The two Stanley Kubrick movies Stephen King actually likes: “I think he did some terrific things”
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is one of the greatest Stephen King adaptations that’s ever made the jump from page to screen, a sentiment that most people would agree with, bar one obvious exception.
The author’s distaste for the filmmaker’s classic psychological chiller has become almost as famous as the movie itself, with King having gone on record numerous times to explain why he feels Kubrick bungled his translation of Jack Torrance’s descent into madness in the chilly confines of the Overlook Hotel.
Among his biggest bugbears was the casting of the two lead roles, which is ironic when both Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall gave performances that rank right up there with their most unforgettable. However, that was precisely where King’s biggest issues lay.
He thought Nicholson was miscast because he could do the whole wild-eyed and crazy thing in his sleep, where he disparaged Duvall’s Wendy – who unfathomably earned a Razzie nomination for ‘Worst Actress’ for her efforts – as being nothing more than a “screaming dishrag” in the grand scheme of The Shining.
By his own admission, King has never understood why the movie is as popular and widely adored as it is, although Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep did help mend his relationship with Kubrick’s classic. Of course, the writer wouldn’t claim that the auteur isn’t one of the all-time greats just because he didn’t like the results when their paths crossed, and he even made a couple of features that he adores.
“I met Kubrick, and there’s no question he’s a terrifically smart guy,” King told Deadline. “He’s made some of the movies that mean a lot to me: Dr Strangelove, for one, and Paths of Glory, for another. I think he did some terrific things. But boy, he was a really insular man. In the sense that when you met him and when you talked to him, he was able to act in a normal way, but you never felt like he was all the way there.”
Not to try and put words into the mouth of the bestselling author, but it sounds an awful lot like what King is trying to say is that Kubrick was undoubtedly a creative genius and a phenomenal director, but he was also a touch on the socially awkward side, a little distance, and somewhat eccentric.
Hardly revelatory statements when that sums up the public perception of Kubrick to a tee, with his inward-facing personal life constantly juxtaposed with the sprawling masterpieces he committed to celluloid that pushed the medium forward several leaps and bounds.
Seminal black comedy Dr Strangelove and haunting war drama Paths of Glory are movies that King holds close to his heart, and his feelings on what Kubrick did with The Shining were never going to change that.
