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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 09/24/2013 : 21:47:04
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Boy, are many of you guys gonna love this one, which just went live streaming on Netflix. It is a series of voiceover interviews with people obsessed over Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, who each think they've cracked the code. You don't see them; instead, you see clips from movies -- mostly Kubrick's, but some others too.
One guy believes THE SHINING is all about the subjugation of the American Indian, and shows you why. Another one thinks it's about the Holocaust, same deal. Yet another thinks it's Kubrick's confession that he helped NASA fake the moon landing footage: "I'm not saying we didn't go to the moon. I'm saying what we saw on tv was faked."
These are not raving lunatics, but they are ubernerdy over THE SHINING, and there's one thing you have to hand them: Stanley Kubrick was a IQ-200 perfectionist who was aware of every corner of the frame. So why does the carpet pattern in the hallway reverse between two shots: the phantom ball rolling up to Danny, and him standing? Kubrick simply does not make continuity errors like that. Then there is the "impossible window" in the Jack Nicholson interview scene...the significant cans of Calumet [for one guy] and Tang [for another] in the very same shot.
Toward the end, one interviewee says, sometimes the subtext isn't even evident to the artist. This I can buy. Kubrick's imagery was so rich that you can impute anything you like. But I can't help but think that some aspects of his Overlook Hotel were deliberately meant to befuddle, to twist the audience sideways, to rock them off balance even if they didn't consciously know.
I've already seen THE SHINING enough times [I think it's studded with awful dialogue and over-the-top acting -- but then, my favorite director indulged Patrick Magee in not one but TWO films] but I'm always up for that beautiful helicopter work for the opening titles. So I probably won't go back to the whole picture for a while yet. However, it's somehow sweet that these people can, in their own minds, find so much within. I think you'll enjoy this one.
P.S. Forgot to mention that the little indie filmmakers cleverly parody the old Warner Communications logo ["two reds and a bennie"] and the Screen Gems end-button, as well as THE SHINING's distinctive "chapter" cards. For example, to comment on the original opening credits, this movie's end credits roll DOWN! |
Edited by - randall on 09/25/2013 21:06:59 |
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benj clews 
"...."
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Posted - 09/26/2013 : 17:51:00
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Yep, loved it when I saw it a while back. It's weird in that you sit watching it and scoffing at the ridiculous leaps of logic the conspiracy theorists are making until one of them hits on something that makes you go "You know what... that actually- yeah, they could be on to something there".
My own feeling on it is that Kubrick likely made the 'mistakes' he did just to subtly unnerve the audience, rather than relay any deep messages.
The impossible window and the flipped carpet are both things you simply wouldn't notice unless you were endlessly analysing the film but that could maybe subconsciously tell your mind something is off here (even though you're not sure quite what). This didn't take anything away from the fun however and I was still left reeling at the remarkable coincidences people continued to pick up along the way, especially so Jack Nicholson being transformed briefly into a clown.
Possibly the highest praise I can give this film is that, by the end of it, I was neither convinced or unconvinced there wasn't something to it- surely testament to a well-argued and non-biased documentary. |
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Room 237
