Of all the issues which have provoked debate over the years regarding this film, the issue of continuity errors is perhaps the most hotly debated topic of them all. This argument has come about because the film
does contain what appear to be, on the surface at least, some glaring continuity errors. However, some fans have argued that there is no way such continuity errors could have occurred by mistake in a Kubrick film, and therefore, such errors are not errors at all, but subtle pointers to the audience consciously inserted by Kubrick into the film to hint at a deeper meaning below the surface (for example, as examined , the scene where a knife changes direction between shots has been argued to signify that Wendy has the shining ability; and Grady's name changing from Charles to Delbert midway through the film has been argued to signify that there were in fact two separate manifestations of the character).
GS writes, The really important point about all these so-called 'continuity Errors' is that Stanley was never very concerned about continuity in the Conventional sense . No film artist ever has been. (other more important considerations of rhythm and effect always come first). Film editing is not about continuity. It's about creating a psychological world out of a series of a juxtaposition of disparate images that has much more in common with the world of dreams than with ordinary life. This is the very heart of the art of the movie. Two or more shots edited well always add up to more than the sum of the parts. It's also to do with stretching, compressing and fragmenting time. It is certainly true that pedestrian Hollywood and TV movies have often lost sight of this (see: Pudovkin, Eisenstein, Welles, Bunuel, Bergman, Fellini, Hitchcock etc)
I don't doubt that some of Stanley's 'continuity errors' may even have been deliberate. Almost as jests to get the pedants excited. e.g. the typewriter changing colour! (But I don't remember him ever talking about this). Also to create the dream/nightmare ambience of the film (despite it's deliberately 'realistic' and well-lit, superficial appearance). Another key point, similar to the continuity one: people have tried to work out the geography/layout of the Overlook Hotel, without success, and without realising that they have missed the point completely. This is not a real 3D place, but a place which exists in the viewer's imagination. Each person who sees The Shining builds up their own personal image of the hotel from the disparate fragments they are provided with. The real geography of the hotel does not work, nor was it intended to. It was merely suggested from a composite of images shot on about 10 different stages. The exterior of The Overlook in winter, shot on the backlot at Elstree, was a masterpiece of illusion: a flimsy facade covered in white paint and salt on the ground to look like snow, smoke machines to create 'fog', polystyrene chips falling from above to look like snow flakes, and a line of mock fir trees in the background hiding a whole housing estate just the other side of a flimsy wire fence. All this shot in a cramped space in a heavily built-up area on the outskirts of London.
The maze was likewise shot in three different locations. Exterior on back lot, interior summer at Radlett aerodrome about 5 miles away, and interior winter shot indoors on one of the Elstree stages.
So are they continuity errors or are they indications of a deeper meaning? Stainforth seems to think both are likely - several scenes which have been interpreted as being inherently meaningful he has explained as simple continuity slips, but he also points out that he wouldn't be surprised if Kubrick did indeed insert apparent errors as a hint to his audience that there is a deeper meaning at work (incidentally, James Joyce also employed this technique, particularly in his final novel, Finnegans Wake, where even the title is grammatically incorrect).
--------------------------------------------------------
Here is a list of some of the major continuity errors in the film, including theories which 'explain' them :
The position of the freezer doors changes: As he shows them around the kitchen, Hallorann tells Wendy and Danny that they have arrived at the walk-in freezer. He turns his head away from the camera and opens the freezer door on the left side of the frame. However, when we cut to a shot inside the freezer as the door opens, Hallorann is holding the door with his other hand and the door itself is opening in the opposite direction. Additionally, when they leave the freezer, the door is on the opposite wall from where they entered.
Rationale: This is part of the film's attempt to disorientate and confuse the viewer so as to make the hotel seem more threatening and mysterious, as if suggesting that the hotel itself is quite literally protean, and capable of shifting in physical space (apparently without any of the characters in the hotel noticing).
Danny's hands in relation to the ice cream bowl: During Hallorann's conversation with Danny about shining, Danny's hands appear in front of the ice cream bowl in some shots, and behind in it other shots, jumping back and forth throughout the scene.
Rationale: This has also been suggested to be a disorientating technique, making the viewer uneasy and putting them on edge as even banal things are made to seem unstable.
The Maze: The maze itself, the diagram of the maze on the sign at the entrance, and the 3D model of the maze in the Colorado Lounge all look completely different.
Rationale: The maze is not fixed; it is a metaphor for all mazes, both literal and psychological. It is not so much an actual maze as a symbol for the confusion and disorientation one feels within the maze of ones mind.
