10 Movie Scenes That Took The Most Amount Of Takes Ever

4. Dick Hallorann Explains The Shining...148 Times - The Shining

Stanley Kubrick's tendency to work with a small crew on his films afforded him the ability to shoot ludicrous amounts of takes with near enough impunity, beyond affecting the mental health of his stars, at least.

The Shining earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the most number of takes performed for a single scene, with Kubrick reportedly having Shelley Duvall carry out the iconic baseball bat scene opposite Jack Nicholson a soul-sapping 127 times.

However, this claim has since been disputed by both the film's Steadicam operator Garrett Brown and assistant editor Gordon Stainforth, who claim it was actually in the region of around 35-45 takes.

But Brown did go on to confirm that there is a scene in the film which far surpasses that rumoured 127-take sequence, and that's the scene where Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) explains The Shining to young Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd).

Despite being a seemingly simple dialogue scene, Kubrick had Crothers and Lloyd perform it 148 times before he was happy, which seems especially cruel given that one of the cast members was a child.

Most of the cast have spoken of their exasperation with Kubrick's methodical style, with Crothers reportedly reduced to tears while shooting the scene where the camera zooms in on his face in his bedroom. Again, despite the basic nature of the scene, Kubrick made Crothers perform it more than 60 times. Oof.