How to treat the mirror image interpretation and true meaning of the classic horror film The Shining?

Sha Ping Xia is a psychological horror film adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name by the famous American director stanley kubrick 1980. It has been regarded as a classic in the history of horror movies for many years.

This story tells that Jack, an amateur writer, accepted a job as a hotel manager in winter. He stayed with his wife and children in a hotel called Lookout. Long-term claustrophobia and loneliness, as well as the temptation of the so-called evil spirits in the hotel, made Jack go crazy step by step, and finally killed his wife and children but froze to death outside the hotel.

The director's use and success of the soundtrack in the film has always kept the horror atmosphere in the film to the end; In addition, the repeated use of the tracking lens makes the audience lose their normal perspective, making them unable to predict what will happen, and the feeling of fear and anxiety always haunts them.

However, when such a classic master psychological horror film was first seen, not all the audience could understand and appreciate some of the plots in the film.

However, if Lacan's "mirror image" theory is used to interpret the mirror image dislocation between Jack's ego and "the other" in Sharplin, which leads to his so-called extra sensory perception due to cognitive impairment, then it is not difficult to understand most of the plot and its classic essence.

Under the influence of social mirror image, that is, Jack's own consciousness and the claustrophobic space built by the dead in the hotel, the hero Jack activates his inner desire. When he rebuilt his identity, his inner desire projected another disorderly mirror image on the rebuilt identity, which led to his death.

The Influence of "Social Mirror Image" on Jack's Consciousness

Lacan's mirror image theory is actually easy to understand, referring to the mirror image experience theory, which confuses all situational awareness between reality and imagination.

The research object of this theory is 6- 18 month infants. They didn't know the image in the mirror at first, and only after the mother and others recognized them did the baby recognize himself as himself.

At this time, for the baby, although the mirror image is the mirror image of the baby, this mirror image is not the baby itself, but another person outside the baby itself.

When the two conflict, only one party surrenders to the other can they merge, otherwise it will be endless entanglement and pain.

Then let's go back to the movie. Jack, the hero of the film, successfully applied for a job as a hotel manager after losing his job, but he was very dissatisfied with himself.

When asked about his occupation in the interview, Jack was evasive, first explaining that he was a teacher, and then adding that he was a writer. At the same time, he ridiculed himself that teachers' professional salaries could not maintain family life, which just reflected Jack's vacillating mentality and self-denial.

So in the process of guarding the hotel, he tried to find himself through writing, but he still couldn't find a suitable position, so that he had nightmares in a trance and finally went crazy and froze to death.

But in this process, we should pay attention to the shock wave caused by the influence of "social mirror image" on Jack's consciousness.

Jack learned from the conversation with the person in charge of the hotel that 1970, a hotel owner went insane while on duty in winter, hacked his wife and two daughters to death with an axe, and then shot himself.

This story struck a heavy stroke in Jack's extremely fragile consciousness, so that Jack frequently equated himself with the guard in the story in the process of self-seeking, and even arranged for a male bartender to appear at the party of 192 1. The bartender and the guard who killed his wife and daughter have different names, but Jack still blamed the killing of his wife and daughter on the imaginary male bartender, and imagined that the male bartender would convince himself. "

All kinds of statements in the film just want to tell the audience that "mirror image" has a far-reaching influence on Jack's pursuit of himself.

Jack's own mirror image also comes from his wife Wendy.

Wendy is a kind and very obedient woman. When the doctor asked Wendy why her son Danny's arm was dislocated, Wendy shook it and lit a cigarette. She told about her son Danny's naughty behavior, her husband Jack's efforts and his accidental slip when he was drunk. Finally, she smiled and comforted herself. She thought it was lucky that her husband had stopped drinking for five months.

After staying at Wangwang Hotel, Wendy undertook all the work such as boiler inspection, maintenance and cooking. , endure her husband's DOG and nonsense noisy.

She just wanted to remind her husband not to write too hard, and she was scolded.

