Entries Tagged '1980's Movies' ↓

The Shining is titled as such for it is what the characters (Jack and Danny Torrance) dubbed their supernatural visions of past and future horrific events. The movie revolves around a regular person named Jack Torrance who has evolved into a madman (ably played by Jack Nicholson). The movie was directed (and written for movies) by the late great Stanley Kubrick.

Kubrick is really a perfect director, I should say. He made the 70-year-old Scatman Crothers shoot one scene for a whopping 120 times. And he also demanded the same number of shots on Shelley Duvall (who played Wendy Torrannce) in a particular scene.

One funny trivia from IMDB:

Stephen King tried to talk Stanley Kubrick out of casting Jack Nicholson in the lead suggesting, instead, either ‘Michael Moriarty’ or Jon Voight. King had felt that watching either of these normal-looking men gradually descend into madness, would have immensely improved the dramatic thrust of the storyline. Indeed, many fans of the book agreed with King, adding that Nicholson appeared fairly crazy from the very start, thus there was little or no surprise when Jack ultimately went totally overboard.

Tagline: A game nobody survives. But Schwarzenegger has yet to play.

The Running Man is a premonition of two things. First, it is about a reality show, long before reality shows were a fad. The movie is all about a game show called The Running Man where convicts get a chance to regain their freedom if they outwit their pursuing killers in the TV show. That may sound barbaric enough but this is how Stephen King pictures the futuristic society as it is in his book which is the adapted basis of the movie. The other premonition the movie has pointed out to us? There was a line in which star Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered in the movie and it went like this – “I’m not into politics. I’m into survival.” Look at where he is now.

TRIVIA:

This film is loosely based on a novel written by Stephen King that he penned under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. He wrote the story in 72 hours.