The Shining is not really about the murders at the Overlook Hotel. It is about the murder of a race - the race of Native Americans - and the consequences of that murder.
Motif Connection:
If you are skeptical about this, consider the Calumet baking powder cans with their Indian chief logo that Kubrick placed carefully in the two food-locker scenes. (A calumet is a peace pipe.) Consider the Indian motifs that decorate the hotel, and the way they serve as background in many of the key scenes. Consider the insertion of two lines, early in the film, describing how the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground. These are "confirmers" such as puzzle-makers often use to tell you you're on the right track.The Shining is also explicitly about America's general inability to admit to the gravity of the genocide of the Indians - or, more exactly, its ability to "overlook" that genocide. Not only is the site called the Overlook Hotel with its Overlook Maze, but one of the key scenes takes place at the July 4th Ball. That date, too, has particular relevance to American Indians. That's why Kubrick made a movie in which the American audience sees signs of Indians in almost every frame, yet never really sees what the movie's about. The film's very relationship to its audience is thus part of the mirror that this movie full of mirrors holds up to the nature of its audience.
No Actual Indians:
Indian artwork appear throughout the movie in wall hangings, carpets, architectural details and even the Colorado state flag. Yet we never meet an actual Indian. But we do get to know, and like, and then see murdered, a powerful black character, Chef Hallorann - the only person to die in the film other that the protagonist, villain and victim, Jack. The murdered black man lies across a large Indian design on the floor - victim of similar racist violence. Kubrick carefully controls every aspect of his films' releases, including the publicity. The posters for The Shining that were used in Europe read across the top, "The wave of terror which swept across America," and centered below that, the two word "is here." At first glance this seemed to be a poster bragging about the film's effect on America. But the film wasn't out yet when the posters first appeared. The wave of terror that swept across America was the white man. As manager Ullman says in the opening interview, after telling Jack of the horrible murders that took place earlier in the Overlook, "It's still hard for me to believe it actually happened here, but it did." The type of people who partied in the Overlook included, as Ullman tells Jack and Wendy, "four presidents, movie stars." And when the impressed Wendy asks, "Royalty?" Ullman replies simply, "All the best people." King's novel has nothing to do with any of these themes. As he has with other books that gave their titles to his movies, Kubrick used the general setting and some of the elements of King's novel, while drastically altering other elements and ignoring much of it, to suit the needs of the multi-film oeuvre about mankind's inhumanity to man that he's been making at least since Dr. Strangelove.
Spatial/ Temporal
Kubrick carefully equates the Overlook Maze with the Overlook Hotel, and both with the American continent. Chef Hallorann emphasizes to Wendy the size and abundance of the kitchens, remarks upon the extraordinary elbow room (so attractive to early settlers) and begins his long catalog of its storerooms' wealth with those most American of items: rib roast, hamburger and turkey. The Calumet baking powder can first appears during Hallorann's tour of the dairy goods storage locker. In a moment of cinematic beauty, we are looking up at Hallorann from Danny's point of view. As Hallorann tells Wendy about the riches of that locker, his voice fades as he turns to look down at Danny and, while his lips are still moving with words of the abundant supplies, Danny hears the first telepathic "shining" from Hallorann's head as he says, "How'd you like some ice cream, Doc?" Visible right behind Hallorann's head in that shot, on the shelf, is one can of Calumet baking powder. This approach from the open, honest and charismatic Hallorann to the brilliant young Danny is an honest treaty, and Danny will indeed get his ice cream in the very next scene. The other appearance of the Calumet baking cans is in the scene where Jack, locked in the same dry-goods locker by his terrified wife, is talking through the door to the very British voice of ghost Grady. Grady speaking of behalf of the never identified "we," who seem to be powerful people, is shaming Jack into trying to kill his wife and son. ("I and others have come to believe that your heart is not in this, that you haven't the belly for it." To which Jack replies, "Just give me one more chance to prove it, Mr. Grady.") Visible just behind Jack's head as he talks with Grady is a shelf piled with many Calumet baking powder cans, none of them straight on, none easy to read. These are the many false treaties, revoked in bloody massacre, that the U.S. government gave the Indians, and that are symbolically represented in this movie by Jack's rampage to kill his own family - the act to which Grady is goading Jack in this scene. Nor is the treaty between Grady and Jack any less dishonest. For Jack will get no reward for doing Grady's bidding, but rather will reap insanity and death.
-NUMBERS-
Everywhere you look in the major scenes of the film through casual observation or simple math the same set of numbers turn up in some fashion. 12, 24 their inverted images 21, 42 and component numbers can be easily spotted in character actions, sounds, dates, props, possessions, time codes, durations of shots and scenes, and even the music we hear. Many have been changed from Stephen King’s novel for no apparent reason.
12: There is only one enigmatic room in the movie that Danny isn't supposed to go into, Room 237, and its individual numbers add up to 12.
The Overlook has only one call number; it's KDK 12 (“KDK 12 calling KDK 1”). There is only one set of bloody elevators and they're always stopped on floor 1 and 2. Only two times are given in the movie's black frames, add them together (8 AM + 4PM) and you get 12. ....and Stanley Kubrick doubled only one name from Stephen King's novel, Grady. In the movie he has 2 names and they both contain the same number of letters; Charles Grady = 12 Letters and Delbert Grady = 12 Letters.
21: There's only one enigmatic final shot in the film and there are 21 pictures on the wall with a 21 in the date and a :21 in the time code. Jack only works on one novel and Wendy stops at line 21 as she pulls the page out of the carriage of his typewriter. When she first spots it, we hear her thumb through 24 pages of the novel in the box. The money shot in the Hedge Maze is when Danny fools Jack and there are 21 full footprints in the snow in this scene. There are 21 pieces of mail behind the receptionist when Jack walks into The Overlook for the first time.
