The Shinning Analysis

The Shining Blood of Native Americans
Have you ever considered if there was a deeper meaning behind the song Imagine by John Lennon, the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, or even the many works of William Shakespeare? Theorists across the world have made claims and accusations about what exactly was Davinci thinking when he painted the Mona Lisa’s smile. Yet, what these works of art have in common are that they have multiple theories behind them, without one being absolute. Kubrick’s The Shinning exhibits a film that arouses many interpretations upon the basis of the film’s under the surface meaning. The Shinning is horror a film released in 1980, which follows a family where the father, Jack, tries to kill his wife, Wendy, and son Danny.
Jack moves his family to the secluded Colorado Overlook Hotel where he suffers a psychotic breakdown and hallucinates, going on a rampage. Well known theorist Bill Blakemore argues the The Shinning is more than a horror movie, he claims it is largely about the genocide of Native Americans in the conquest of North America.
Bill Blakemore claims there are four main images, including one bit of dialogue which corroborate the film’s deeper meaning.
The opening scene begins with the camera panning over the mountains with an eerie sound of a man howling with suspenseful music. Blakemore uses the evidence of this sound to warrant his claim that the man howling is an angered Native American, howling the genocide of his people. Supporting evidence for this claim lies with the fact that when Jack and his family arrive at the Overlook Hotel, the manager Stuart Ullman says, “Construction started in 1907. It was finished in 1909. The site is supposed to be located on an Indian burial ground, and I believe they actually had to repel a few Indian attacks as they were building it.” This lays the foundation for why The Shinning is more than a simple horror film. Some may argue that because it’s located on an Indian burial ground doesn’t prove enough for the film to be considered more than a horror movie. However, Blakemore argues Kubrick chooses his words carefully, often rewriting scripts to make the audience remember or connect to a scene more powerfully. Further, Blakemore notes how Kubrick adapts this dialogue into the film, as it wasn’t in Stephen King’s novel The
Shinning.
The information the audience learns from the dialogue about the Indian burial ground reinforces Blakemore’s argument when clearly Native American artwork is seen again and again within the film. Kubrick places the red and white Calumet baking powder cans with the Native American chief brand in two food locker scenes. Blakemore notices that Calumet is a Northern Native American peace pipe, symbolizing the innocence taken from the Indians when the British destroyed their culture. The Indian logos serve as ‘puzzle markers’ to Blakemore, justifying that his claims so far are on the right track.
Drawing on the puzzle markers, Blakemore extends his argument saying The Shinning concerns America’s ignorance to the severity of the Native American Genocide. His evidence is the name of the Overlook Hotel with its Overlook Maze, where he believes Kubrick names them with the intent on showing America’s overlook on the Native American Genocide. Also an important scene happens in the Gold Room at the July Fourth Ball. July Fourth is highly controversial to American Indians because of the irony in how America declared itself independent and free, while millions of Natives were slaughtered in the conquest of the new land. The Gold Room is significant to the gold rush wear