a date written in red: DECEMBER 2. And then, eyes widening in horror, he saw the word REDRUM reflecting dimly from the glass dome, now reflected twice. And he saw that it spelled MURDER." Remember also that there are 12 black frames as the movie starts and ends on black frames that contain no writing.


The beginning (0:00).

The interview (0:03).

Closing day (the day before Halloween - the 30th of October) (0:17).

A month later (the 30th of November) (0:34).

Tuesday (December 2) (0:40).

Thursday (December 4) (0:45).

Saturday (December 6) (0:46).

Monday (December 8) (0:51).

Wednesday (December 10) (0:56).

8 AM (December 11) (1:35).

4 PM (December 11) (1:54).

The End (2:23).


Using a 1980 calender the fight and the last night they spend together inside The Overlook is Thursday night December 11.


















































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