24: There's only one mysterious date in "The Shining" and the numbers of that date 7/4/1921 added together equals 24. There's only one master staircase in The Overlook's Colorado Lounge where Wendy clobbers Jack, and counting the platform which is also a large step there are a total of 24 steps to the top of it and 6 steps on each side. Wendy pulls on the storeroom latch 24 times. Danny’s first vision of the blood coming out of the elevator happens only once and it's exactly :24 seconds long, to the frame.
42: Room 237= 2 x 3 x 7 = 42 There's only one recognizable movie clip we see and it's from the “Summer of 42”. It also just happens to be the scene at :24 minutes into that movie. Danny wears the number 42 once on his T-shirt in their bathroom. Jack breaks down their apartment door with his ax only once and it takes him exactly :42 seconds, from first frame to last to do it (when we see him first hit it with the ax to when he pulls the ax out before opening the door). We also hear Jack hit the bathroom door 12 times with his ax. And don't forget Stanley Kubrick edited it so that Wendy swings the bat 42 times. With the first swing being in this shot right after Jack says, "How do you like it".
Film Slide Numbers:
1) The 4 shots filmed in the reflection of a mirror have specific numerical time codes that include this same set of numbers - 11, 11+24, 11+42, and 11+1:10 which are also found on Danny’s sweaters (remember that we see an 11 on Danny's Apollo sweater). I discuss these 4 shots in the section, "The Significance of Mirror Shots".
2) The shot when Jack gulps down his drink in front of Lloyd has a specific numerical time code of 666 (66 minutes and 6 seconds into the film)
3) The shot of Jack entering room 237 has a specific time code that places it exactly half way between the beginning and the end of the story.
4) The 2 shots filmed in the reflection of Wendy’s mirror (the words murder and Stovington both seen in reverse) have specific time codes that place them exactly one quarter of the way from the beginning and three quarters of the way from the end of the story.
COLORS:
The colors yellow and red are another important part in the understanding “The Shining”.
YELLOW: The brightest and most obvious yellow items are Jack’s 2 special possessions and each plays a significant role in the movie. The yellow Volkswagen (changed from red in the novel) brings him to the Overlook, and the yellow ball (also changed from red in the novel) lures Danny to room 237. It’s Danny’s (and it’s red) in the novel but now, in another plot reversal, it’s Jack’s and may well have also lured him to the Overlook. Look closely at the creepy carpet that Danny is always playing on. Red and yellow are prominent but it was blue/black in the novel. Danny’s yellow and red dwarf from Snow White (Dopey) before his 1st vision. Their yellow bathroom door with red writing on it. And don’t forget the Advocaat that Delbert Grady spills on Jack at the party, it's also yellow.
RED: Red also seems to be prominent in "The Shining" The red key to room 237.The red bathroom in the Gold Room where Jack has his vision of Grady. The red elevators. Danny’s red sweater as he "Shines". The red picture behind Dick Hallorann while he's “Shining”. Danny throws Red darts just before his first vision of the girls.The important number 42 is red on Danny’s sweatshirt in his bathroom before the vision of the bloody elevators.
And of course-- Redrum.
THE PHOTO: “God, I'd give anything for a drink. My God dam soul.” Stanley Kubrick puts it all in that one line. You can feel sympathy for Jack's character or not but he did take a major wrong turn in life. An evil turn, “if I may be so bold”. I mentioned before Stanley Kubrick’s obvious manipulation of time codes in the movie and this proves it. If you look closely at the time code, the shot where we hear Jack gulp down his first drink is exactly 66 minutes and 6 seconds into the movie. Revelation 13:18; “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” What a creepy touch. Stanley Kubrick is telling us that Jack’s character is obviously evil in a Biblical sense and the way he’s posed in the photo proves it. But he doesn’t have him posed as Baphomet; Stanley Kubrick grew up in the last century and has Jack Torrance posed as something he’d seen before. Something that represents evil.
Doubling numbers (duplicity): Look at some of the items that Stanley Kubrick doubled from Stephen King's novel for no apparent reason; 1 furnace becomes 2 furnaces, 1 elevator becomes 2 elevators, 1 typewriter becomes 2 typewriters, 1 Grady becomes 2 Grady’s, 1 Overlook becomes 2 Overlooks, 1 woman in the bathroom becomes 2 women in the bathroom, two unseen Grady sisters from the novel (aged 8 and 10) become twins that appear to Danny. Also all the children have 2 years added to their ages; Danny is 5 years old in the novel and becomes 7 years old in the movie, Grady’s girls are 6 and 8 in the novel and they become 8 and 10 in the movie.
Other fun stuff:
During the second drive to the Overlook, Jack, Wendy, and Danny Torrence get into a discussion about the Donner Party. Wendy tries to protect her child from hearing this sordid tale of cannibalism, but Danny says he already heard about it on TV. Jack finds this amusing and says "See, it's all right. He heard about it on the TV." Later, Wendy clubs Jack over the head with a baseball bat and drags him into a storeroom. He finds himself locked in a room full of nothing but nationally advertised products. When he escapes, he speaks in nothing but lines out of television. ("Honey, I'm home!" and "Here's Johnny.") He's on a murderous rampage, but it's all right -- you've heard it all on TV.
-In one scene, Jack notices his wife trying to read over his shoulder while he's typing. He tears the sheet from the typewriter and throws it on the floor. When Wendy leaves and Jack turns around to begin typing again, there's a fresh sheet of paper in the typewriter. Kubrick doesn't make mistakes like that. The Overlook is actually feeding Jack paper.
