Page 171 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

physically and mentally. In the movie we see the character played by Jack Nicholson begin to
deteriorate physically and mentally after leaving the hotel manager’s office to begin his new duties.
One of the next scenes after Jack takes the job shows him in bed as his wife brings him breakfast.

Observe in this picture that we see Jack in a mirror. Immediately after taking the job this scene
appears informing us that we are now seeing things through the looking glass. Reality is distorted.
Illusion is now the order of the day. If you look closely you will also see that the shirt worn by Jack
Nicholson has a large image of an eagle on it.

One of the hidden themes Kubrick placed into the movie revolved around the toll his decision in
accepting this role with NASA took upon his wife and children. Outside the hotel there is a large
maze constructed of some type of trees or shrubs. There is a model of the maze in the lobby of the
hotel, and we are shown Jack looking at it. As he stares he sees his wife and son in the maze seeking
to find a way out. There is no way out of the model of the maze, however.

Related to this theme is another departure from Stephen King’s novel. In the book version we are
informed that the former caretaker went crazy due to the isolation of the job and murdered his wife
and daughter. In the movie Kubrick shows the former caretaker to have had two daughters who were
twins. Various messages can be gleaned from this discrepancy. The space program preceding Apollo
was the Gemini program, Gemini being represented by twins. Were we being informed that Kubrick
was replacing someone else who could not stand the pressure of the deception he was engaged in,
and it ended up costing him the life of his family?