Room 237: Review
Directed by Rodney Ascher, this film takes a look at the possible hidden meanings and themes of The Shining. The Shining has been called one of the greatest horror films of all time and Kubrick as one of the worlds greatest filmmakers. Kubrick enthusiasts chime in and give their theories along with some startling discoveries.
Stanley Kubrick is more than a filmmaker. He was an artist and a genius in the most unique way. Each of his films leaves a part of itself within you and has you walking away still thinking about it for days. This documentary takes one of the greatest horror films and picks it apart inch by inch. The men and women involved really took the time and investigated every aspect of The Shining. There were things that they shed light on that I would not have even taken a second thought about and after seeing it I realized just how much of a genius Kubrick really was. One thing that you can take from this documentary and forever remember is that anytime you watch a Kubrick film you will know that EVERYTHING is done for a reason. From something as simple as a t-shirt to the color of the walls of a hallway. My favorite theory had to be the one where they said that Kubrick used this film as a way of telling people that he indeed work together with NASA to fake the moon landing. Sounds crazy right? When you see it and hear these people put pieces together that involve scenes in the film you will start to believe that it could be the truth. The reason I call them theories is that Kubrick himself isn’t around to debate these claims or stories but the way they are proposed makes me believe most of them. There are a few that are little farfetched for me to grasp but that’s to be expected. One was that the film was meant to be watched forward and backwards….at the same time….layered on top of each other. Yeah, I know. It was strange for me to hear that too. There were a few things in this otherwise great documentary that I have to knit pick about. One would have to be the audio in some spots. There were moments where the background music wasn’t actually in the background and made for hearing the person talk become very hard. The other would be that during one of the segments you hear the child of the man speaking crying loudly in the background. Unless it was a one take deal,why wasn’t it just re-recorded. In my opinion it makes the film seem very amateur. Other than those two things I really loved this film and it’s a great companion to The Shining. I recommend it to any fan of Kubrick’s work.
ROOM 237 is avaiable NOW in select theaters and available to watch on Cable VOD, SundanceNOW and other digital outlets (iTunes, Amazon Streaming, PS3 Playstation Unlimited, XBOX Zune, Google PLAY and YouTube)
