The Shining (Kubrick's): How Jack Torrance could very well be the good guy in 15 sentences.

1- The core of The Shining is the ambiguity of the story of Danny’s broken arm, whether it is an accident or Jack is truly a brutal father.

2- The Overlook and the Labyrinth are metaphorical places, they represent Danny’s perception of his life at home.

3- Because of the broken arm accident, everybody becomes more distant in the Torrance family, hence the size of the Overlook, and the space associated with the father’s work becomes threatening, that’s why Danny spends a lot of time in corridors.

4- The Overlook and the work of guardian represent "working Jack"’s territory whereas the hotel room where the family sleep represents the moment when Danny considers that his dad is not in his “working arm-breaking form.”

5- Danny doesn't have any superpowers, he simply can hear what his parents say through the walls of the house, Dick Hallorann doesn't exist, the ghosts are thoughts and Tony is an imaginary friend that serves as an extension of Danny's desires created in order not to have to be responsible for anything he might say or do that could be problematic.

6- Jack Nicholson gives Jack Torrance a constant evilish vibe because that’s how Danny perceives his father because of the broken arm accident.

7- Wendy should reassure her son and explain him that Jack isn’t a sadistic monster, that it was just truly an accident and that the boy shouldn’t be scared of it ever happening again.

8- Instead she uses the accident to destroy Danny and Jack’s bond because she is jealous of it and also because she doesn’t care about Jack’s suffering and his desire to escape his life of toil by writing a book.

9- The situation will degrade to the point where Wendy uses Danny's oedipal complex to abuse the kid sexually when one day he notices that the door of the bathroom is open when his mother is taking a bath.

10- Wendy's psyche splits, she forgets about the assault and puts the blame on Jack as a defense mechanism in order not to have to confront herself to what she did.

11- She now wants to leave her husband, leave the Overlook and causes a heated conversation so that it looks understandable that she should crack his skull with a baseball bat.

12- Luckily, Jack will retaliate and manage to partially reinstate a structure in his poor traumatized  kid’s mind.

13- The axe cuts the morbid bond with the mother, in the bedroom (incestuous sexuality) and in the bathroom (impossible birth).

14- The axe is metaphorical, it is the tool that Jack possesses that can separate Danny's psyche from his mother's but as the kid thinks this can only be done by killing one them, this tool -sex for Wendy and love for Danny- becomes an axe.

15- Jack Torrance kills Dick Hallorann who, at that point, incarnates the illusion that Danny now has of having a mature sexuality.

16- Sadly, Wendy has planned and prepared her attack enough for Danny to misunderstand the intentions of his father, the mother and the kid leave and Jack, rejected on both levels, dies of loneliness.

Longer version of this idea.