Use of the N-word
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joekiddlouischama — 9 years ago(October 27, 2016 11:44 PM)
The film was about the white man slaughtering people that's why there is native american stuff all over the hotel
I have no problem with the dialogue, but I do not feel that this racial interpretation really works. To me, it feels like people wanting to give a "hip" director some kind of liberal kudos that the filmmaking fails to justify. Yes, of course the film makes the point early on that the constructors built the hotel on a Native American burial site and allegedly fought off Native American attacks, and then, of course, the builders and designers used "Navajo and Apache" patterns inside the hotel. But, to me, this motif constitutes more of a narrative device or a plot gimmicka slight variation on the typical "Haunted House" ideathan anything else. The theme is not developed at all, it is not organically woven into the movie at all, and there is no emotional resonance behind it. Abstract symbolism can be read into virtually anythingwithout sustained development and emotional resonance, it means nothing. Having now viewed
The Shining
three times on the big screen, I would never cite this film as offering a real statement on race or the plight of Native Americans.
(That is not to say that my opinion trumps all; I am just relaying my perspective.)
A more valid interpretation, in my view, is that
The Shining
reflects the masculine desire to reassert patriarchy and the anarchic male yearning to break the bonds of matrimony, fatherhood, and domesticity. In other words, I see
The Shining
as a film about male anxietyrepressed and then unleashed. Kubrick's movie is not, in my view, an especially thoughtful or intricate meditation on those ideas, but there is something going on in that regard, and the resonance is intriguing. Conversely, I find the racial interpretation to be completely flat and threadbareand meaningless. I could envision teaching a college class about masculinity in film and using
The Shining
to ask some questions and suggest some representations. I could not envision teaching a college class about race or imperialism in film and using
The Shining
that interpretation or subtext strikes me as too desperate. -
ReturnOfWhiskey — 10 years ago(February 09, 2016 11:49 PM)
No it wasn't necessary. That's why you can't offer a proper defense for it. Just another white fool desperate to justify their racism. Sounding like broken records at this point.
They literally discussed the black man for two lines.
Use of the n word added nothing of importance to it. Just the typical white director wanting to insert some racism into a perfectly incredible psychological thrilling horror movie. You mean in a film that was 2+ hours long, the n word was intricate to the already intense plot and the film would have been ruined without it? Haha. Lies.
LOL so you're saying the film was ruined with it? get a life racist black fool. -
kmags84 — 10 years ago(February 17, 2016 02:30 PM)
It's not that the film would have been RUINED, it just really drove home the point of the scene. What year does the film take place? What year did that SCENE take place? Kubrick was far from Racist and far from a Bigot. If you look at Race in His Films, it's something he NEVER took lightly.
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Barbed_Wire_Strawberry — 9 years ago(June 05, 2016 12:33 AM)
The black man and white woman are tied thematically to the slaughter of children - ie white patriarchy sees women as less than man, black man as less than man - basically on the level of children, contemptable children at that. Jack and Jeevesy Ol Boy are just serving the servants.
Jack's feelings of bitterness and latent racism are tied to his alcoholism also.
Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride -
Kimrubymoon — 9 years ago(June 15, 2016 08:33 PM)
Oh G-d!!!! You called me a white person a fool???? I'm white.so you think I'm a fool?!???! Wawawa (baby crying) you're a racist!!!!!!
That is your twisted logic?!? And you wonder why the word STUPID usually precedes the "N" word. -
joekiddlouischama — 9 years ago(October 27, 2016 11:45 PM)
Just the typical white director wanting to insert some racism into a perfectly incredible psychological thrilling horror movie.
If
The Shining
is imperfect, the imperfections have nothing to do with the use of that word and everything to do with all manner of other matters. -
Xavior_Penguin — 10 years ago(April 02, 2016 08:29 AM)
It wasn't necessary. White just want to say it. They justify their lack of humanity and decency by claiming 'you're PC'. Intellectual laziness.
'Humanity' and 'intellectual' are two different things.
~Lance -
leyenda61 — 10 years ago(January 26, 2016 10:14 AM)
I wasn't offended by it, i just didn't understand its use in the context. It didn't add to the mental perversion/seduction cuz there was nothing hateable about the character. Why strike that nerve when there was already so much else existing to snare Jack? However, it is Kubrick so i am fine with not agreeing or understanding cuz the guy's attention to his craft focused on a level not everyone can grasp. Wxcept 2001. That was poo.
Sent from my 13 year old P.O.S. Desktop -
Mr_Ectoplasma — 10 years ago(February 23, 2016 07:56 PM)
I'm pretty sure it was used to cement in the audience's mind the fact that Jack was talking to someone from a past generationthat he was talking with a ghost.
Was it necessary? Probably not. It's been years since I read the book, so I can't rememberwas O'Halloran's race ever mentioned in the novel?