If you ever wondered how Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining might work as a comedy, look no further than this parody movie trailer. Posted awhile ago on YouTube by jlgpyv1, the trailer of the film starring Jack Nicholson never fails to make me laugh.
Among other things, the lead up and then the start of Peter Gabriel’s oft-used “Solsbury Hill” is genius. Check out the trailer for the light comedy, Shining, a movie about a boy who wants to spend more time with his dad.
On October 6, 1961, in a letter to the members of the Committee on Civil Defense of the Governors’ Conference, President John F. Kennedy addressed fears of a thermo-nuclear war. He called for a “national understanding” of the need for government and private bomb shelters. “In simple terms,” he urged, “this goal is to reach for fallout protection for every American as rapidly as possible.”
In the letter, President Kennedy recounted that the federal government was moving forward to make fallout shelter space available. But he also urged states and individuals to act. He noted, “The people of this country will be urged, by me, by the Governors and by other leaders to do what is within their means.”
Additionally, Kennedy predicted, “Protection against this threat is within reach of an informed America willing to face the facts and act.” A year later in October 1962, the Cuban missile crisis made fallout shelters seem even more necessary.
Atomic and Nuclear War Fears
Anyone who grew up between the late 1940s through the next several decades will remember these fears of atomic or nuclear war that peaked at various times. While such fears have changed over time, one may look back on those times through popular culture.
My seventh grade teacher gave our class a major assignment where we each had to design a fallout shelter. Each of our shelters had to be planned to protect and house our class indefinitely in the wake of a nuclear war. It was an interesting assignment, and I remember carefully calculating food supplies and the size of the shelter. I suspect today there would be complaints if a teacher gave the assignment to students due to the accompanying nightmares.
The fears of annihilation by the new powerful bombs did not begin and end with President Kennedy. The 1959 movie On the Beach with Gregory Peck was a story about survivors of World War III. In 1964, Henry Fonda played a president contemplating the possibility of nuclear war in Fail Safe. The same year director Stanley Kubrick addressed the insanity of nuclear bombs in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Decades later, the 1983 TV mini-series The Day After terrified a new generation.
Ladybug Ladybug
Many years ago, I was flipping around the TV channels very late at night and ran across a black and white movie about schoolchildren walking home from school after an alarm warning of a nuclear attack. The film, Ladybug Ladybug (1963), warned about the dark side of our fears. Watching the haunting movie at such a late hour led to me not getting much sleep that night, and the movie has stayed with me.
For full effect, watch Ladybug Ladybug late at night and contemplate the time period where they did not have the Internet or cell phones. The movie was directed by Frank Perry and starred Jane Connell and William Daniels.
Unfortunately, the whole movie is no longer available on YouTube. But here is a scene from Ladybug Ladybug.
Duck and Cover
One of the most famous “films” about these world-ending fears was the short film made by the U.S. Government’s civil defense branch in 1951 and first shown in 1952 during the Korean War. “Duck and Cover” was aimed at kids, and it begins with an animated Bert the Turtle.
Schoolchildren for many years would learn from Bert the Turtle how to protect themselves by ducking and covering themselves. The advice is ridiculous for someone near the bomb’s target area. But supposedly the suggestion is not so ridiculous for those further away seeking to protect themselves.
Still, like my teacher’s bomb shelter exercise, in retrospect it seems an odd thing to be teaching children. Check it out.
Modern Fears
Fortunately, through the hard work of many decent leaders, kids today do not have the same immediate fear of a nuclear war with another country. Unfortunately, human ignorance and brutality have not gone away and have survived in other forms. Today, we cannot even pretend that fallout shelters will protect us from the threats and fears of modern society.
Thus, we can no longer pretend that we are protected by a president’s idea of digging in the ground or a cartoon turtle’s suggestion to “duck and cover.” But at least we are still around. What do you remember about the Cold War? Leave your two cents in the comments.
This 20-minuted documentary Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick, narrated by Malcolm McDowell, provides an overview of some of the film projects that director Stanley Kubrick did not complete before his death. Some of the projects may be familiar to film fans — like A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Napoleon — but some of the other ones are more obscure projects, like The German Lieutenant. The documentary features Jack Nicholson, Sydney Pollack, Kubrick’s producer Jan Harlan, and others. Check it out.
Anyone who has ever watched the TV series Bonanza could not help being fond of Eric “Hoss” Cartwright, played by Dan Blocker. Born Bobby Dan Davis Blocker in Bowie County, Texas, the actor was known as a caring man like his Bonanza character.
The real man, however, was much more intelligent than the character. Blocker earned a Master’s degree and worked as a teacher before starting acting. Wikipedia reports that Blocker, who earned a Purple Heart in the Korean War, also was active in political causes, such as taking a stand against the Vietnam War.
Blocker was best known for his role as the middle son on Bonanza, a role that Blocker tried to infuse with kindness. But Blocker appeared in other roles, and he almost appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.
One of his very early roles, though, had him appearing in a Three Stooges short called Outer Space Jitters in 1957 during the era when Joe Besser joined Moe and Larry. Blocker’s role as “The Goon” zombie lacks the endearing qualities we would see in Hoss, but it is still fun to see Blocker on screen with the Stooges.
In this short, Blocker first appears around the 7:45 mark looking very un-Hoss-like. Check it out.
Blocker died at the age of 43 in 1972 of a pulmonary embolism after gall bladder surgery. At the time, Bonanza was about to start filming its final season. Although actor Lorne Greene did not think the show could continue without Blocker, the show completed that season.
The series, of course, had to address the absence of Blocker’s character. So, an episode revealed that Hoss died in an accident. Mental Floss reports the episode as the first time in TV history that a show dealt with the death of an actor and mentioned the death of a character.
What is your favorite Dan Blocker scene? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Critics and scholars have been debating the meaning behind Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) for more than three decades. A recent documentary, Room 237, which is available for viewing in theaters and through Amazon, explores the possible meanings behind the film, prompting a response in the form of this visual essay “Free Will In Kubrick’s The Shining” provided through Vimeo . The essay is by Dr. Drew Morton, who is an Assistant Professor of Mass Communication at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. Dr. Morton argues that Kubrick made the film about the “predetermined damnation” of Jack Torrence, played by Jack Nicholson.
Using split screen video and some of the disturbing scenes from the film, Morton compares Kubrick’s film to Stephen King‘s novel, noting how King focused on a decent man haunted by the ghosts of the house while Kubrick changed it to focus on a flawed main character is haunted by his own ghosts. Kubrick focused on the psychological instead of the supernatural in King’s novel, and Morton explains how the film foreshadows Jack’s predetermined future. If you are interested in Kubrick’s work, the 18-minute video is worth your time.
Morton makes some interesting arguments, and other films have addressed themes of free will and predetermination. For example, many film noir movies tackle such complicated themes about fate and will. Anyway, I would like to see Morton take a similar approach to interpreting Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
What do you think about the free will theory of “The Shining”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
, explores the possible meanings behind the film, prompting a response in the form of this visual essay “Free Will In Kubrick’s The Shining” provided through 
