The Guinness Book of Records has been keeping track of all kinds of records since 1954. Of course, there have also been entries for records from the world of film for many years. One of the record holders is the film The Shining by legendary director Stanley Kubrick. But is this entry really justified? There are voices that claim otherwise.
148 takes: Stanley Kubrick holds the (official) record for this scene in The Shining
On the official website of Guinness World Records, Shining holds the Record for most takes, i.e. attempts for a scene with dialogue. It’s not one of the big, well-known scenes from The Shining. For example, when Jack Nicholson breaks down the door with an axe, or when his boy rides his tricycle through the halls.
This scene holds the record: Guinness World Records records a much more inconspicuous scene that is said to have required 148 takes. It is the conversation between Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) and Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) about the power of the shining.
According to World of Reel, a member of the crew also ranked the scene in which Shelley Duvall goes up the stairs with a baseball bat very highly. It is listed on Guinness World Records as having taken 127 takes. However, this has been denied by both Steadicam operator (and inventor) Garrett Brown and Assistant Editor Gordon Stainforth. There are doubts about the record holder, however.
Why the entry in the Guinness Book of Records could be wrong
Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3 and fan of Stanley Kubrick, claims that the entry is incorrectIn an interview with IndieWire, he talked about his obsession with The Shining and the making-of book he wrote.
Not only does he show himself to be an absolute fan of the film, but he also dispels the myth about the countless takes. Kubrick is said to have been a perfectionist, but according to Unkrich’s statement, no take in The Shining managed to reach a three-digit repetition:
The shot with the most takes in the entire film that nobody talks about is the big, long tracking shot that takes Jack and Wendy and the hotel manager into the Gold Ballroom at the beginning of the film.
Unkrich even has a theory how the error in the Guinness Book could have occurred:
I think some of the actors Confusing samples with recordingsbecause Kubrick rehearsed a lot. And that was really part of his writing process. During rehearsals he continued to shape the dialogue.
There are other candidates for the record holder for the most takes of a scene with dialogue. One of them was filmed almost 50 years ago. Comedy legend Charlie Chaplin is said to have been quite a perfectionist.
According to an article by CNN, a scene from Chaplin’s film City Lights been filmed 341 timesThe fact that the film is not listed as a record holder in the Guinness Book of Records could be due to the fact that it is a silent film.