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ART OF THE GAMES ROOM
1976 OLYMPICS ⎔ COWBOY ⎔ DENVER FLOOD ⎔ JACKSON HOLE ⎔ MYSTERIES ⎔ NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOW ⎔ SKI BROADMOOR ⎔ STEAMBOAT SKI POSTER ⎔ STEAMBOAT SPRINGS ⎔ VAIL LAST RUN
APPEARANCE
Seen behind the twins in the games room, in two shots, across 23 seconds (21:47-21:53 + 21:57-22:10).
IDENTITY
The poster seen directly behind the twins might be a fabrication, and might be some forgotten relic of 1910s design, local to the Denver region. Like the halo landscape above the bed in Suite 3, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was something picked up by one of Kubrick’s research teams.
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE
In any case, the general design bears a resemblance to many travel posters from throughout American history, featuring an image in a centre circle, surrounded by other images in the corners. The ring that touches the edges of the poster has writing in it, much of which is too obscure to quite see, but at the bottom we can definitely make out “DENVER 1912 COLORADO”.
1912 was the year of the fourth of five major floods that came from the Cherry Creek region of Denver and caused extensive damage to the city, each time. The 1864 flood killed eight people and obliterated city hall, among several other important buildings. In the 1950s, something was finally done about it, and there hasn’t been one since. But if that’s what the poster’s of, and what it’s a reminder of, then 1) how perfect is that for my Pillars of Hercules theory, and 2) how freaky is it to think of a place like Denver, that removed from the coast, that close to the mountains, being a target for major floods?
MYTHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Note the bull’s-head shape created by the white space inside the ring. That makes a nice bridge between the possible minotaur of the SKI MONARCH poster, and the cowboy coming right up.
There’s also something to be said for how this flood imagery works with the Steamboat posters to give us a subtle Noah’s Ark theme.
Next art reference: The Cowboy
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