Review of Room 237

I love fan theories! I have always been open to discussion on the interpretation of films. Honestly, I don't see much reason why a person might hate this documentary, unless they are close minded or they didn't like the Stanley Kubrick's film in the first place. I know some people might hate conspiracy theories, but they should be more open, even if it sounds outrageous. I don't agree with everything that the people being interview in the documentary have to say, but I do find what they're saying, interesting. At face value, the 1980 film, 'The Shining' is one of the best films ever made. It was terrifying, smart, and somewhat utterly confusing. So it was no surprised, that fans would love to explore more on its themes. It's what good media sources does. It doesn't matter if the media source is a book, movie, song, play, etc. etc. It's supposed to make people think and dig further. Stanley Kubrick was able to do that with Stephen King's novel, 'the Shining'. This documentary by Rodney Ascher, examines a handful of Shining fan theories and try to explain some of them. The chosen examples come from both academic film theorists and tormented fans. Clearly the movie did had some subliminal messages in it. Interpretation like the movie is about the massacre of the American Indians look possible as the film is loaded with Native American symbolism from the hotel's theme to the can of Calumet. Even the film state out that the hotel just happens to sit atop an Indian burial ground. According to this theory, the infamous visions of gushing red liquid streaming from the elevators actually make sense, as it represents the souls buried deep beneath the hotel, with the elevator cabin dropping down into the basement like in a well, delivering a bucket blood upon its return to the surface. Another truthful thing, I can see is truth in this film. I do believe that Kubrick's does tackle the themes like coincidences of life, dreams, racism, repressed sexual themes, and the past does not exist. I do believe he use other tales, like Theseus and the Minotaur as plot references. Some theories such as the film is about the Holocaust because of the number 42 is just out there. Half-hidden numerology is meant to evoke the year 1942, the same year the Nazis launched their campaign for the Final Solution. I found it to be a little bit stretch out with his findings. It could be that the director was fan of Jackie Robinson or something. When characters in the film, watch the 1971's movie, 'Summer of 1942', that film has little to do with the Holocaust. That film is about two people falling in love in a summer vacation on Nantucket Island. The Adler typewriter is indeed, German, but the model shown in the film, the Shining isn't from the Nazi Era. Another theory that is hard to believe is that Kubrick made this movie to come clean about helping the government fake the moon landing because a character wore an Apollo 11 sweater and how the room 237, represent the number of distance from the earth to the moon. Most of this theory come from a 2002's French mockumentary film, call Dark Side of the Moon that was made as a joke. There is no prove that Kubrick had anything to do with Apollo 11. It's hard to believe, that all the Astronauts, NASA, and all the people working on it, is covering up a fake moon landing. Are we to believe that the later missions are fake, too? These conspiracy theories are impossible to believe, because of the size and complexity of the real life event. With the number of people that would have had to be involved, someone would have outed the hoax by now. Since the late 2000s, high-definition photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Apollo landing sites have captured the lander modules and the tracks left by the astronauts. In 2012, images were released showing the Apollo missions' American flags still standing on the Moon. While, I do find the theory interesting, I sadly can't believe it. The other theories of the film are less lunatic, but drawn from small details like chair disappearing, TV had no cord, the window being in an odd place, typewriter changing colors, the carpet changing patterns, Etc. Etc. The people in the film, think Stanley Kubrick can't make mistakes. I for one, don't think Kubrick is a perfect with full control of every tiny little thing on his sets. Most of these examples seem more errors, then metaphors. I did find the part of the Red VW Beetle being smashed up and the magazine in the film as stimulating as it symbolism destroying Stephen King's source material and inside jokes. I love how they decided to play the film backwards and forwards at the same time. That was fun to watch. Surprising there was a lot of other theories that left out, that would be interesting to hear like the CIA, The Illuminati, or the Gold Standard theories, but thank goodness, it wasn't added. I was kinda disappointed that they didn't answer my question, like the bear suit scene was about? What I didn't like about the film is how clip show, it is. The makers of this film really didn't do much other than edit video clips from various films and then badly audio-dub over them with people's commentary. There is little to no credentials in the people being interview as they ramble on, even on things that isn't relate to the film like a Costa Rica trip or sound like they're high. At less, they could had done is show the film critics faces, research Kubrick's more, or talk to people that have work on the product. Some people see this film as pointless rambling, while others see the film as decoding a great film. Overall: it was indeed thought-provoking.