I have never actually seen The Shining but I have watched the documentary Room 237 which explores the different subtexts of the film many times. The ability to have an insight into something is then more important than actually seeing the work itself. Here I mean seeing the work itself in a Heideggerian sense. Not only have I not seen the film if I were to see it, I would be concerned with the conspiratorial ideas that have been associated with the film. Heidegger argues that through the art industry the artworks themselves are lost. The historian doesn’t see the works themselves rather they see the paintings and sculptures as artefacts to be examined. If you have seen Room 237 (available on Amazon Prime’s IMDB TV channel with adverts) then the same is true. The film is analysed to within an inch of its life, dissected and combed through. The Shining is treated like a frog in a science class, it is not a work any longer.

Heidegger’s The Origin of the Work of Art suggests that artworks originate an understanding or originate space. However, the latter of the two is slightly more limited due to the need for films to be projected within a designated space. If we understand film as an art form, and in the case of Kubrick this assumption is often made, then we can look at how we watch a film in relation to Heidegger’s thought concerning art.

Heidegger uses Van Gogh’s Old Shoes as an example of a work that originates understanding. The outlining of Van Gogh’s painting suggests that in the work, because the shoes rest in their essence. They are not in use and so we see that they belong to the earth and are protected by the world. Through the painting the equipmental being of the shoes is disclosed and because of this we see the being of all beings or beings as a whole as Heidegger says. We should then question if and if so, how a film could originate understanding in a similar way.   

What then could be seen in Kubrick’s film? Well, that is the thing… it is difficult to place your finger on and should be. It is not simply a case of symbolic imagery and what is being communicated. Like Heidegger says when reading other philosophers, we must look for the unspoken in The Shining. What is important to remember is that this will not be easy and we should not even think about simply working it out and calculating, putting the pieces together in other words.