An Analysis of THE SHINING (1980) BY STANLEY KUBRICK STARRING JACK NICHOLSON, SHELLEY DUVALL, DANNY LLOYD, SCATMAN CROTHERS, JOE TURKEL, AND BARRY NELSON – Roscoe Delly Adler
January 23, 2026
You guys are simply jealous of me. It’s really clear, you’re all really bad at hiding it, I mean did you even try. All my life I’ve thought ‘man, people don’t like me, I tell them about what I’ve done and they go distant, I must be doing stuff wrong’ well, we both know I ain’t wrong. Then, who is wrong? YOU.
This is gonna be the century of Big Smokeman, okay? That’s fucking me. I stay winning. Because, when people say stuff like ‘I like you for you’ or whatever, what does that actually mean? If I was different you wouldn’t like me? The fuck’s that about? So if people can’t treat me as an actual equal, then shit.
We both know I’m above you. I’m not even sorry. It’s how the world works baby, and Big Smokeman made it that way. And he’d have it no other way.
But back to my point, ‘I like you for you’ and thinks alike, although the person doesn’t know this, winning isn’t something I achieve, it’s more of a universal truth. The baseline of ontology is that I remain victorious. I don’t have time for pity, I don’t have time for anything that ain’t me okay? ‘I wrote this lil’ piece’ okay go send it to someone who fuckin’ asked okay? I don’t owe anyone shit. I can do my own shit and people just want me, and I want some back.
When I get an agent, she’s gonna be my new mother figure. That’s not even debatable. And I get a seven figure signing bonus. For one book, and a three weeks paid stay every three months at the hotel Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) based the interior of The Overlook Hotel upon, The Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite, and also, I wanna go to the Timberline Lodge (used for the exterior) too, and just look at it, and if I like what’s inside then maybe I differentiate.
You guys don’t get how amazing The Shining (1980) is, like The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick is a complete masterpiece of art, the set of The Overlook (from The Shining (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick & starring Jack Nicholson) is possibly the greatest piece of architecture ever created. And it is the largest bane of my life, including my entire childhood, that The Golden Ballroom from The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick & starring Jack Nicholson as Jack & Shelley Duvall as Winifred, is sitting in the bottom of the ocean in The Laconia sunk in 1942 by those German fucks. That’s the worst thing the nazis did. Do not question me.
But anyways, in The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick & starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance & Shelly Duvall as Winnifred Torrance, The Golden Ballroom is the most beautiful piece of creation ever made. It holds everything inside it. You will die in The Golden Ballroom. The dialogue in it is the most perfect and immaculate pieces of writing ever made because they’re so true. Also, people don’t get Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance & Shelley Duvall as Winnifred Torrance & Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance, directed by Stanley Kubrick, because they think ‘whoa creepy film’ bitch he was showing you your entire soul. AS ARCHITECTURE. WHICH IT IS BITCH. It is amazing. I am every character and scene and hallway and atom in The Overlook from The Shining (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick & starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as Winnifred Torrance, Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance, and Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann, is me.
Haha, Scatman got renamed to Dick. Dick Scatman.
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Let’s take three lines from The Golden Ballroom (from The Shining (1980) starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as Winnifred Torrance, Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance, Scatman Crothers as Dick Halloran, and Joe Turkel as Lloyd) scene.
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INT. HOTEL – BALLROOM – M.L.S.
JACK walks L-R across Ballroom – CAMERA TRACKS & PANS with
him to bar.
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Now that I think about it, we should go word by word. First it starts with, and I’m quoting Kubrick here, “INT.”, now lets address the elephant in the room, INT. what? INTRODUCTION? INTRO? INTERLUDE? INITIATE? INITIATION? INTER? INTERIOR? Could be any one of these, Kubrick’s masterclass in mystery is shown even in his scene instructions. But I’m betting on interior, because even if Kubrick, known for masterclasses such as The Shining (1980), is a genius in both the visual and in his words, I think he had to dumb down his ecstatic visions for the peasants who made his vision come to life. And as such, this takes us to the next word, HOTEL.
