Room
237 (2012/IFC
Midnight/MPI Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Films: C+
Stanley
Kubrick's The
Shining
(1980) has turned out to be one of the great Horror films, even if
critics did not think it so to begin with. It subverted some genre
expectations and added new twists to others. When we reviewed it, it
had arrived on Blu-ray and the dead HD-DVD format at the same time
and I said the following about the film...
“The
Shining
(1980) was a film
Warner and Kubrick hoped would be a huge hit and though it has grown
in importance as a major Horror thriller and Jack Nicholson’s
performance as Jack Torrance is now legendary, the film did not do as
well at the time because critics missed what he was doing, audiences
were blinded by the comedy and freshly bizarre scenes like nothing
anyone had seen before and the slice & dice cycle that was
launched by John Carpenter’s Halloween
(1978, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site [twice,. With a
third 35th
Anniversary edition to post soon]) did not allow for Kubrick’s
film to fit in easily for the teen audience, but audiences have
caught up to the film and it has become very influential and still
underrated down to its unique soundtrack structure.
Twisting
up Steven King’s hit novel so much that King used to attack it
until Warner let him make a TV mini-series that was supposed to be
truer to the book but far inferior to this film, Kubrick is not
interested in alcohol as a cause of Jack’s troubles, but of the
American family as death trap all around. Furthermore, it was a way
of saying (in reference to Tobe Hooper’s 1974 hit Texas
Chain Saw Massacre)
that you do not need a whole family of demented butchers and
cannibals to get the same destructive results. Now as we see the
rise and never-soon-enough-fall of the Torture Porn cycle, Kubrick’s
Shining
is obviously wiser and more complex than ever.”
That
basic analysis holds up and like all Kubrick films, just scratches
the surface of the film and its true meaning. Rodney Ascher's Room
237
(2012) claims it will examine the film and its deepest meanings and
though we do get some good moments and theories that are on the
correct track, too much of this 102 minutes look at the film is
highly problematic. The worst part really gets off track talking
about the crazy theory that Kubrick filmed the Apollo Moon Landing
and that this films tells us he faked the whole thing for the U.S.
Government. If so, why did the former Soviet Union expose this as
such and try to get the upper hand in The Cold War? Because it is a
ridiculous claim and very serious at that, it is an accusation that
does not belong here (a documentary about this is now begin
threatened) and feels like an ad placement for a cynical exploitation
piece totally forgetting about the content and form of the film they
are supposed to be talking about and examining.
The
first 10+ minutes has unknown viewers telling about odd things they
noticed that struck them as unusual, some relevant, some not and more
than a few misinterpreted, but that is typical of basic reactions to
Kubrick films by those not use to seriously watching any films with
any sense of analysis. If this had entirely been that, this would be
an absolute disaster, but it does get better at times before it
throws its credibility (and those who actually have something serious
to contribute) out the door, window, etc.
In
a serious film class on Kubrick, this would be laughed right out of
the room and rightly so. It is awkward to begin with, takes visual
liberties with everything to the point you cannot take it seriously
or trust it visually, never looks at any scenes in a serious sense
without enhancing it without explanation and that in itself is
intellectually dishonest and disingenuous to its audience. We are
also told Kubrick read books or was aware of films the program rarely
if ever proves he took in, so the results are often childish except
when they cannot be, like in rightly dealing with the Holocaust
themes and genocide themes in his films and this one in particular,
but even there, the unseen talkers get carried away in silly ways
that negate any good ideas they have.
We
also get wacky psychological theories and things like 'since Kubrick
was a Freudian (one of seemingly 100 examples where we get an
unconfirmed fact, then a dozen others are added as if they were
truth) than XY&Z must be true” in a way that shows an
amazing amount of cinematic illiteracy, illogic and makes it as if
anyone can do a deep analysis of his films without trying. That is
wrong and as a clue to the participants, talking about sex passively
is not dealing with it deeply or in its indications.
That
they got permission to use and abuse so many Kubrick clips is amazing
and sad. I think Kubrick loved people thinking about his films, but
the abuse of footage and theories is silly time all the way and lands
up trivializing the artist and all his films instead of being the
serious, l honest analysis of the film and the man (no, for instance,
Kubrick was not bored making or doing Barry
Lyndon
and it is not a boring film unless you are shallow) and insulting the
man or characterizing his intents as childishly angry (saying he was
saying “FU” to Stephen King over how a Volkswagen Beetle
was smashed in the film is absurd, offensive and frankly idiotic!) is
100% wrong and epitomizes the shortcuts in thinking we get
throughout.
As
a scholar on the man's films and work, I can guarantee Room
237
gets more wrong and misses more about the film and Kubrick than most
books on the man his family has criticized. Never once do we hear
the word Auteur to describe the man, but we get lots of psychobabble
and intellectuality that runs counter to his films because Kubrick
was always asking if we are so intellectual and know so much, why to
we as a species keep failing. You wonder why too? Watch this
speculative work as semi-documentary at best and find out.
Disappointing!
With
his sequel book coming out to The Shining, I can't wait to see what
Stephen King has to say. It can't be worse than the worse here.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer has a mix of
sharp and soft film clips throughout, though they are often digitally
manipulated and besides being intellectually dishonest, kill and
negate Kubrick's actual work and make it a joke. The DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is surprisingly weak, except where
the overdone, awkward music is concerned. Interviews-as-voiceovers
just are transferred too low and one should be careful of volume
switching at times. Sloppy and awkwardly mixed, it is not only the
antithesis of anything Kubrick, but anything that works for such a
documentary.
Extras
include three Alternate Trailers that were not used, a feature length
audio commentary track by Kevin McLeod, who dubs himself “mstmind”
which is supposed to mean mastermind, but he is a few lightyears from
it in some respects, the Original Theatrical Trailer, 11 Deleted
Scenes with no video because they are voiceovers so this is also
intellectually dishonest and should have simply been called audio
outtakes, a Making Of The Music featurette that further shows how
overdone the music was here, Artist Aled Lewis talks about making the
official poster for this film in a Mondo Poster Design Discussion in
a piece so sad that he lands up making the kind of poster Kubrick
kept rejecting for the film by Saul Bass without knowing it and
Kubrick's assistant (and one time actor in Barry Lyndon) Leon Vitali
(for some reason we will not speculate about at this time) joins
several of the participants who made this mess in a Secrets
Of The Shining
panel discussion from the First Annual Stanley Film Festival.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
