MovieChat Forums > Room 237 (2012) Discussion > What utter utter twaddle, don't waste yo...

What utter utter twaddle, don't waste your time.

posted 12 years ago by aidanjbanks
40 replies | jump to latest

I don't think I have ever seen anything as ridiculous as this 'documentary'. It is essentially a string of the thinnest most ridiculous theories I have ever heard. So ridiculous that I belive you could take this approach to any film. I did not see a single credible theory in the whole thing. I believe this is just an attempt by some to put themselves ont he same itellectual level as Kubrick by 'spotting' things only they and Kubrick would pick up on. Sometimes a spade is just a spade. To link the use of a german type writer to the holocaust or a poster of a skier to the Minotaur in the labrynth is just so fricking stupid its depressing. Talking of depressing, the delivery of each of the talking heads is so drole and slow and boring you would think they each had some kind of brain damage.I am amazed that anyone actually stumped up the finances to get this thing released. Utter crap best avoided.

[–] thee_eyez 12 years ago

Sucks for you. This was one of the most entertaining docs I've seen in a while, and my entire theater was into it. These theories are not all meant to be credible. Some are meant to be taken lightly, some more heavily.

You definitely cannot take this approach to ANY film. It's pretty lame that you couldn't even entertain the idea that there might be some underlying meanings to just a few things in The Shining. If you live the rest of your life that black & white, that's unfortunate.

It's ok to have a little fun when you watch a movie, EVEN A DOCUMENTARY!

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] aidanjbanks 12 years ago

There are so many docs out there, so many good ones, some serious some entertaing but pretty much all of them based on some kind of truth. THis 'critical theory' doc is entirly in the mind of a bunch of people desperate to see what is not there. Of course there hidden references in films , but not always. There are so many stupid observations in this 'film' that it ceases to be entertaining and just becomes fricking ridiculous. I would accept an attempt to be light-hearted about it if there was some wit but there isn't. It is boring it is ridiculous and prevents people from just enjoying the Shining. It asks them to pay attention to things that are not there and are nothing to do with the story or characters. As such it almost asks you to ignore one of the best films ever made and look for something that just ain't there.
Fianly you CAN take this approach to ANY film people just don't want to admit it because it would show this 'documentary' up for the ridiculous bollocks that it is.

[–] CAL_FORD 11 years ago

Three eyes and all are blind.

[–] -501 11 years ago

Absolutely agree. Some background can of produce has an indian on it that mean that Kubrick meant this or that. Nonsense. Don't waste your time watching this piece of crap. That doesn't mean that Kubrick doesn't have underlying themes or things that he likes to put in a film because he can. It just means they aren't based on paper-thin ideas that people believe because they are inclined to believe.

[–] Mankind-5 12 years ago

Agreed 100%. I kept thinking while watching this, that it was come kind of faux-doc... a joke. There is no way these people could be serious with this. Sadly... they are serious.

Every "theory" is so stretched, it's pathetic. And the one guy that kept saying, "Genocide of the American Indians" was REALLY ticking me off. Genocide? Uhm, no. Shut up... just, shut, up! The whole "peace pipe" thing he was rambling about... guh!

I've never been more agitated at anything in a LONG time. That's all I took away from it. I was entertained on an annoyance level.

[–] zender8584 12 years ago

Well, to the extent that native Americans were exterminated to allow westward expansion, including with biological weapons (smallpox), is fact. The link between the Shining and those events is not subliminal, it's stated in the dialog (indian burial ground, white man's burden) and setpieces throughout the film.

There is an impressive degree of irony here and it is this: Room 237 isn't trying to present the evidence for all the hidden meaning in The Shining for you to accept it. It's trying to show you how people can take ANYTHING and have completely incompatible interpretations of it. The movie just happens to use The Shining as an example, but it could be about any artform.

One thing is for sure, now I get why Hot Tub Time Machine had so many Shining references. If you run it forwards and backwards at the same time overlaid on top, it makes you want to drink a 40. Amazing.

The Anne Sellors fan club: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1856457/board/threads/

[–] gayspiritwarrior 11 years ago

Your first sentence makes it sound like the natives were exposed to European diseases on purpose. While there were instances of this from a few outlaws, in general the exposure was inevitable and unavoidable. It happens when any previously un-contacted group of people meet the rest of the world. The idea of "biological weapons" is completely overstated and absurd.

"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde

[–] OtisLovesUs 11 years ago

Thank you. There's like one semi-documented reference of a smallpox-infected Brit who may or may not have given a blanket away and poof! The history is set in stone that the white man diabolically unleashed WMDs on the natives. Good grief, most people didn't even wash their hands back then.

[–] EtienneZizka-676-890046 12 years ago

This was such a shoddy piece of work. It makes me feel ashamed to belong to the same race as those clowns. Man, can’t help but feel sorry for them, struggling to formulate utter nonsense nonobvious to the “rest of us” because they’re so freakin’ smart. Only, maybe they’re just not that smart and they’re getting ahead of themselves trying to pull nonsense theories out of their… well, you know. Thank God Kubrick never saw this, poor guy would have had a brain stroke.

I mean, for god sake’s, at one point one guy is interviewed and you can hear his goddamn baby crying at the back. Have some sort of professional standards dudes, ‘cause we’re really hitting rock bottom here.

