Tuesday, March 24, 2020

"All work and no play ..."



The scene in Stanley Kurick's The Shining (1980), where Jack Nicholson's character (in the grips of cabin fever? delusion? possession?), is throwing a tennis ball against the lobby wall. I returned to this scene yesterday and noticed that "the wall" is actually a mural, and that it looks to be of indigenous North American origin. Sure enough, it is. But not of anyone associated with the area where the film is set (the Colorado Rockies), but the Navajo. A Navajo sand painting, in fact.

A detailed discussion of The Shining and its relationship to indigenous North American culture can be found at Rob Ager's Collative Learning site.

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