What’s most interesting about this is how after “HOTEL” comes actually an em-dash. So the more complete visual would be “HOTEL —“ and now the entire scene has changed. What does it lead up to? What does “—“ mean here? Kubrick’s known for his obsessive details, and as such it’s simply irresponsible to treat this em-dash as irrelevant. Could the next word give us a clue?
“BALLROOM —“ and now we’re tearing souls apart. Another em-dash? This is getting ridiculous, ‘Kubrick isn’t sending secret messages’ and then he just puts two em-dashes in one line? Who are you kidding. To understand, we clearly have to look at Native American wisdom. Because one of the largest changes between Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall and Stephen King’s book is the inclusion of the detail that The Overlook (from the cult-classic The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, also known in lesser roles for Scatman Crothers as Dick Halloran and Joe Turkel as Lloyd the barman, the building’s design largely based, outside at least, on The Timberline Lodge in Oregon, atop Mount Hood, and the interior grabbing inspiration from hundreds of sources, most influentially The Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite) was built on an old Indian burial ground, playing into the thematic visions of what came to be The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick. As this creation was not made by simple intelligence and talent, it was made from seeing a soul in its entirety and trapping it in a house of mirrors until it breaks or dies.
But back to native wisdom. Now, what was one of the most differentiating belief of the natives compared to Europeans? The cyclical nature of time of course, and if you look at Kubrick’s (known for The Shining (1980) starring Shelley Duvall) design, you find that it both runs in eternal recurrence of the horrors the caretaker does to his family, first Delbert Grady (played by Phillip Stone, also known for his roles in A Clockwork Orange (1971) as ‘Dad’ and in Barry Lyndon (1975) as Graham, both directed by renowned filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (known for pieces such as The Shining (1980), starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance (known for many roles in his long, successful career, such as in 1989’s Batman where he portrayed a character going by the title ‘The Joker’ possibly a quite humorous fellow, showing the contrast in performance this man is capable of, if you take into consideration his role in The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick, where he portrayed the forever mesmerizing Jack Torrance (his role, however, was without doubt amplified by the astounding performance by Shelley Duvall, who portrayed Winnifred Torrance, Jack’s wife in the movie by Stanley Kubrick, known for his works such as Dr. Strangelove (1964) starring Sterling Hayden as Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (also known for other roles, such as a small part in The Godfather (1972) directed by Francis Ford Coppola (mostly known for The Godfather series, his most recent film, Megalopolis (2024) having failed at both the critics and box offices, it could even be questioned why the studio even allowed this to be created, after all the movie lost Lionsgate Films (a world-famous movie producer and distributor, known for the Hunger Games series and older cult-classics, such as American Psycho (2000) starring Christian Charles Philip Bale (1974-) (most famous for his role as The Batman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight film series (the director, however is also known for hits such as Interstellar (2014) starring John Lithgow (most prominently known for his role as Trinity in season four of Showtime’s Dexter (2006-2013(his part, however only in 2009)) and Dexter: New Blood (2021), and Dexter: Resurrection (2025), his fearsome performance and breathtaking act as Arthur Mitchell taking both fans and critics by storm (a fun (well, maybe not fun) piece of trivia is that Dexter (2006-2013)’s Arthur Mitchell is believed to be based on a real life serial killer, the BTK killer, real name Dennis Rader (a fun connection I just make now is Dennis is, possibly by accident or not, the name of Glenn Howerton’s character Dennis Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005- present day) which pays homage to many great pieces of film and art in history, such as its eleventh season’s fifth episode “Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs” (2016), which is in form most certainly taking inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 cult-classic The Shining (1980) written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson, starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as Winnifred Torrance, Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance (perhaps, Daniel Torrance (?)), Scatman Crothers as Dick Halloran, Barry Nelson as Stuart Ullman, Philip Stone as Delbert Grady, Joe Turkel as Lloyd, Anne Jackson as Doctor, Tony Burton as Larry Durkin, Lia Beldam as young woman in bath, Billie Gibson as old woman in bath, Barry Dennen as Bill Watson, and Lisa and Louise Burns as the Grady twins), who killed ten or more people (mostly women) between 1974 and 1991)) and Oppenheimer (2023))) over a whopping seventy million dollars, going to show that some folks peak real early)) and The Shining (1980) starring Jack Nicholson) who still frightens film enthusiasts to this very day) and Shelley Duvall (1949 – 2024 (widely considered a better woman than Mother Mary, and I don’t argue)))) kills his family and afterwards its found out that Jack, played by Jack Nicholson, was ‘always the caretaker’ and as guilty for the previous murders as he is for the ones he attempted. This could be considered perhaps a Nietzschean view, but then again, you could call a Nietzschean view a native American one. And the em-dashes then signify the sort of cutting of the cycle, not to break it, but instead to show how its separated. Let’s look at the line again: “HOTEL – BALLROOM –“ seeming to show that both these places, the Hotel and Ballroom inside it, are equal in their weight. That both signify as much of the eternal cycle as the other, even when one is, physically at least, smaller than the other. What other clues could Kubrick have been hiding?