Tapestries and Pictures: On the walls around the corridors are many rugs, tapestries and pictures. Throughout the course of the film, they often switch places or are hung upside-down.
Rationale: More disorientation of the viewer; possibly also the hotel manipulating physical space to disorientate the characters.
Jack's typewriter changes color: In the early parts of the film, Jack has a white typewriter, but during the "Get the **** out of here" conversation with Wendy, the typewriter is blue, and it remains blue for the rest of the film.
Rationale: Bill Blakemore argues that the change in color is part of the film's metaphorical examination of the genocide of Native Americans. He argues that the shift from white to blue is a reference to the American flag, with the red of the flag being provided by the bleeding elevator (which is the blood of the Indians buried under the hotel).
Paper appears in Jack's typewriter without him inserting it: At the start of the "Get the **** out of here" conversation with Wendy, Jack removes the sheet of paper in his typewriter, so as Wendy cannot see what he is working on. After she walks away, a fresh sheet of paper mysteriously appears in the typewriter, without Jack having had the time to put it in himself .
Rationale: The hotel itself is quite literally supplying Jack with paper so as to hasten the onset of his madness. However, that this
is a simple continuity error has been suggested by assistant editor Gordon Stainforth; "
In the process of editing a long scene, when the action gets greatly compressed, so-called 'continuity errors' are almost bound to occur. A good examples of this is the piece of paper in Jack's typewriter in the early "why don't you get the **** out of here" scene. In the full version of the scene, I am certain that Jack reloaded the typewriter just before continuing his typing" (quoted
here). In this sense then, the shot of him replacing the paper himself was simply removed so as to compress time, hence creating a simple continuity error.
Wendy holding Jack: After Jack has fallen from his chair after his nightmare, Wendy's hands are on different places on Jack's body in different shots (sometimes his arms, sometimes his knees, sometimes his shoulder) and sometimes not on him at all.
Rationale: The scene was structured this way to show Jack's irrationality, and Wendy's inability to comfort him; as represented by the fact that she keeps changing where her hands are, she cannot find the 'right' spot, indicating that whatever love they may once have shared is long since gone.
The time since Danny's injury: Early in the film, Wendy tells the doctor Jack hurt Danny six months earlier. Later, when Jack is talking to Lloyd the bartender, he refers to "six miserable months on the wagon" (although by that time it should have been seven). However, only moments later, he states that the incident took place three years previously.
Rationale: A character error to show Jack is losing all conception of time.
The old woman in 237: The woman that we see rising from the tub has short white hair, whilst the one Jack is kissing has long brown hair.
Rationale: More disorientation for the viewer; the woman is not supposed to be taken literally as 'a woman' but as a symbol of evil, hence continuity issues don't apply.
Wendy pulling Jack into the pantry: In the angle from the floor as Wendy drags Jack into the pantry, Jack's arms and hands can clearly be seen going through the door, but then we cut to a shot of Jack trying to grip onto the sides of the door as his arms and hands are dragged through the doorway for the second time.
Rationale: This is part of the hotel's ability to play physical tricks with its occupants. We have already seen the pantry 'move' in physical space; this is just another manifestation of that. Stainforth however, points out that this explanation is wrong, and there is an altogether more practical reason for the error: "
This is simply a typical 'overlapped' cut, done an enormous amount in movies. Often time has to be stretched to make a cut work, which is exactly why live video cutting between extremely different camera angles often does NOT work at all well" (quoted
here). As such, this physical manipulation of space by the hotel is quite simply a continuity error created by the editing process.
The picture on the right side of the lobby: When Jack stands at the end of the lobby, and sees the balloons on the floor, there is a picture on each side of him. When Wendy finds Hallorann's body in the same place however, the picture on the right is gone.
Rationale: Another example of the hotel physically manipulating itself to create disorientation in the characters, and by extension, in the viewers.
The axed door panels: Jack knocks out the right door panel with the axe, then we cut to Hallorann approaching the hotel. We cut back to the door, and now the left panel is also gone, without him having had the time to destroy it.
Rationale: The hotel is attempting to aid Jack in getting to his wife by partially removing part of the door itself. Stainforth however points out that in this case, it
is a simple continuity error: "
This was simply because of the vast length of the original scene, as shot, and the amount of material that was shot (about 15-20 doors were axed over a period of about three days!) and it was quite impossible to cut a brisk version of it that did not have 'continuity errors'" .
Google