Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast am on iHeart Radio, and we are back with Robert W. Sullivan the fourth talking about symbolism, a cult symbolism in the movies. And we're going to focus on one type of cinema symbolism and that is a cult casting. So just can kind of give us an example. I think there's a there's a good one with before we get into the shining and so forth. But there's another. There's another example with the actor that Sarahlec Guinness, who of course was
Obi Wan kenobi in Uh in Star Wars. There's another. I think we've talked about his casting another movie that was I guess supposed to evoke memories of Star Wars or something like that. No, it's the one you're talking about Max von sdo Ah. Sorry, well this is this is a good example. There there's there's many, but we can start with this one. This was when um in in in the one in Star Wars episode seven uh. When when when the movie opens on the on the
desert planet uh. And this is where Kylo Wren is coming for the relic that the Maxilon Cito character has. He passes it onto the Poe character. And then and then they confront uh von Cito confronts Kylo Wren and he gets ultimately gets killed. Um and and it begs the question, and this is you know, it's like, what why, why can't why are you casting maxiflon Ceto to be in this movie for literally what is probably less than five minutes of screen time when any numbers of actors
could have could have played this part. Um and and and when I was watching it, there was just something that was like a splinter in my head that just wasn't sitting right. And it wasn't necessarily sinister or anything, but it just stirred this curiosity. I kind of felt like I'd seen this all before. And sure enough, And this is kind of what I'm talking about when I say, are called casting the use of an actor or actress
to sort of plant something in your subconscious mind. Um, the placing of von Sido in the Star Wars episode seven is designed to implant in your subconscious mind two other movies that von Cido was in, and they're The Exorcist and Dune. And what I mean is this when when when when the character in the Star Wars movie again episode seven, the force awakens, Um comes out and
confronts Kylo Rend and gets struck down. Um. I mean it brings to mind you know what other Max von Sido movie opens in the desert and he stands and stands up to a dark evil figure. And of course the first one is The Exorcist, where you know, he starts out von Cido plays the Jesuit priest um in the deserts of Iraq, and then he finds the statue of Pezuzu Um and he confronts it, and of course
that's the opening scene. Um. And then there's another one, which is Dune, where von Cido is of course on Iraqus, which is the desert plant is and does he stand up a dark evil figure and of course yes it is. It's Baron Harconin. And in that movie he gets struck down right away. UM. So why do this, you know why places von Cito in Star Wars? What the idea is and the way this works is by putting von Sido at the beginning of that movie. Um, it's transferring
the exorcistem Dune to your subconscious mind. It's not done consciously, It's done very surreptitiously. Um. And what it does is and invests kyler Ren and the first order was sort of the diabolical scheme, the evilness as it were, of Pazuzu the demon and Baron harconin um. And and that's
that's what I mean by a coodcasting. It's uh, that's for real movie fans though, I mean that's the director did that almost just for people like you who are who are real cinophiles, who can who can do that cross reference and say, you know, say, oh wait a minute. Max von Cito was in Dune and he was a miss movie. That's why he's doing it. It's almost like
they put that easter egg in there just for you. Yeah, it's it's an easter egg and it's very hard to pick up one, but it it's it's also I can see it, so, I mean I can point it out. But if you're watching the movie again, what a lot of these guys, what are these directors like to do is tweak with your subconscious mind by using archetypes, archetypal imagery in this case. Um. So it's almost one of those things where it affects the movie goer but they're
not aware of it. Um. That's sort of the level these guys are working. One I know to look for it, UM, so I can kind of spot it. And like I said, when I first started doing this, the very first UM movie I noticed this with was the sequel to The Matrix. I believe it was called UM Matrix Reloaded. Maybe it was UM. And it was the use of Anthony Zerbe Um, the actor in it UM and and and and the
and the sequel to the Matrix. The use of Zerbe was cross referencing Omega Man with Charlton Heston, because Zerbe gives a speech in the Matrix movie which is exactly the same as the one he gives an Omega Man, only reversed. It's everything is backwards UM. And if and if you're familiar with Matrix and you're familiar with my research, those movies are our gnostic cinema UM. That's the Valentinian
strain UM. And when you're doing with gnosticism, you're doing with a lot of the reversal of Orthodox Christianity UM. So the fact that they would use Zerbie and reverse everything isn't surprising. That's the first movie I noticed it with. And again, when you're doing with adroit filmmakers. Uh, you know, you can see it. And like I said, the Bon Sido example in Star Wars is just a classic example
of this. And as I was telling you, I think the last time we talked, I was rewatching all the James Bond movies and I actually discovered, um, some anomalies in there as well. And of course there's really a great one in The Shining. Um that that's just uncanny that I just actually discovered within the last week. Um, that's fantastic. All right, Well, let's get into the Shining