The next word, ‘M.L.S.’, well, perhaps not a word, more of a series of three letters separated by dots, is the end of the line, and what could this then show us? If it is indeed the end, but as we know The Shining (1980) starring Shelley Duvall is showing us how time, trauma, and horrors resurface and recur as sort of a constant in the universe. Perhaps not that people themselves bring them up, but people never even question whether they should be in said cycle, and that is the sin. Going back to the cycles, ‘M.L.S.’ then shows us a sort of ‘end’ which is actually, the beginning of the same cycle again and again. Kubrick’s done it again I tell yous.
M.L.S. stands (allegedly) for Medium Long Shot, or some stuff about cameras. But is this what the text really meant? What other meanings could M.L.S. have? I have a few propositions. For example: Middle Long Shot, Median Long Shot, Mid-tier Long Shot, Manic Long Shot, Muffled Long Shot, it could really be anything. That’s the mystery here, the script is as filled with dread as the movie itself. But if we take meaning into account, I think it really means ‘Move Longways Sideways’ because if you move longways, and then sideways, you actually hypothetically, theoretically speaking go in a circle, exactly as the cyclical nature of time I was talking about.
Next up is ‘JACK walks’ DAMN. Dostoevsky wishes he could. This already builds suspense, but you gotta know, that for Kubrick, this is just a normal Tuesday. When he build sandcastles we thought them to be cathedrals, until the real cathedrals came, most seen in this next phrase ‘L-R’ I’m sorry, Cormac McWho? Left to Right, Long to Right, Left to Rats, Leaving to Root, Lamp to Rays, Left to Royalty, again, the possibilities are endless. But taking to consideration the scene itself, the background being of course The Golden Ballroom (inspired by the ballroom of the The Laconia, a British ship struck down in 1942, leading to over 1,000 losses of life), this ‘L-R’ becomes more clear, and my opinion is that it really means ‘Long to(o) Round’ and listen to me, going back to the cyclical nature of time as the Indian Burial Ground The Overlook (interior inspired by The Ahwahnee hotel in Yosemite) influences the architecture. And it’s saying, the cycle is ‘long, too round’ you see? David Foster Wallace could never, he writes 1000 words to barely say ‘I’m sad and lonely.’ But all in all, the entire phrase ‘Jack walks long, too round’ completely recontextualizes the entire piece of cinema. Truly, a masterclass in both literature and film.
Or perhaps, the phrase was Kubrick’s own opinion on how The Overlook Hotel worked? That the cycle it partook in, the cycle it was bestowed with blood was traversed (as in ‘walked/walks’) for too long at a time, and that doing it faster, in a more straight manner (could be related to the em-dashes covered before) would be more beneficial. But how could family murders being more often be better? Be preferred? Well, from one viewpoint, you could say that the artistic perspective on it would be amplified, but this would be for the crooks over at Hollywood, not Kubrick. You see, he would want it rare, he’d want it extraordinary, one of a kind. Because in those moments, you see more of true human nature. And so it must be the second option, that Kubrick thinks this because once the cycle is faster, it becomes more visible. And if it becomes more visible, then society can’t bear ignore it any longer, and thus must fix it however they choose. Although from history, societal change most often takes place when confrontation and admissions of guilt no longer need apply.
