Kubrick and "The Shining"

I watched this classic and odd movie a couple nights ago, and of course couldn't forget the idea that it was largely symbolic of Kubrick's role in creating fake moon landing footage:

The audience watching the film literally sees the launch of Apollo 11, right before their eyes, as Danny rises from the floor. It isn't the real launch of Apollo 11, it is, of course, the symbolic launching of Apollo 11. In other words - it isn't real. What happens next is crucial to understanding everything else that happens in the film. Danny, bewildered, walks down the hallway. He sees that Room 237 - the room that Halorann warned him about - has a key in the lock and the door is wide open.

It is important to note that the room in question was numbered 217 in the Stephen King version of The Shining. For unknown reason's Kubrick changed it to 237. Those unknown reasons are about to be come known. Danny is literally carrying a symbolic Apollo 11, on his body, via the sweater, to the Moon as he walks over to room 237. Why do I think this? Because the average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 237,000 miles.

The real truth is that this movie is really about the deal that Stanley Kubrick made with the Manager of the Overlook Hotel (America). This deal was to get Kubrick to re-create, in other words, to fake, the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Danny represents the artistic side of Kubrick. Because of the complexity of the artistic realization of the manner in which the lunar landings needed to appear, Kubrick needed to trust his artistic side.

Room 237 represents the fake lunar set that Stanley had to create to make the lunar landings appear factual. But really, on this set, and in this room, nothing is real. As the film will soon reveal, Room 237 has to be lied about. It cannot be understood at all… ever. Nothing real ever happens in room 237. For a moment, in the film, it looks like Danny is actually going to enter Room 237. But we are never sure.

In the next scene Jack has a bad dream while he is working. He tells Wendy that in his dream he has killed Wendy and Danny. Meanwhile Danny enters the scene and it is obvious that some mysterious force has physically hurt Danny. This mysterious force has also torn his Apollo 11 sweater.

 Without knowing this, you would never guess, the symbolism is very subtle. But once you know it, it's hard to deny. There is a lot more to the argument in the essay, there are a lot of images from the movie, and the essay is a great read, but this is the crux.

I also noticed something else not mentioned in the essay-- how Danny rides his big wheel around the hotel in a circuit, almost like an orbit. So his little bike is symbolic of the Apollo craft orbiting the moon.

The author of this essay is Jay Weidner, who subscribes to the secret space program theory, that I do not believe. It seems like disinfo to me and doesn't make a lot of sense. It seems silly to fake the moon landings if we are actually going there anyway.