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Plot Summary
A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining (1980). The film may be over 30 years old but it continues to inspire debate, speculation, and mystery. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments. Together they’ll draw the audience into a new maze, one with endless detours and dead ends, many ways in, but no way out. NEITHER THIS FILM, NOR ANY VIEW OR OPINION EXPRESSED IN IT, NOR THE CONTEXT IN WHICH FILM FOOTAGE AND IMAGES ARE USED, IS APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY, OR IS IN ANY WAY ASSOCIATED WITH, THE KUBRICK 1981 TRUST, STANLEY KUBRICK’S FAMILY, WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC., OR ANYONE ELSE CONNECTED WITH THE MAKING OF THE MOTION PICTURE THE SHINING (“THE SHINING FILMMAKERS”). THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS DOCUMENTARY FILM ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE COMMENTATORS IN IT AND DO NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF STANLEY KUBRICK OR THE SHINING FILMMAKERS.
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
93%- Reviews Counted: 121
- Fresh: 113
- Rotten: 8
- Average Rating: 7.6/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: This movie about a labyrinth with a monster at its center is itself a labyrinth, [Ascher] tells us; better leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind you if you hope to get out.
Fresh: A thrilling testament to the fact that art is - and should be - open to interpretation.
Fresh: I found most of what's actually put forth in the film interpretively ridiculous. But I'm just one theorist among millions, and the film worked for me anyway.
Fresh: It's about the human need for stuff to make sense - especially overpowering emotional experiences - and the tendency for some people to take that sense-making to extremes.
Customer Reviews
Heerrre's Dummy!
Thank you for ruining THE SHINING for me! I love the Kubrick masterpiece, but now it will be stained with the idiotic interpretations that infested my head by this documentary. None of the theories were worthy of analyzing such a great film. This documentary's revelations were as convincing as seeing a silhouette of Jesus on a piece of toast.
Almost...
It's the eccentric interviewees that are fascinating not the details of their crack pot ideas and yet we never see them. Instead its just endless reconstructions of their theories using stock footage! This makes a potentially intriguing study of obsession ultimately disappointing.
I think some of these iTunes reviewers are missing the point!
I rarely write reviews, but I couldn't understand all the bad reviews here. I thought this movie was fascinating. Sure, some of these theories were a stretch. But, the people who were interviewed in this movie did catch a lot of details that most of us missed. Whether, Stanley Kubrick meant what (those interviewed) are saying he meant is really beside the point. It is clear that there is more than meets the eye in "The Shining" and I think that it is these details that make it a truly terrifying movie. Kubrick put a lot of subliminal messages in this movie. I mean why is a kid riding down a hall on a big wheel so creepy? There shouldn't be any reason. This movie at least shows why that may be.
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