This too is a central part of The Shining (1980), that Wendy (played by Shelley Duvall, often considered better than any other woman) hasn’t and can’t escape from Jack due to the fact that she’s both literally and metaphorically stuck with him. That she can’t run away in the snow-cat until she takes Halloran’s one and rides off with Danny because Jack breaks the ones they did have. And thus the hostile nature outside, and miles and miles before warmth, would mean they’d both die before reaching there. The cold, then, meaning as much actual winter as it does the societal and cultural distance shown to victims of abuse. Where those suffering are expected to prove themselves, and to bring back a story of survival instead of accusations against those who let it happen. And the travel from The Overlook to Sidewinder, Colorado, the nearest town to the building, then shows the sort of travel society expects from victims, that during this travel they learn to value each other in the cold as they are alone, and find thankfulness of their escape, instead of bringing guilt into town, which the town very well deserves in this metaphorical viewing.
The next words, ‘across Ballroom –‘ are some of the hardest hitting in this entire sequence, because again we see the ever illustrious em-dashes, as well as the direct evocation of ‘Ballroom,’ but pay close attention to the word before it. ‘across’ do you see it? Let’s see it again, this time in slow motion:
‘A C R O S S’
Need I say more? Kubrick chooses specifically this point to bring up the crucifixion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, directly with his line ‘A Cross.’ The man was millenniums ahead. But see where it’s placed, directly infront of ‘Ballroom’ (and, note how it’s spelled with a large B) which here clearly means the The Golden Ballroom, the sacred site of everything, the infinite room held in a finite hotel, between finite walls, is the place for the next holy crucifixion.
But who is crucified this time? And, if Jesus was crucified in Israel, why is this Colorado hotel important? Well, because Kubrick isn’t talking about Jesus, that sneaky bitch, he’s talking about the caretaker. Every cycle the caretaker is crucified, sacrificed to the Ballroom. To the folks inside it, described by Dick Halloran as (this line refers to Wendy’s question of if the hotel had ever held royals) ‘all the best,’ which begs the question: best at what? Best at the dance I say.
The Golden Ballroom is the land of eternal becoming, and there are only those who can bear the cost to, in their lives, bestow their foot on the floor of the Ballroom. The rest are irrelevant, yet the crowd has their fun do they not? The caretakers, killing through time for the dancers, for the Ballroom, because the Ballroom persists, even if the dancers decay and die, and drink to death. And see how Delbert Grady was simply a servant, and Jack a nobody, a starting writer and domestic abuser, and they were the easiest targets simply. I can’t think Grady was much better with his family before the murders than Jack was, he was most likely worse. But again, there’s no difference to the Ballroom between human names. There’s only the Caretaker, and he never changes, Jack’s always been the caretaker as we know.
And then the em-dash here. Oh you, Stanley. Always with the em-dashes. This line is the tear in the tissue of the cycle you see? That while the natives held the cycle as sacred, the Golden Ballroom and the dancers tear through it, with an em-dash, and they do it to put the caretaker on a cross, bearing the question, who do they sacrifice them to? Themselves, for fun? The Ballroom, for glory? Or whatever made the Ballroom? The great architect of The Overlook Hotel? There is truly not enough knowledge in the universe. With every atom’s movement across history mapped and understood by man, there would only be a zero followed by a billion trillion octillion zeroes and then a one percent of The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick understood, because The Shining talks from the place before understanding. It talks from below the floorboards of your mind’s basement, and it sees everything. The Golden Ballroom is everywhere.
