Room 237 Page #6

And the thing is that

you already have Jack.

He's already asked about skiing.

But why isn't... you know,

"What about skiing?

Isn't the skiing good here

in the hotel?"

And he's already given the story

of why it isn't good,

why they can't do that.

But you got the skiing poster.

And my eye is drawn to it.

And I realize

that's not a skier.

That's a... that's a minotaur.

It just leaped out at me.

And so that was something

that I was able

to look at later on VHS

and say, "Yes, I had actually

seen a minotaur there,"

where the upper body, you've got

this really, you know,

overblown physique,

very physical physique.

And then you've got

the suggestion...

you have a suggestion

of a skiing pole there,

but it's not really there.

It's just

a suggestion of one.

And the lower body

is positioned,

the way the legs are,

it's like a minotaur,

the build is.

And you've actually got

the tail there.

And so it is a minotaur.

And this is in...

on the opposite side of the door

you have a cowboy

on a bucking bronco, so...

and so you got

a kind of echo there,

where you got the

minotaur on one side,

the bull man,

and on the other side,

you got the cowboy,

the man on the bucking bronco.

And this is just following

the scene where they...

Ullman has been

taking Jack and Wendy

through the Colorado Lounge,

showing off the Colorado Lounge.

And they go

into the hall

behind the Colorado Lounge.

And what's there,

but on the wall,

there is a painting

of an American Indian

with a buffalo headdress on.

And at that point,

Ullman is discussing with Wendy

who has stayed there

at the hotel.

Royalty, the best people,

stars have stayed there.

- Royalty?

- All the best people.

- You have "monarch" on

the bottom, which, you know,

keys in with royalty.

And you also have this

whole idea of the stars.

And the minotaur's name is,

what, Asterius?

His name is Asterius,

which means "starry."

So you know, you got

several things there

to do with mythology

that fit in.

It's very exciting to me.

That was the... you know,

that's the kind of

leap-up-end-down moment

where you go,

"Oh, wow, look at what

Kubrick has there."

Yeah, I mean the minotaur lives

at the heart of the labyrinth.

He's a part of the labyrinth.

The labyrinth,

at least in the myth...

you know,

in this particular myth...

was built for the minotaur.

The hotel is... you know,

it is the labyrinth.

And Jack is the minotaur.

You have scenes with him

where he...

such as in...

what is it?

The Thursday scene.

The snowfall has started.

You have Wendy and Danny

outside playing.

And Jack

is inside the Colorado Lounge,

and he's looking out at them.

His head is tilted down,

and his eyes are somewhat...

his eyes are elevated.

They're pointing up.

And his eyebrows are drawn up.

But he has this

expression on his face

that he gets progressively

throughout the film

that is very bull-like.

It has a very

minotaur-like expression.

It's the same kind

of expression that Kubrick

pulls out in other films,

such as it was on

Private Pyle's face

in the berserker scene

in the bathroom

in Full Metal Jacket.

So it's, you know,

not specific to this film.

There's more minotaur imagery

and labyrinth imagery.

There's the Gold Room.

In front of the Gold Room,

you have

the "Unwinding Hours" sign.

And that plays in

with the labyrinth,

where you have...

Theseus

enters into the labyrinth,

and he has

the thread with him

that he ties

at the beginning that,

you know, assists him

in going through the labyrinth,

where he can

find his way back out.

And so I see

the "Unwinding Hours" sign

as having to do

with that thread.

For a while there,

I was into baseball.

And I get very excited with

baseball when I'm into baseball.

You know, I can be by myself,

and I will be

leaping up and down.

And Kubrick

is like that for me,

where all I have to do is see

the minotaur poster there,

and I go, "Oh, my goodness.

Look at this!"

Because you're not

supposed to see the minotaur.

- Danny is shown

riding his big wheel

through the hotel three times.

The first ride, I think,

is about realism.

That's Danny is a...

Danny is doing a loop

around the lounge set.

You know, he goes through

the service hallway

and then he goes

through the lounge

and then he goes back

into the service hallway.

And, you know,

when you first see the movie,

you're like,

"He's just wandering around.

It's crazy, it's just"...

But it... no, it's very...

it's just a very simple loop.

He does it once.

But that gives you

an idea of where...

of what that place is.

I mean, you know,

all right, you understand

that that set is real.

You know, like,

it's a continuous shot.

There are no tricks.

In the second ride,

in the hexagonal hallway,

there are a lot of...

there are more tricks.

Like, he doesn't do a loop.

He does kind of like

a key-shaped...

you know, or a p-shaped loop

around this hallway.

And you see the realism of the

connection to the lounge set.

And... but you also see the fakery

of the fake elevators.

And you see...

for just one second,

you see the big stained glass

windows out of the corner,

in the corner of the frame

right before he takes a turn

around the elevator.

Like, that's incredible because,

like, that connects

that whole hallway

to the giant

Colorado Lounge set.

I mean,

that's just for one second.

They didn't have to do that,

you know?

But it's also... you know,

it's a metaphor

because he's also elevated.

He's one level up

from where he was before.

Like, he starts in the same

place, just one floor up,

you know, in the northeast

corner of the set.

So now he's in the northeast

corner and one level up.

And if you take it

as a metaphor of, like,

going from a mundane reality

to up into your head

to more

of a fantastical reality...

The third one is even stranger,

'cause he starts off

in the service unit.

He starts off in the same,

you know, northeast corner

of the lobby hall,

of the lobby service hallway.

And then he takes a turn,

and suddenly he's upstairs

in the area

outside their apartment

So, like,

it's a kind of a combination

of the first two,

where like he's down low

and then he's up high.

And then he takes a turn,

and he's suddenly...

he's in that that yellow,

yellow and blue wallpaper.

Let's say that's

in the service hallway area.

He's, you know, right outside

his parents' bedroom,

so there's this

connection between him

going on these big wheel rides

and dreaming.

Like, he's near his bedroom.

He's near... like, you see his

parents are working downstairs,

but he's upstairs.

You know, like, you see his mom

on the telephone,

and then he's flying.

He goes above her

to the bedroom,

which is above

where she's working,

just as

the hexagonal hallway

is above

where his dad is working.

So these big wheel rides

become like a visionary way

of Danny to explore

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