Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is a writer battling alcoholism and some serious anger management issues. All of this comes to a boil over one long, cold winter locked in a giant hotel with his family.
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Screenwriting teachers HATE Stanley Kubrick. He broke every rule in the book. He even refused to write his scripts in the traditional screenplay format. Some might consider this rebellion for rebellion's sake, but I feel otherwise. Standard screenplay format is perfect for telling a standard narrative story, but Stanley Kubrick didn't tell those kind of stories. In fact he didn't really tell stories at all.
Kubrick's films are structured like a brick wall, one block stacked upon another. According to sci-fi writer Brian Aldiss, he referred to these blocks as "Non-Submersible Units". Each has the ability to stand alone, but when placed together they generate a cumulative effect. Though you might not know what is going on in every minute of 2001: A Space Odyssey, you can't help leaving that film without a sense of awe. In Full Metal Jacket everything is building towards a feeling of despair. With The Shining, Kubrick was building towards sheer terror. And I'll be damned if it didn't work like gang-busters!
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