My love of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ (1980) is not exactly a secret to anyone who knows me. It has been my favourite film for as long as I remember at this point (although saying that I am currently in a moment in time where that may no longer be true but that is an issue for another time) and even having seen it as many times as I have I still seem to get something new every time I watch it. And, as ‘Room 237’ (2013) proves, I am clearly not the only one. The documentary is based around five interviews from people who have spent several hours pouring over ‘The Shining’ and have all come away from the film with drastically different perspectives about the larger themes of the film, ranging from the interesting to the absolute ridiculous.
Now, to my knowledge (which may be wrong as I have reviewed hundreds of films at this point), I have never reviewed a documentary so this could be interesting. But first time for everything and all that. And the first thing I want to point out is that I don’t think this is actually a particularly well-made film. It is most visually interesting, but that is more because it is mostly filled up of clips from Stanley Kubrick films who is a visual master. But I find it hard to praise a film for its technical prowess when it is basically just footage from other films edited over interview clips. There are a couple of moments where they insert other footage in a kind of re-enactment style which are fine, but they are literally only re-enacting people watching films in cinemas so you kind of just ask yourself why they are there other than to break up the film clips. The editing of film is done well. The film visually follows what the interviewees are saying which allow you to see visually what they are describing, giving their arguments more weight (or completely disproving them in some cases). The soundtrack is a bit all over the place. The interviews themselves are most fine, but there are moments where the sound quality dips in and out and there is even a moment where one of the interviewees leaves as their child is upset and they need to deal with it which is weird that it is left in there. But it is the musical choices that are particularly odd. Sometimes they work fine, and other times they really don’t match with what we are seeing on screen. It is all a bit weird.
With all that being said, I do actually enjoy this film due to the subject matter that it is focused on. It is effectively a film about film studies and the power of film being able to have different people view the same piece of media and come away with completely different perspectives. There is a line from one of the interviewees which effectively says exactly what the film is saying, where they say something along the lines of ‘the meaning of art, regardless of the artists intent, is down to audience interpretation’. As a student of film studies, it is a really interesting film to watch. It is a film that if you haven’t seen ‘The Shining’ it is going to do nothing for you. But with it being my favourite film I love hearing and seeing what other people get out of the film, even if some of the things they are saying are completely non-sensical. There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments in the film due to how far some of the theories spoken about in the film stretch to make to argue their point. There is one particular interviewee who is effectively a conspiracy theorist who every time he opens his mouth just got more and more ridiculous. His final line in the film is genuinely him saying that the government are watching him, and he expects them to mess with his taxes in the upcoming year. But there are also some theories in the film that, although I don’t think I am fully convinced by, are at least interesting and well-argued and you can see why people could see the film in that way.
‘Room 237’ may not be the best-made documentary in terms of its technical prowess, but the contents of the film is really interesting and it is entertaining to see what other people get out of a film that I love. Like I said earlier, you are most likely going to get nothing out of this film is you have never seen ‘The Shining’ as you will miss out on some of the context behind the theories, but if you have seen it I would definitely recommend the film. Even if you don’t find it as interesting as I do, the absolute ridiculousness of some of the theories are entertaining enough to keep you engaged.
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