Review of Room 237 (2012) by Walter M — 11 Jun 2015

Starting with "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick took a much more detailed approach to filmmaking which also added to the time it took for him to make a film. A special challenge was with "Barry Lyndon" in not only recreating the 18th century in realistic fashion but in also getting a dramatic performance out of Ryan O'Neal.

With his next movie "The Shining," those same background details would end up tripping up any number of over-attentive viewers. This phenomenon is explored in the documentary "Room 237" which also serves as a cautionary tale about seeing a movie at least 50 times.

Whereas the viewers interviewed provide occasionally valid insights, especially along the lines of the Overlook Hotel actually being alive, there are other theories that are to be polite just out there.

Take for instance the one who saw "The Shining" as proof that Kubrick faked the moon landing, mostly in a random sweater and cans of Tang. Actually, he kind of hedges his bets when he says that we probably did reach the moon but that is not the real footage. In any case, I did not watch the bonus footage of "Room 237" on the DVD, so alas I don't know if he ever got audited by the IRS.

And then there is numerology which is shaky at the best of times, which in this case involves the number 42.(2 X 3 X 7 = 42) Admittedly, that is also the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' which was first produced two years before "The Shining" was released. Or maybe Kubrick was just a huge Jackie Robinson fan.