In the forty-six years since its initial release, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has built up an outright mythic reputation. The monumental horror film was an adaptation of one of Stephen King’s most popular novels and was directed by one of the most singular filmmakers in cinema history. And yet, when it was released in the United States in May of 1980, it was met with exceedingly negative reviews. Even King himself famously loathed what Kubrick had done to his novel.
This left Kubrick with a matter of months before the film’s international premiere, in places like the United Kingdom, and the infamous perfectionist continued to work on the film in the interim. Thus, the version of The Shining that premiered in the UK in October of 1980 was a different cut of the film than what American audiences had seen months prior. Not only that, but the version of The Shining that has lived on in American culture and grown to such monolithic stature in the decades since is still that initial version, not the further edited one that international audiences saw. But now, as the Criterion Collection prepares to release its new Stanley Kubrick Collection box set, it has been confirmed that the international cut of The Shining will be available within it, marking the first time this version has been released to US audiences. And not only that, but according to newly unearthed materials, Kubrick may have actually liked this international cut better than the US one.
What are actually the differences between these two iterations of The Shining? Well, one of the chief complaints about Kubrick’s horror film when it released in the states was that it was simply too lengthy. Clocking in at 144 minutes, many critics and audience members alike found this to be an affront of sorts, especially in light of the lighter-runtime expectations that many horror films of the era had. This led to Kubrick further refining the UK cut, exorcising several scenes that had been in place in the US version, and ultimately getting the runtime down to 119 minutes.
The scenes that Kubrick removed included several early moments with the Torrance family, some of the connective tissue between Hallorann figuring out the Torrances are “unreliable assholes” and him actually arriving at the Overlook during the film’s climax, and some of the quieter moments of tension-building dread. This all adds up to nearly twenty-six minutes of footage removed from the US cut for the UK cut, but as it turns out, Kubrick might’ve actually liked the shorter UK version more.
In a just-released video from Criterion with Lee Unkrich, noted The Shining historian and acclaimed director in his own right (he directed modern classics like Toy Story 3 and Coco and placed a ton of Shining-related Easter eggs into multiple Pixar films), the director not only clarifies that Criterion’s new box set will have both versions of The Shining and that he has done a commentary track for the UK version but also that Kubrick’s longtime assistant and collaborator, Leon Vitali, actually revealed to him that Kubrick’s version of choice was the UK cut.
Personally, I am a gargantuan fan of the US cut, finding its longer runtime and deliberate pacing a perfect complement to the slowly encroaching madness of the film as a whole. As it stands, the longer version of Kubrick’s The Shining allows viewers to descend into madness alongside Jack, and I adore that about it. However, I am extremely eager to check out this UK cut for myself and see if I find myself agreeing with what Vitali told Unkrich that Kubrick once told him.
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