I'm with you on the scenes that you picked out. It's my general opinion that Jack Nicholson is largely responsible for the turn around in opinion...such is the sheer charisma of his performance.

The problem for me is that those scenes exist alongside some rather hokey scenes with Scatman and Shelley Duvall injects such a thoroughly shrill presence throughout proceedings that I always hope for the axe to come crashing through her face.

There is a lot to be admired in the film.  It's one of those that I can see the greatness in, it just isn't quite cohesive enough for me.

On a side note: I find that vagueness or ambiguity is a quick route to being declared a genius...people invent the most incredible stories about what the film means.

There's some interesting discussion of various interpretations of the film on the wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(film)

Personally I think they tend to say more for the individual critic than they do the film, but they are interesting at least.

This thread brought the documentary to my attention, thanks.
I can't even imagine what his mind's eye must have been like.
It does give me some insight into why he did so many takes.
Kubrick seems on a quest for perfection in every frame of every shot.
I'm not a big Kubrick fan, but his methodology is truly impressive.

Given this level of precision, it seems The Shining controversy has some merit.
The river of blood shot in the film, something falls from the elevator.
Something near body sized, its swallowed up by the blood, its hard to see.
After looking at this documentary, it must have been meant to be there.

I think its fitting the new storage facility looks like something out of 2001.

E.D.