Room 237

[El Dingo]

I'd seen a couple YouTube videos and skimmed some of the websites (like http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining.html) attempting to explain the deeper meaning of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining". Aside from the obvious camera tricks and creepy sets I didn't see what these people were seeing. I thought they were crazy obsessives. I was right.

"Room 237" allows several of these individuals to babble about how the blood spouting elevators were representing Native American genocide (the doors were closed you see, symbolizing American denial of history). The picture of Apollo 11 on Danny's sweater obviously meant that Kubrick was involved with staging the moon landing footage. The poster of the skier on the wall? Zoom in and it looks like a minotaur (viewed best with your head firmly up your ass).

For two hours these people dissect miniscule details in the film explaining how Kubrick was telling the story of the Holocaust, the Native American or, in one case, the nature of humanity itself.

Don't get me wrong, it was an entertaining journey through a schizophrenic mind, but in the end I felt the film was about how people can see anything they want and interpret those details so that it accommodates their worldview.

Worth checking out if you're into that kind of thing. I'm sure it will be on DVD soon.

[Drunk Monk]

Was it presented seriously or somewhat chiding at their fanaticism?

[El Dingo]

It was entirely through their own words. There was no interviewer or narrator. I'm not even sure they were in the thing. It was riddled with stock and public domain footage to 'illustrate' their theories.

For instance, one person was talking about 'letting the genie out of the bottle' so naturally the fillmmakers insert footage of the genie from 'Thief of Bagdad'. When talking about the staged moon landing they used footage from 'Capricorn One'. It became very distracting after a while.

[Drunk Monk]

Did I ever tell you how I dumped a lot of cash into an I Dream of Jeannie slot machine, mostly because it kept playing Barbara Eden's voice cooing "Oh! Master!"

Sounds like a thumbs down on this then. I think The Shining was the last film that totally scared the shit out of me. It was that damn soundtrack by Krzysztof Penderecki.

Oh was it the underlying theme of the Native American genocide? :?

[thatguy]

I just watched this last night. I agree with ED. It seems every continuity error has import. Someone should do a similar documentary about a movie full of continuity errors, like "The Room" and see how many conspiracy theories they can come up with. It also reminded me about how annoying art historians and other educated turtleneck-types are. I had a Humanities professor at SJSU that put forth that in Oedipus Rex, his eyes represented his testicles and when he gouged out his eyes at the end, it represented him castrating himself. Seems to me that if he wanted to castrate himself, he would have just done that, but the eye bit worked better in the story (i.e.: now he's blind, he actually sees, etc).

I did like to see the floor plans for the hotel that people came up with.

DM, you though it was scary?

[youtube]KmkVWuP_sO0[/youtube]

--tg

[thatguy]

[youtube]cqsonfSQk2I[/youtube]

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

I had some friends that liked to take X and spend the day at IKEA. That always sounded like such an f-ed up thing to do - the fast pass to a bad trip - way up there with dropping A at Lynch Manor. If dm had ever joined them, he would surely have ended up like that kid, only drenched in the elevator of blood...

[thatguy]

I missed the kubrick exhibit, but apparently it's coming back to sf in 2016.

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You can skip to the 16 min mark to see the final build:

[youtube]zAGu2TPt_78[/youtube]

Someone should do this in legos...

--tg

[thatguy]

[youtube]Nsi06PG7w_0[/youtube]

--tg

[thatguy]

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

tg FTW!