I've never seen the short version, but I've read descriptions of it. There was a lengthy discussion of this subject on another message board (DVDTalk) and after reading the description of the short version I came to this hypothesis:
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The Shining has a lot of dread in its dialogue; the things that are said, and the sometimes flat way it is delivered give a menacing feeling. This doesn't come across in dubbing or subtitles. Maybe Kubrick thought the foriegn version needed to rely more on frightening imagery (which he kept in) and less on disturbing, dread-filled dialogue (which he cut).
Of course this doesn't explain why the UK got the short version, unless they simply got hit with the same export version as the rest of the world just to simplify distribution.
I also posted this bit of speculation:
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I've always been aware of the shorter version, but I've never seen it. I'd like to for the sake of curiosity.
What I think is most important to discsuss is:
1. Why did Kubrick shorten the film
2. Which version was his prefered version
I've never found anything that would indicate why he did it. Was it personal choice, an experiment, was he acquiescing to foriegn distribution demands (ie. Warners gave him final cut, but only for the US, in every other market it had to be less than 120 minutes)? Maybe Warners presold the film in foriegn markets as a double bill w/ another film? I don't know, I'm just speculating.
My guess is that the film was cut simply for length to make it shorter and get more screenings per day. This would explain why there is no documented explanation from Kubrick (ie. This would be an example of him not having complete control and he would be loath to talk or write about any situation where he didn't have control.)