Room 237 reminded me of being a graduate
student in a film studies program, surrounded by theories and ideas that are
occasionally profound. This is not a typical film, or even documentary, but
more of a visual essay on the possible meanings behind Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Some of the theories given
throughout the film are a bit of a stretch, and there are times that the
details being pointed out by the theorist aren’t even entirely accurate. Part
of what makes this film interesting is the variety of possibilities, all so
very different.
The unique thing
about this film is the fact that there is absolutely no new footage. It is all
either footage taken directly from The Shining, or additional film footage from
random movies which help to coincide with whatever the various theorists are
discussing. There are a variety of main ideas found within The Shining, and
each is argued by a veritable authority.
The main
theories within Room 237 about The Shining’s deeper meaning include
discussion of the Holocaust, Native American Indians, the Apollo 11 moon
landing, and even the past as a whole. Having
the footage from the film play as the experts discuss the film is helpful when
there seems to be truth behind their ideas, but it is a double-edged sword for
those who are over-thinking and under-watching.
There is one section of the film
where one of the supporting characters in the film is discussed and one
theorist mentions a point where he sighs when asked to do something, but when
the footage is shown, there is no sigh. There are also many issues of
continuity discusses within the film, one involving the same actor’s clothing
in one of the scenes. Some sequences have glaring continuity issues, such as a
chair disappearing from one shot to the next, or a sticker disappearing from a
bedroom door. If nearly any other director had done this, it would have quickly
been dismissed as an error, but Kubrick’s celebrity has made it so that nothing
he did was a mistake or unintentional. Instead there are plenty of people
willing to come up with a variety of excuses for his intentional errors in
continuity.
The only problem with this is the
errors in some of the theorists. There is a scene where the actor’s pants
supposedly change from shot to shot, and according to the theorist who points
it out, this is intentional and significant for some reason. The only problem
with this theory is the fact that the pants never change. He claims that the
pants are striped in the close-up and then solid in the master shot, but the
stripes simply look solid from further away. It is clear in the high definition
presentation of Room 237 that the pants are actually the same, proving some of
these theories may be the result of a stretched imagination and poor eyesight.
Even disagree with some points, and
unconvinced that Kubrick was the god-like filmmaker everyone makes him out to
be, Room 237 was exactly my type of film. Regardless of my belief, I enjoy the
thought process behind these theories. This is the way I think about movies, and
sometimes my theories are a stretch as well. One thing is certain; it is far
more interesting than simply reading The
Shining as a ghost story.
The Blu-ray release includes a
commentary track with more theories from internet theorist Kevin McLeod, known
to many online as mstrmnd. The special features also include a panel discussion
with some of the experts and the filmmaker at the Stanley Film Festival, which
is nearly an hour long. There are also 11 deleted sequences, a making-of
featurette for the music, and a discussion of the Mondo poster design.
Entertainment Value:
8/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Disc Features: 8/10
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