Within the walls of The Playlist, we don’t always agree on everything. While I found Rodney Ascher‘s “Room 237” to be a pretty terrific, fascinating and funny look at the wild ways Stanley Kubrick‘s “The Shining” has inspired tin foil hat types, others don’t agree. Around the office, another colleague says it’s a “trashy conspiracy theory fanboy movie that illuminates nothing.” And he has found a kindred spirit in Kubrick’s longtime producer Jan Harlan.
Speaking at the Bermuda International Film Festival, Harlan was asked about “Room 237,” and he made no secret of his dislike for the doc. “Ah, so idiotic. Of course I did. There’s nothing to like. It’s just dumb. I mean [the filmmaker] obviously waited until Kubrick died,” he said. “This happened to him in many cases, also this whole story about him doing a fake moon landing. This was only possible after he was dead. People come like worms; they creep out and take advantage of a guy who can’t sue from the grave. At any rate, I don’t worry about things like that.”
In my opinion, Ascher’s film is more of celebration of how one film can inspire so many wildly different (and crazy) interpretations, and doesn’t necessarily put stock in them. But if you’re looking for some kind of insight into the making of the movie or Kubrick’s intentions, you surely will be left cold.
Thoughts? Is Jan Harlan on the money or missing the point? Tell us below. [via Indiewire]
