With the release of recent documentary Room 237, which looks at theories on The Shining, we should revisit Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 horror masterpiece
In an art form in which multiplicity is often met with yawns and frustrated groans, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is the most endlessly rewatchable movie of all time. And still, to this day, no one can agree on what the hell it’s trying to tell us.
On the surface, it’s quiet and macabre — a horror film about the Torrance family, whose lives culminate while housesitting the illustrious, old Overlook Hotel during its offseason. We watch as Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson, How Do You Know), a writer in search of solitude, slowly and irreversibly descends into madness, leaving us to wonder whether it was cabin fever or the gruesome spirits haunting the Overlook that cultivated his downfall.
Tonally, the movie is as frightening as anything. Kubrick’s films move at a very distinct pace — they tiptoe and pin you down in an air of creepiness before clubbing you over the head with bombast when you least expect it. Both methods, independent of any amalgamations, are equally revelatory. One could argue the movie is most iconic in the scenes in which Jack trawls the lonely, dilapidated Overlook while Penderecki’s “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima” shrills underneath, his grasp on the physical world fading with each lap through the gleaming gold hallways. But then there’s the bloody elevator and “Here’s Johnny!”
The Shining is forever worth our attention, though, because it means something. We can all feel it. Yet no matter how much we deconstruct it or prod at it, no absolute, underlying truth reveals itself.
Room 237, the recent documentary by Rodney Ascher named after the Overlook’s fateful room, examines and dissects various theories from Kubrick experts. It’s a testament to the movie’s multiplicity — each person explains his or her own theory behind The Shining, centering on topics such as the Native American genocide, the supposed staging of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the Holocaust.
Whether or not any of these ideas are valid — most have already been debunked by Kubrick aide Leon Vitali in a recent New York Times article — Room 237 further cements The Shining as a movie deserving infinite amounts of intellectual time and energy. As cinephiles, we owe it to Kubrick to continue positing exactly what was going through his head when he made his masterpiece.