Jack doesn't appreciate what Wendy has done. He and Jack's imaginary bartender Lloyd repeatedly complained about Wendy, full of foul language. Because in the mirror image of his wife, Jack saw his incompetence and hurt his son Danny, so in Wendy's mirror image, Jack disagreed with himself and felt guilty and depressed.

My son Danny is also a copy of Jack himself.

After Jack was angry with Wendy for the first time, Wendy also reminded her son Danny not to bump into Jack.

Once, Danny sneaked back to his room to get a toy car, but he was afraid to wake Jack who was resting. But Jack didn't sleep, just sat by the bed, speechless. When Jack hugs Danny and talks to him, Danny asks his father if he will hurt himself and his mother Wendy. This question hit jack where it hurts, because his guilt has kept him extremely sensitive. He immediately asked Danny if this was Wendy's statement. After getting a negative answer from Danny, his mood gradually recovered.

At this point, Jack's mood was at a critical juncture, and then he gave in to the mirror image of hating his wife.

The long-term deviation between self and "social mirror image" made Jack's spirit more and more trance, and began to appear tangled and painful. What should I do? In the hopeless situation of self-improvement, it seems that only by turning himself into the previous "mirror image" can all the problems be solved-going crazy and killing the hotel security guard at home, but he still blames himself and is still at a loss. He can only type the same sentence on paper over and over again:

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

The dislocation between Jack himself and "mirror image"

Lacan's mirror image theory mainly talks about self and mirror image as the other. After experiencing a series of social "mirror images" that affect consciousness, Jack's cognition of his "mirror image" has also deviated.

As a member of society, as a father and a husband, Jack's own "mirror image" is dislocated to varying degrees, so that under other influences, he submits his "mirror image" to the evil mirror image.

At the beginning of the film, the audience was told that there were many photos of different ages hanging on the wall of the observation hotel, but it was not until the end that a significant photo was revealed by a close-up The photo was taken on July 4th, 192 1. This is a grand dance. In the middle of the photo stands a man exactly like Jack, wearing a skirt and holding a glass.

As you can imagine, Jack must have seen this photo during the months when he was guarding in winter. Under the hint of this mirror image, Jack's subconscious is immersed in the party of 192 1, thus visualizing these nonexistent characters in his own life.

Jack first met Lloyd, the bartender in the golden hall of the hotel, and said the classic words in the movie: "I would like to exchange my soul for a glass of beer";

With the dislocation of Jack's self-identity, finally, when he went to the Golden Hall for the second time, he found that it was full of people wearing 192 1 photos, and Jack regarded himself as a member of the photos, which was the dislocation of Jack's own "other" mirror image.

At the beginning of the movie, Jack drove his wife and children to the Lookout Hotel. Danny asks Dona what the expedition is for, and Jack tells his son that those people kill each other and eat human flesh to survive.

His wife Wendy soon stopped the conversation between father and son. At this time, Jack completely forgot that he was a mirror image of his father's identity, and he seemed a little complacent when talking about cannibalism with his children. The identity of the father seems to be moving away from himself. At this point, Jack has problems in identity construction and cognition.

Later, as a husband, Jack was cold to his wife. In addition to playing with her son Danny and managing the hotel, his wife Wendy can only talk to the outside world through the radio.

Jack himself doubts his social identity. He doesn't agree with his "mirror image" and doesn't want to be bound by ethics and morality, facing his wife and children who lead to self-repression. Therefore, when Jack walked into Room 237, he saw a beautiful and tall naked woman. He gave up his "mirror image"-kissing and hugging, a lover, an open imaginary woman. This is the third dislocation of Jack's self-identity construction.

Jack's ego and his "mirror image" are actually from constant detachment to detachment, and finally to complete division.

The role of mirror in the expression of "mirror image" in movies

The basic tool of "mirror image" theory is a mirror. Only with a mirror can we see the image in the mirror.

Mirrors appear many times in the movie Brother Sharp to remind the audience.

After Jack's family checked into the observation hotel, director Kubrick arranged a series of images in the mirror to set off Jack's gradually divided self and his "mirror image".

