ROOM 237 – Over 30 years later We ALL SHINE ON

Chris Hill April 5, 2013 0
ROOM 237 – Over 30 years later We ALL SHINE ON

 

 

Room-237

ROOM 237
Director: Rodney Ascher

A documentary surrounding the various theories on the subliminal messaging, hidden meanings and subtext of Stanley Kubrick’s the Shining.

Titled after the famed haunted room in the film “The Shining” Director Rodney Ascher delivers a fascinating look into the mythos of The Shining. Multiple Kubrick “experts” expound on what they think Kubrick was trying to relay in multiple scenes as well as discuss what many believe to be intentional continuity errors. Ascher is able to utilize footage not only from The Shining but other Kubrick works to create a larger pathos to work from.

Theories range from The Shining being a telling of the oppression of Native American people to Stanley trying to let the world know that he directed the Apollo moon landing footage, to a subtext on the Nazi oppression of the Jewish People. Getting so carried away as to create blueprints of the to show how the various rooms and hotel layout cannot be physically accurate such as an outside window in an interior room. It appears the Overlook in Kubrick’s vision is the of Colorado Hotels.

Taken piece by piece you can see how some of the “experts” might have some basis to stand by, yet as a whole it’s not possible for all of them to be accurate. The simple fact that it can’t be all things to all people and if one is right it cancels out the other theories.  Kubrick is so beloved that one the “experts” proliferates that Kubrick was a genius and had an IQ of over 200, just not true in fact Kubrick himself thought he had a below average IQ and was a poor student never able to gain higher education. When it comes to films however he was a visual innovator, known for multiple takes to the point of an Actors exhaustion. This doesn’t mean he had hidden meanings in the film, It could just mean he had a vision of what he wanted and didn’t stop till he got what he wanted. There are leaps of logic people take that are simply astounding, a poster of a skier represents a Centaur, Tang powder drink mix is visible so he must have worked for the government on the moon landing, Calumet Baking powder is visible so it must be about Native Americans. I was amazed that there was not a theory tying in to the illuminati or Freemasonry.

That’s the beauty of Kubrick he took so long between projects and was known for such painstaking research that people don’t want to accept he would have flaws we don’t want to accept it at face value. It’s almost preposterous to think that maybe Kubrick was less concerned with continuity and more concerned with the quality of acting and visual style of the film.  Regardless of belief there are enough inconsistencies that even the most skeptical  will view cinema in a different light.

Grade -85

ROOM 237 will be opening locally at the Sundance Sunset in West Hollywood, Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and South Coast Village in Costa Mesa

 

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