Have you noticed that the color of the paint on the wall in the office is pink? Well, pink is close to red right, and red is the color of hell so really what Kubrik was saying was that he would go to hell because he made a fake Apollo shot which is really a comment about his youth because they kid is wearing the sweater of the rocket.

Should be filed under comedy. So much mediocrity, god. No self-respect.

[–] TheInjuredGuest 12 years ago

Same race?

[–] glo-co 11 years ago

I think he's referring to the human race.

[–] MrBook_ 11 years ago

You understand that the people talking in the voiceovers didn't direct the movie, right?

Do you feel like Darth Vader?. .

[–] trexbytes 12 years ago

Highly agree. Awful film, the only good thing about it was seeing all the wonderful Kubrick images on the big screen again.

[–] drzaius12 11 years ago

This is the kind of nonsense film students put in their films on purpose. How about a serious documentary on Kubrick's films. The Shining was not his finest hour.

[–] Oceans108 12 years ago

This was atrociously bad. If you're going to have a theory about this movie or any movie for that matter, at least have some substance to it. This might have been the first movie I've seen where no camera or actors were used - all video clips and recorded Skype conversations. What was the budget again? That last bit with this bizarre attempt to justify some hairbrained theory with the movie played backwards and forwards at the same time, and that guy saying "oh it's really cool, their faces line up LOL that really means something LOLOL" really pissed me off. If you want to make a documentary about fan theories, OK, but any remaining credibility I thought was still there vanished while I sat through 10 minutes of overlayed video. It didn't mean anything! Cinematographers center all sorts of things in the video frame. It's not an "Oh WOW LOL" moment.

[–] micklips2013 11 years ago

I got it !! It's a remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Nicholson, Scatman a kid that don't talk well, big building you can't leave, Native Americans, It's all there.....Then again it could just be total bollocks about a decidedly average film.

[–] Kard_Shooter 11 years ago

The Shining is far from average, it's a great film.

WATCH THE BREAKING BAD FINALE @ http://ow.ly/pjIkm

[–] Eve_of_Destruction 11 years ago

The Shining is far from average, it's a great film.

I agree. I find it odd that anyone who feels that way would even watch this doc. I guess if they are Kubrick fan maybe; but not the best use of their time.

We live by the Sun, we feel by the Moon

[–] CAL_FORD 11 years ago

AGREED !!!!!!

[–] Superfloyd 11 years ago

I enjoyed it. It's about the ridiculousness of fan-obsession and how people see patterns in everything. I found the nonsense theories, especially the moon stuff, to be fascinating.

'The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time'

[–] cookiedoughboy 11 years ago

This "Documentary" was such a load of crap that I turned it off after 20 minutes. The patheticness of the "theorists" and their "logic" behind Calumet, and hidden numbers, a manager that has a penis when he stands next to an In Box, subliminal messaging, and suitcases turning into people & vice versa, etc., etc... Utter bullspit. And here I thought I spent too much time indoors watching movies. These people need to get a life!!

I actually read once that all the blood pouring & gushing out of the elevators was a metaphor for, wait for it... menstruation. Yep, that's right. Periods. It was supposed to symbolize that blood coming forth from the orifice-like elevators was like the renewal of a new life that Wendy & Danny would have by the end of the movie... Good Lord. When did a horror movie turn into theories about Indians massacres, vaginas, men carrying furniture, and the moronic (and never shown to be true) Kubrik face in the sky...?

Wait! I know! The movie is REALLY all about how you should never play ball in the house like Nicholson did! Throwing that ball over & over & over again against the wall...? It's just like Peter Brady did on the Brady Bunch. Innocent actions lead to bad things happening. The Brady Bunch, which was spoofed years later in a movie, starred... SHELLEY Long; the same first name as SHELLEY Duvall. See?! It all ties together! Ooooh. Spooky...

Please...

The only thing I found "interesting" was that Jack was reading a Playgirl magazine in the lobby of the hotel. First, that it was there. Second, that a straight married man was reading it (yeah, yeah. For the articles. ). And Third, that the manager and his assistant don't even think or look twice at it. Like it's just a natural thing... Now THAT was interesting.

In the end, here I thought The Shining was basically about a hotel with an evil entity/haunted past trying to take over the winter's caretaker in order for him to kill his family...

Then again, maybe I'm looking too deep into what the film tried to show me.

"If you don't like gay marriage, blame straight people. They're the ones who keep having gay babies..."

[–] imdb-20212 11 years ago

I'm surprised you made it to 20 minutes into the film. I made it about 5 minutes in, was shocked about the anti-white man slant right off the bat, and decided the whole thing must be totally stupid. Turns out I was right. :)

[–] tylerdanielblack 11 years ago

Couldn't agree more. The most far fetched pile of horse dung I've ever seen. Apart from the TV Movie version of The Shining, that was pretty horrific for all the wrong reasons as well. Kubrick's The Shining is a masterpiece, and he was a genius and visionary and the film was meticulously arranged and there are underlying themes and subliminal messages and symbolisation but none of that was captured in this exercise is jaw dropping tedium. This was as much more a study of reclusive obsessive lunatics than it was about Kubrick's film and I cannot help think that the entire thing is a joke on the people who contributed to it and the people who laughingly take this absurdity seriously. If it isn't, then I thoroughly support your view that the entire project is just rather sad and depressing.

The Dude Abides...