After staying in the hotel for a month, the wife prepared breakfast for her husband and sat by the bed chatting with him. At this time, the two are still in a mirror, indicating that the husband and wife are establishing their own identity at this time. There is no state of self-separation from their respective "mirror images";

As time went on, Jack himself and his real image in the mirror began to appear in the director's lens at the same time.

Finally, whether talking to Lloyd in front of the bar, talking to Grady in the bathroom or talking to Danny and his son in the bedroom, he seems to be staring at the image in the mirror (even the door of the storage room) and talking to himself. Jack is trapped in his own world.

The role of the mirror in him is to reflect on the illusion of materialized reality, a deep loss that seems to be awake on the circuitous light road.

The true metaphorical meaning of flash.

This film has been regarded as a classic for a long time, not only because Kubrick told the audience a horror story of a schizophrenic with the "mirror image" theory, but also because it has far-reaching significance.

The film was filled with a strange and complicated atmosphere from the beginning.

A long shot at the beginning gives a panoramic view of the natural beauty. The calm iceberg lake is surrounded by mountains, and the mountains are covered with snow. Everything conveys a natural and peaceful primitive state.

Then, contrary to this quiet and long distance, the low and depressed background music continues to spread endlessly in the lens of the followers.

In the subsequent story development, every time the protagonist's family drives to the lookout hotel, it is always accompanied by a calm and distant scene and a suppressed mysterious soundtrack, which makes the tense and unknown atmosphere explosive, thus making the protagonist's fate and situation mysterious and dangerous.

With this musical background, the end of the road that extends all the way is the lookout hotel.

In the film, the lookout hotel shows a state of modern civilization, which is opposite to the beauty of nature and primitive.

With the development of the plot, lookout hotel gradually presents an anti-modern atmosphere-unknown indifference and unfathomable isolation under the gorgeous appearance.

As the keepers of the hotel, the hero's family is also deeply troubled by this atmosphere, resulting in burnout and negative fatigue, and gradually losing control of themselves and their surrounding environment, which is precisely given by civilization and order.

In the film, Jack gradually falls into the confusion between himself and "mirror image" and loses his true consciousness. This is a process in which order and civilization are replaced by the imprisonment of modern thought.

The lookout hotel is no longer a symbol of modernity and order in the wilderness, but fully exposes its desolate and dark side.

In this extremely depressed atmosphere, the lookout hotel gradually evolved into a prison-like cage, while the hero's family was like a prisoner. Although the exit is just around the corner, it is suppressed by an invisible force and cannot escape.

The flashback fragments that appear constantly in the hotel, the wandering of the former residents in the "mirror image" of Jack's consciousness, and the lack of a way out all indicate that time is flowing, the order of space is disrupted, and reality and imagination alternate.

However, although the alienation and oppression of people are staged inside the hotel like a haunted house, the scene outside the hotel is still orderly.

The rare and intermittent contact with the outside world constantly tortures and tortures those who are deeply involved, and finally pushes them to the edge of psychological collapse.

The whole story revolves around an isolated cage, and the so-called lookout hotel is the disguise of this cage.

Just as montage transcends the simple superposition of shots, the depression and loneliness accumulated in the film constantly sublimate the theme contained in the film-

The distorted side of modern civilization imprisons individuals and groups trapped in it like a cage, showing the repression and bondage under the order.

This theme still has important practical significance in today's era. Nowadays, people's obsession with modern civilization and technology is second only to that of 40 years ago. Without electronic payment and cars, it seems that even ordinary life is unsustainable;

Under the heavy pressure of survival and work, everyone seems to be shouting loneliness, but it is rare that the limited spare time is not to communicate with relatives and friends, but to plunge into the mobile phone, browse cheap fast food messages alone, indulge in imagination, and the distance between people is alienated again.

As depicted in the movie Brother Sharp, people are dependent and helpless on modern technology.

The modern lookout hotel with neat appearance is actually a mockery of the increasing dependence and loss of communication ability caused by modern development.

The protagonist's family, like contemporary people, enjoys all the conveniences provided by modernization on the one hand, and the inertia and alienation brought by this convenience are constantly breeding.

This is the significance of Sharp people to the classics, which is far-sighted and enduring.