Room 237 (2012, Rodney Ascher)
The documentary starts off like a film as seen by its composition of wide shots to close ups, POV angles and even the choice to hire Tom Cruise.
Compares "the wave of terror" mentioned in the marketing of the film to the colonisation of the white settlers and uses a shot by shot comparison of a settler chopping logs with and axe with a shot of Jack Nicholson chopping down the door with his axe. "The wave of terror" followed by a shot of native Americans running towards the camera.
Tracking shot of Tom Cruise walking down stairs towards the movie theatre, followed by a panning shot of the seats as the narrator talks about how he remembers the the seats they sat in when they first watched "The Shining". Visually imaginative shots are used, lots of red shown throughout this sequence, which was a motif throughout "The Shining".
The shots match what the narrator it talking about, reenacting his memories of him walking out the theatre in a daze, heading towards the underground car park.
Zoom in on Tom Cruise's face as he thinks to himself about the film and his realisation that native american culture is sprinkled throughout the entire film, accompanied by scenes from the film, and black and white cowboy film scenes of Indians riding their horses, archive pictures of natives smoking peace pipes.
Narrator realises that the film is about the genocide of the native Americans, which is said as we see more footage from westerns of cowboys firing cannons at the natives.
Talks about duplicity, which the twin girls represent, he talks about the broken peace pipe treaties while we see a shot of Calumet baking powder cans behind Jack Nicholson's head, all turned in different directions to represent the failed treaties.
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