Movies - TV
The Shining's Famous July 4th Photo Wasn't Exactly Simple To Shoot
By LEX BRISCUSO
Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" ratchets up its surrealism and horror as the main character, Jack Torrance, goes madder and madder. The movie doubles down on that troubling trajectory all the way to the very last frames, where the audience sees (seemingly) present-day Torrance posing with a large group of hotel patrons for a Fourth of July ball in the year 1921.
In order to achieve the eerie photo, the filmmaker used an unconventional route. “They [people in the picture] were in a photograph taken in 1921 which we found in a picture library,” Kubrick explained, “I very carefully photographed Jack, matching the angle and the lighting of the 1921 photograph. Jack's face was then airbrushed into the main photograph.”
The authenticity of the photograph isn't necessarily a make-or-break detail, but knowing the legitimacy of the faces surrounding Jack makes his inclusion all the more haunting, heightening an already eerie and uncomfortable moment. The incredible July 4th image is a testament to how long that horror lingers after the final frame.