Next up: ‘CAMERA TRACKS’ and, wow. Just. Whoa. Bringing folklore into this? Just when I thought he couldn’t outdo himself, Stanley pulls me back in. Now, what is a camera in this setting? In every setting, though. It is the all-seeing eye, is it not? It makes the film the video, and only what it films, what it sees is in the film. All else is irrelevant. It’s the god all writers and performers worship through form, and it never blinks, it only rolls. And what lies behind it? What comes after it in the snow? Its tracks.
The great unknown, the leftovers of the all-seeing eye. Kubrick found the tracks, and he spent his life chasing it. Perhaps he found it on his deathbed I say.
‘& PANS’ what. The & here is. I can’t put it into words. It’s a taunt, see how it’s almost an eight? But it goes longer, it never finishes, it’s the infinity upright and parted from itself. Not the normal infinity, no. This is different. This is Kubrick’s message to us you see? His great warning. In the history books he said it and we never saw. We are fools us all. You and me, us all. We are doomed. And the prophecy was in words for forty-six years before us. And we never noticed. Perhaps death is a universal constant huh? Perhaps we couldn’t have changed it?
Who am I kidding. Of course we could’ve. Who are we kidding? Kubrick showed us God’s tracks in the snow, showed us what’s coming. And we ignored it. We called it a horror movie, we called it a fucking script. It’s all over.
The & has its hands open, for the input of man, for the input of the Ballroom. Here, Kubrick makes his most astounding philosophical take. The cycle of time, the entire bones of the movie, were never the basement. They were the plaything he showed us all. No, this is about free will. The ends are open, we can input into it. We can change the cycle, we can make things better, but who holds the hands? ‘PANS’.
It moves across, it ‘PANS’ and it shows it directly. It shows us the Ballroom, but wait you say. There aren’t other people in this scene of The Ballroom. You’re right. There aren’t. Then, who is it showing? The Golden Ballroom herself. The eternal dance, the eternal being. The first god and the last being. The smooth jazz of Midnight, The Stars and You in the halls of a sunk ocean-liner. It’s already gone from us. In the bottom of the sea. And when it’s out of our hands, when man can no longer touch his own destiny he becomes its servant. He becomes the Ballroom’s toy, he becomes the Caretaker.
‘with him’ it’s just getting worse for us. First, the world’s ending, he prophesied, he showed us why, he showed us how, and now, directly after panning across the Ballroom, what does it say? What’s the word that’s missing? It’s ‘toying’. The line, completed, reads as such:
‘*PANS* TOYING WITH HIM’
God, you could put other words besides toying here too, the Ballroom’s before words. Dancing, moving, playing, whatever you want. Waltzing perhaps. ‘WALTZING WITH HIM’.
And lastly,
‘to bar.’
Like a fucking gut punch. To what bar? What is the level to which the Ballroom waltzes with him? Where does it ever end? I don’t think The Golden Ballroom from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) (but if we’re honest, the Ballroom existed before time itself, it’s where time moves around you see? The layers of the roof, the gold, the rose, the music, the servers, the drinks, the debauchery, the performance, the camera, it’s all to show something that was here before man, and will stay here after us. Every civilization, alien or not, has seen The Golden Ballroom, for it is where we all are. We are going to die in The Golden Ballroom) has a limit. The Ballroom goes ‘to (the) bar’ at which Jack breaks, at which the Caretaker, more of a sacrificial lamb than a man or anything with a name, and it gets its show.
But Kubrick showed us. How to escape. But he didn’t show us how to burn it down. Because he knew King was wrong in doing it, he knew it wasn’t possible. As I said, Kubrick predicted the apocalypse in a single line, and we were too dumb to notice. It’s funny really. You go along this life and what do you get? What do you achieve? Doesn’t matter, because we missed the call, and the Ballroom’s dancing again.
So hold dear your close ones, hold dear the fire, because after the Ballroom’s done, there’s left only the ones who paid to get inside it, but they never changed where the room. They merely bought seats. But we all die in the Ballroom. There’s no escape. It’s coming for us all, and you can only run. But if it’s global, if no part of earth hides from it. Then where can you run?