MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
TREACHERY OF IMAGES – SKIP TO A SECTION
INTRO ⎔ ROOM TOTALS ⎔ F21S ⎔ CLOCK HANDS ⎔ NUMBER COMBOS
GOLD ROOM ⎔ ULLMAN’S EYES ⎔ PILLARS ⎔ OTHER ⎔ CAMERA WALK
REDRUM ROAD CROSS ANALYSIS
The CAMERA WALK sign moves from the middle-left image below, where the model maze will sit later (as you can tell by the location of Stormy Weather behind it there), to the Colorado lounge, where it will remain. This sign appears to be advertising a more scenic adventure for interested photographers, but Wendy and Danny take cameras into the maze, and this becomes their “camera walk”. Jack doesn’t go on the camera walk, and, as stated, seems to deride television (his likeness will be forever trapped in a photo, in fact). I wonder if this was Kubrick’s way of hinting at the power of photography to inform and transform our lives.
Kubrick: “There is a much quoted aphorism that when a director dies he becomes a photographer. It’s a clever remark but it’s a bit glib, and usually comes from the kind of critic who will complain that a film has been too beautifully photographed.”
Danny’s affinity for photography makes him kin to Kubrick. Danny is seeing the world, and documenting it, because he wants to understand it, remember it. The lesson for all of us about Jack is delivered to us through that supernatural photo at the end.
Also, I wonder if the sign’s migration to behind Jack’s writing desk is suggesting that the All Work papers were Jack’s way of trying to understand the world. He’s cut himself off from everything, and he’s trying to create something worthy of the ages. But how can you do that when your method is pure isolation? Good artists borrow, great artists steal. And how can you do that, if you don’t know what’s worthy of thievery?
That said, we do know that Jack brought along Crime and Punishment and the complete Shakespeare in Russian, and we know that he’s writing what he’s writing inspired by the scrapbook next to his typewriter. So he hasn’t actually cut himself off completely, except in the way that we know he has.
One last thing about that: when Danny goes to get his fire engine, he comes upon a Jack who seems to be staring at an off TV set. When he could be reading Crime and Punishment! The shame of it all…
This analysis is an offshoot of the series known as The Treachery of Images, so if you were reading that, click here to continue on to the Redrum Road Cross-Analysis
However, you may be coming here from a multitude of other places throughout the site, and should probably click back, if that’s the case.
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 