Making 'The Shining' (1980)

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"The Shining" is one of the most famous horror movies of all time and in this 35-minute documentary, we gain a good insight on what life on set was like. Both this and the movie were shot 35 years ago. This is actually a prime example of what a making-of should look like. Behind-the-scenes documentaries sometimes are fairly uninteresting if they keep interviewing the assistant sound editor about very specific matters. But this one here is not like that. It's really about the core players. Basically, for the entire thing, there is hardly no scene which does not include at least one of director Stanley Kubrick, lead actor Jack Nicholson oder lead actress Shelley Duvall. And the director here is Vivian Kubrick, Stanley's daughter who also played very small roles in Kubrick's movies. Maybe she being the director is the reason why we got right into the heart of the set and see the actors so close that we feel we are almost watching them on-stage. I enjoyed this documentary and it is a very nice watch if you also like the film, especially as you see Nicholson and Duvall, who are both retired today, the way they really were.

Hey, I was actually trying to look for this particular documentary as it made such a poor impression on the movie itself and the "celebrities" in the movie. So I shall start by saying that Jack Nicholson is the only person that I believe in this movie acted professionally. The girl (can't be bothered to remember who she was) was a stoner/self absorbed actress who made herself faint for attention. Scatman Cruthers was a MASSIVE stonner in his one line "I'm just so happy, (pause for his peaking) ... that I got to work with ... (he peaks again)... with so many wonderful (peak of Mt. Everest) P.P.P.EEPPLE... (laughs to himself whilst embarrassing the industry). The kid is soo arrogant at the age of 5 WTF! and the director is a fat bumbling idiot. You must have worked for this company as that is the only reason you actually promoted this mock-umentary so positively.

I'm so glad people are in here writing about this one. It's for me, one of the greatest documentaries showing true behind the scenes footage of a film. And I think it needs to be said time and time again really how great this film is. I wish that more stuff like this was shot on other films, where we got to see other directors working away...it's the oddest thing really but we hardly ever seem to see casual conversations between two people (on the set of a film) being shot very often, they're fascinating things to watch...Michael Palin does it on his documentaries.What I have to mention here too is, what I think is a very good companion piece for Vivian Kubricks film, The Fred Dibnah Story which was shot at round about the same time...it goes from 1979 to early 90s and is in six episodes, thirty minutes per episode. It has the same style to it, a truly wonderful style I have to say.

I can't seem to stop watching or thinking about this little documentary and it really makes me want to view the rest of the footage. How can one be so obsessed with a Making of film? I often find them more interesting than the films themselves. Jack Nicholson's camera charm antics, "beautiful! finish the assignment!" Vivien's ultra-cute sounding voice "Thats not true it's 8 o'clock." I was a bit disappointed in the new "A Life in Pictures" documentary from Jan Harlan, mostly banal interviews and film clips, where's all the behind the scenes footage from his various films? That's what I want to see, more footage of Stanley having a fit and getting frustrated. Thank god for Vivian's Making the Shining, she is a prodigy. To think she photographed that at age 17, with a large heavy Aaton 16mm (I'm assuming) and did a magnificent job of filming. A truly amazing job, absolutely astounding, incredible, precocious. I often wonder what line of work she went into later in life, she probably could have been an amazing cinematographer, which is a field somewhat lacking the female gender. Vivien, if your out there, contact me, I'd like to hire you to shoot my next film!