This movie is like being trapped in a cafe after a long night full of people who were binge drinking and smoking dope, and you being the only one who just came in for coffee and possibly some early morning music. You're surrounded by self-indulgent weirdos who have spent just as much time synchronizing their outfits to be as avant garde as possible as they have getting themselves fucked up...and then talk about a movie.

for anyone who has watched a stanley kubrick movie, most of them share one thing in common: they are almost impossibly cryptic in their symbolism. the narrative should make sense, and is usually simple. but the colors, lighting, random props, etc., always will give someone the false idea that they all "mean something". kubrick was a photographer, and photographers have an eagle eye, and a vision. kubrick was a visionary more than a storyteller.

so now we have "the shining" which is a vivid, stark, disturbing, and terrifying film...and like a lot of kubrick's films in the 60's and 70's, it's got a lot of free time to spend on camera shots and atmosphere. this film is long on atmosphere. that's mainly why it works.

but this documentary is about all of those insufferable theories that people who have too much time on their hands and not enough common sense to think they've really cracked the case on "what the shining is REALLY about". I can just picture any one of these people...from the smug know-it-all filmmaker convinced the film is really about the "faked" moon landing to the annoying tittering guy who watched "the shining" both forward and backward at the same time...coming up to you at a bar, glass of imported beer in hand, and saying, "Do you want to know what 'The Shining' is REALLY about?"

at my most polite, i'd walk away and hopefully never see them again.

While it's fun to break down movies and stories and paintings...there is always a line to be drawn as to what's entertaining and thought provoking...and what is just a downright waste of time.

the most interesting parts of the film are when you're just watching clips of the film, and i think to myself..."you know i'd really like to watch this again." and never ever do any of these "theories" come to mind...they are so far a reach sometimes that it becomes comical about halfway through. but they are so damn sure of themselves, PROUD of themselves and their little secret...that it almost starts to remind me of listening to a sunday school sermon where all the little minions are nodding their heads at teacher, saying "yes, now we know the truth."

at least the film's director doesn't agree with any of the theories and himself believes the film to be a study of human condition, family condition, descent into madness...which is all the film is about.

everything else gutted from these lunatics' minds, that should all be committed to a high security sanitarium, is purely self-indulgent drivel that just reminds me how annoying the human race can be...because we're just so in love with ourselves.

i do have to admit, though, watching the film backward and forward at the same time may actually be worth doing. i'd certainly rather do that than subject myself to this ever again.

I watched it and loved it, but the shining is one of my favorite movies.
One of the interviewees in the movie was a professor of mine back as an undergrad. "The Shining is really about the holocast" guy. I didn't buy into it, nor did I buy into his "Psycho-history" theory/class (everything in history can be explained by Freudian Psychoanalysis). He didn't like how I kept saying Freud has no influence in psychology anymore or his theories have been debunked. Nice guy and fair though, he didn't let my critiques get in the way of grading (he said while he may not agree with me, my arguments were solid).

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I liked it.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I liked Karen Valentine's portrayal of the young school teacher.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

my film professor was similar...for my final i had to write an analysis of whatever film i chose but it had to fit the curriculum. what i wanted to do was write a diatribe about his fixation with hating steven spielberg (because he was "chinese american" and thought spielberg was obviously "racist")...i did take a few indirect swipes that i guess he got because he still gave me an A, with a comment: "I still hate Steven Spielberg". so at least he had a sense of humor. but he was one of those guys who said "rah-thur" instead of "rather" and used a lot of latin expressions to sound smarter than he really was.

what would be a better idea is to make a satire about a society of people who believe in these whacked out theories in movies like this that wind up starting a cult that devolves the human race and does exactly the opposite of what the movies were trying to say about people...comic irony.

because...seriously...all you have to do is go on youtube for 5 minutes and you will see a fuckload (rounded up) of shit like that.

A direct shot at Darko.

i watched this and enjoyed it thoroughly. some of the guys were cracking me up, explaining how the fact that there a 6 cans of Calumet Baking Powder on the shelf in the pantry clearly indicates that this movie is about the genocide of the native americans! wow, how did i not ever make that connection before? i think some of the stuff made sense, but strictly from a photographic and filmmaking standpoint, not because there are underlying messages. i do believe that kubrick purposely shot some scenes in certain ways to keep the viewer off-balance and mess with them a bit, but i think all that other stuff seemed a stretch.