ROOM 237, a documentary film about the hidden meanings of Stanley Kubrick’s film, THE SHINING, is one wild trip down a cinematic rabbit hole. Various people have spent untold hours and energy parsing literally every frame of the classic horror film sussing out the real, true meaning because, of course, there must be one.
And there is one. There’s also two. And three. And four. And on and on. And that’s the trouble. Even if there IS a hidden meaning in the film (and I sincerely doubt there is one other than the usual Kubrickian thematic concerns), how come all of these brainiacs came up with a DIFFERENT theory?
One person swears the film is all about the annihilation of the American Indian, another sees it as a film concerning the Holocaust. One energetic researcher ties the film to other Kubrick works and even finds references within the film to the film itself! But the granddaddy of them all as to be the one who believes that the whole movie is about how Stanley Kubrick helped NASA fake the Apollo 11 moon landing by filming the event on a sound stage.
Each true believer can point to numerous things in the film that might or might not have a deeper meaning. And even if any of these “Easter eggs” have meaning, the average movie watcher is not likely to notice them.
Yes, there are continuity errors in the film. Hell, almost every film made has some hiccup in it. But not for these folks. Kubrick was too much of a genius level intellect with complete control over every aspect of a film production to allow accidents to happen. If there’s a “mistake” in the film, it’s on purpose and fraught with meaning.
ROOM 237 is a well-made, even-handed documentary. It allows each voice to be heard with room to present their respective cases. It makes no judgments and allows the audience to decide for itself.
Me? I think every Kubrick film has sub-text and meaning that is not immediately made clear. All Kubrick films bear re-watching several times to pick up on stuff that might have been missed on first viewing. It’s fun to try to figure out what the master had in mind while making his films but to devote yourself to creating blueprints and models of the hotel set, to running two prints of the film over each other simultaneously (one in reverse), to obsessing over the number “42” which apparently has some talismanic power (Room 237? 2 x 3 x 7 = 42!).
That way lies madness.
Besides, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Recommended.
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