Film Review: Room 237

There are some movies that have more to them than what's shown on-screen.  Some movies are laden with symbols, messages, and images that attach to the subconscious and invoke stronger feelings or thoughts that may not even have anything to do with the actual film.  Over the thirty years that it has existed, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining has staggered people's senses and imaginations so much, they have developed some rather unique theories regarding what the film really means.

The premise of Room 237 is that Stanley Kubrick purposefully littered his film with symbols and images to subliminally suggest different ideas.  Among the supposed subliminal messages, Kubrick supposedly littered his film with various numbers (mostly 42, and multiples of 7, which specifically alludes to the year 1942), as a reference to the years of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaigns of Nazi Germany.  There are numerous patterns and images of Native American design, alluding to the massacre of the Indians throughout America's history.  There are supposedly references in the film's images and the actual story that reveals Kubrick's own involvement in faking the Apollo moon landings, leading many to believe that The Shining is really a reflection on his own experiences.  The film analyzes key scenes, discussing how some of the imagery doesn't make sense, or has been purposefully crafted to tie into these ideas.  These hypothesis tend to be pretty outlandish, and it's hard to tell if the interviewees are reading too much into the film or not.  Chances are that they're spotting inconsistencies or mistakes more than actual clues.  However, the film does reveal a lot of fine details that I never saw or considered before, and some of the interpretations (especially, the notion that The Shining reflects on the horror and violence of humanity overall) I actually find agreeable.

This movie moves at a pretty decent rate.  It's pretty odd that the film never actually shows its interviewees, so it's hard to know who's really narrating.  The film does use footage throughout The Shining to specifically illustrate what's being discussed.  The film even goes on to include a ton of other footage from other movies (including most other Kubrick films) to get its point across.  The filmmakers even went through the trouble of mapping out the Overlook Hotel as best as they could, to illustrate how whacked out its architecture really is.

The film is pretty well-built and edited, and the movie shows good structure.  Most of the narration is not bad, but some of the interviewees tend to ramble, and one guy had a kid in the background that he had to take care of.  The film uses a very effective and interesting music score.

Fans of The Shining should give this documentary a look, for it might unearth some fascinating topics and themes that they may have not considered yet.  Even though some of these ideas are pretty out-there, the film did open my eyes to certain nuances of The Shining, and it may have enhanced by appreciation of Kubrick's classic film.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Content:  Pretty Good | Film:  Pretty Good)