Much
has been written about Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING in the near thirty-three years that have transpired since the film's release. Essays have been written opining that the
film is really about the idea of play, and that the members of the Torrance
Family are just the latest participants in a never-ending go-round of Sisyphus-inspired
terror; others have claimed that it is a thinly-veiled dig at white settlers commandeering
the land of the New World from the Native Americans (represented thematically
in the Colorado Lounge in the film); others have made a fuss about mirror
images and the duality of man, a common motif in Kubrick's other works; and still
others consider it to be the horror film's answer to the director's own 2001: A
SPACE ODYSSEY and one's desire to find the key to immortality. Whatever your view of the film is, there is
no denying that it has tremendous staying power and has influenced the lives of
many filmmakers. Two such people are
producer Tim Kirk and director Rodney Ascher whose long-awaited documentary ROOM 237 centers on the
ideas that five narrators people have about the film and what they have taken away from
it.
Now making the rounds from city to city, Mr. Kirk and Mr. Ascher are
holding Q & A's following certain screenings of the film which can be found
at the film's official website.
For those of you who cannot wait to see it, it is also available on Video On
Demand (VOD) from various cable operators.
Check your local cable company for availability.
