ROOM 237

tylercheribini

Really, really dissapointed with this. After such positive reviews and crtiiquing a film i love aswell in the documentary. it starts off well as we hear two plausible enough possible hidden sub texts in the film,(nazism and indian genocide) based on some actual factual analysis from the respective contrubuters. it soon descends into baseless, conspiracy theory ramblings though. By the end of the documentary the viewer is left tearing their hair out listening to some of the "theorists", their theories are so thin and groundless.( one claiming jack nicholson looks like a minotaur in one scene????wtf) I felt like grabbing and shaking these people. Documentary left me angry more than anything . It like someone recorded the drunken, drug induced ramblings of first year film students for the majority.:mad:

delbertgrady

I saw it a few months ago in the Lighthouse and I'd agree. It was very much a film of two halves. Some decent, entertaining and - hell, even plausible - conspiracy theories were undermined by some downright ludicrous ideas which reduced the screening I was at to exasperated laughter, meaning that overall, it was disappointing. I'd forgotten about the minotaur. Wasn't that based on the skiing poster in the games room too? I couldn't see anything. Maybe there's a sailboat hidden in the wallpaper's repeat pattern too. Absolute nonsense. And not enough about the internal architecture of the hotel, the corridors that go nowhere, doors too close together, etc. I've seen better analyses of The Overlook's internal structure on You Tube.

tylercheribini

yeah the minotaur one was the worst of them. Yeah she linked a poster of a skier(who supposedly looked like a minotaur) in the games room to a guy sitting on a horse oppoite to it and then somehow to jacks face in one of the scenes. it was some of the most ridiculous cock and bull ive heard in my life about anything. Id imagine a few takes were needed to get one without her erupting into hysterics druning her ramblings. Its like the docs producers said," right we have two maybe three plausible theories here but not enough to fill an over hour and a half documentray. we may need some padding". could easily have been condensed to a half hour extra on the blu ray or somethin, defo didnt warrant a theatrical release. awful stuff. id hate to see the theories that werent good enough for final cut, although by the looks of things it seems anyone with the neck to spew their ****e got included

delbertgrady

Even stupid theories like the casting of Barry Dennen as Bill Watson, that was somehow supposed to deliberately evoke memories of his performance as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar, causing the audience to subconsciusly see that Bill was "washing his hands" of the Overlook and passing it over to Jack. Ridiculous.
Mind you, the one thing that it did highlight, which I had never picked up on, despite countless viewings of the film, was the brusque, irritated way with which Bill says "Fine" when Mr. Ullman asks him to organise bringing the Torrance's luggage up to their rooms. And the Playgirl magazine was interesting too. What the hell would that be doing in a hotel lobby?
But these are all minor episodes in a film that was stretched to breaking point for its 87 minutes or whatever duration it was.

Greyjoy

I think as the documentary progresses it shifts from looking at theories on the Shining to looking at film interpretation itself. The outlandish theories in the latter half of the doc aren't there to give credence to those conspiracies but to show how people can become obsessed with the 'hidden meanings' in movies.

tylercheribini

Greyjoy wrote: »

I think as the documentary progresses it shifts from looking at theories on the Shining to looking at film interpretation itself. The outlandish theories in the latter half of the doc aren't there to give credence to those conspiracies but to show how people can become obsessed with the 'hidden meanings' in movies.

yeah maybe. i just expect a much higher level of reasoning, evidence and critical analysis behind an argument about anything, especially in a documentary and a much revered one at that. The rubbish far, far outweighed the reasoned arguments in this. Im pretty sure if i played any film backwards and forwards at the same time there would be "startling" matches in it aswell. Im half expecting a sequel where the same people sit down and watch bambi and deduce it is actually about walt disneys penchant for young boys. The film didnt present much I couldnt have found from nerdy fan boys on internet chat forums. There is a wealth of unfounded bollix about anything online. Somewhere Kubrick is laughin his head off..maybe these are exactly the type of ridiculous reactions he wanted to provoke in the shining from people, a big joke on us all:D

tylercheribini

delbertgrady wrote: »

Even stupid theories like the casting of Barry Dennen as Bill Watson, that was somehow supposed to deliberately evoke memories of his performance as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar, causing the audience to subconsciusly see that Bill was "washing his hands" of the Overlook and passing it over to Jack. Ridiculous.
Mind you, the one thing that it did highlight, which I had never picked up on, despite countless viewings of the film, was the brusque, irritated way with which Bill says "Fine" when Mr. Ullman asks him to organise bringing the Torrance's luggage up to their rooms. And the Playgirl magazine was interesting too. What the hell would that be doing in a hotel lobby?
But these are all minor episodes in a film that was stretched to breaking point for its 87 minutes or whatever duration it was.

yeah the bill watson character is defo purposely slipped in there to provke some type of intrigue and ambuigity. I agree with some of the views in the doc that he represents some type of higher authority, "silent partner" type, in regards to the hotel.
Most of the docs theories reminded me of those kevin bacon 4g ad's where he links everythin to everything, how ever ridiculous.:)

duckworth

I think the whole point of the film was the wide range of views on what it meant - some insightful and credible, some ridiculous and borderline deranged. I think alot of the crazier conspiracies were in there to get laughs.

I don't think the film's intention was to provide an insightful look at The Shining - it was more to examine various obsessive people who go to these great lengths to find meaning in the work.

Having said that, a substantial part of the film was pretty boring (especially the map/geography of the hotel aspects). I thought it would be much better.

Tusky

Finally got around to this and I'd agree with the original post. Love Kubrick and The Shining, but this just left me frustrated. The crazy theories are amusing at first but become frustrating as the documentary moves on. I expected them to have more credibility but they were mostly baseless and without any merit whatsoever. Why give these crazies a soapbox? That's not entertaining.

The minotaur one particularly annoyed me. The way she was referring to it as if it was a fact, when it is clearly a picture of a skier.

Tusky

Tusky wrote: »

Finally got around to this and I'd agree with the original post. Love Kubrick and The Shining, but this just left me frustrated. The crazy theories are amusing at first but become frustrating as the documentary moves on. I expected them to have more credibility but they were mostly baseless and without any merit whatsoever. Why give these crazies a soapbox? That's not entertaining.

The minotaur one particularly annoyed me. The way she was referring to it as if it was a fact, when it is clearly a picture of a skier.

You can read pretty much anything you want to into any film. I had a script lecturer who spent a good portion of a lecturer telling us that the ending of the Searchers was all about Ethan walking away because he was afraid he would rape his niece. Now I read the ending to mean that he had become disgusted by his actions while searching for her and realised that polite society had no place for people like him and as such he turned his back on it. She also thought that Seven Samurai was about mans fear of women and Room 237 just goes to show how every nutter out there will search for something of meaning when often there is none.

tylercheribini

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJr7TEVvjqw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPPlvMnaV0

the list of acolades i had seen in the preceeeding trailers really did lead me to expect just a bit more from it though.

Tusky

Deleted User wrote: »

You can read pretty much anything you want to into any film.

Yep, but you will mostly be wrong and it does not necessarily mean it will be entertaining.

Room 237 just goes to show how every nutter out there will search for something of meaning when often there is none.

But sure we knew that already.