Before that, I just wanted to mention another example. You mentioned Max von Sito in Star Wars seven, and he's confronting evil and that's a callback I guess to the Exorcist. But the other, the other one example would be Max von Sito as Jesus in the Greatest Story Ever told? Isn't he in the desert confronting the devil? Um? You know, the temptation in the wilderness? Yeah? Absolutely, Um yeah, I mean it's another great example of it. I mean you can look at it like that um in in in
the Star Wars. In the Star Wars movie, though, what I would say is, if you watch the character very closely. He's a hermit. Um. He's he's a hermit living alone. Um. And when you when you watch in my mind, when you watch The exorcistem, dude, it seems to invoke those more because the character is more in line, um, with a hermit than he is of christlike figure, like a savior figure. UM. So again it's it's it's very narrow
and price splitting hairs a little bit. But certainly, um, what you're saying is, you know you could certainly draw that comparison also. Okay, So now we're going to talk about The Shining nineteen eighty Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Stephen King's book of the same name, taking place at the Overlook Hotel in um In Colorado. Jack Nicholson, of course, that classic role as Jack Torrence and Shelley Duval Scatman Cruthers. So there is an example of a cult casting in
The Shining, right. The one thing that's really unique with The Shining, and certainly we've talked about this before, is the whole thing with Kubrick exposing the moon landing through the use of a little boy, the Apollo eleven sweatshirt, the room two three seven, which is the distance from
Earth to the Moon. And of course, the idea with this is that Kubrick actually, you know, filmed the footage of these guys hopping around in some sort of secret you know, government sound stage where um you know, and and and kuber Kubrick is tipping off people, um to this in The Shining. Um and or he's just he's playing around with it because he knows that people think that he was responsible for faking the moon landing, and
so maybe he's just kind of having some fun with it. Well, the idea is that he actually filmed it in and again, the the this is not far fetched, um Kubrick. Kubrick used in the film that he came out prior to The Shining was Barry Linden, and he actually used NASA technology to film that movie. Um So. So Kubrick worked
hand in hand with NASA and the government. Um So the idea that he staged this is not is not that far fetched, especially when you know that Linden Barry Linden was made with NASA massa lenses, NASA NASA cinema lenses, camera lenses. Um. Of course, if you watch The Shining, the whole thing with the Little Boy with the Apollo eleven, you know, sweatshirt, sweater when he stands up, goes through two thirty seven. The distance from the Earth to the
Moon was two hundred and thirty seven thousand miles. So the question begs, is is there anything else in there that Kubrick is sort of tipping you off to that he could have filmed stage this moon landing. They may have went, I mean the theories they could have gone
to the Moon, but they couldn't have filmed there. So they hired Kubrick based on Strange Love in two thousand and one, to film this footage in a top secret government labs on where sound stage, all right, as an insurance policy, so that they could prove to the world that they did go there even though they did go there. Correct, they couldn't have film or the moon is the theory, they just couldn't write. So they had that makes sense right,
They had Kubrick stage. So the question then becomes, is there any other movie that came out recently prior to The Shining that actually depicts them faking the moon landing in the top secret government sound stage, And the answer is yes. In nineteen seventy one, that James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever is released, and if you're familiar with that film, this is the last of the Sean Connery James Bond movies. This was the last time he played
a mechanical James Bond movies. Play last thing he played Double A seven. He breaks into a top secret government facility in the Nevada Desert, which is obviously supposed to be Area fifty one, and he's walking around, and of course he gets found out, so a chasin sues and he actually winds up inside a sound stage where they're faking the moon landing. They're filing the moon landing. I'd forgotten about that, yeah, and he escapes in a faked
lunar vehicle. You know, they got the astronauts hopping around and taking the soil samples and they're filming the fake moon landing. So then the question becomes, Okay, does the Stanley Kubrick in the Shining reference James Bond anywhere as sort of like an homage to Diamonds Are Forever, you know, and to tip you off that he takes the moon landing?
Is there a James Bond reference in the shining anywhere, And the answer to the question is, yeah, there's the biggest one of all, and that is and this will fall through the cracks, is most people, and myself concluded and recently, if you had asked someone who is the first actor to play James Bond, your answer would have immediately gone to Sean Connery in Doctor No For David
Nibbons David Niven. False. The first actor to play James Bond, believe it or not, is none other than Barry Nelson, who played it in nineteen fifty four in a TV made for movie on a TV show called Climax where they actually put on a live performance of Casino Royal, which is Ian Fleming's first novel. Who's Barry Nelson who, of course it's familiar with the Shining Barry Nelson is Stuart Allman, the guy who hires Jack Torrence at the near the beginning of the movie. Oh though the manager
of the Overlook Hotel. Yeah, is James Bond. Wow, the manager of the Overlook Hotel is the first actor to play James Bond. So Kubrick actually places Jane Bond in the movie by hiring Barry Nelson. Um and Nelson's hiring is a direct reference, is subconsciously telling your mind that you know, he is employing James Bond to least the Overlook Hotel, to rent it out, to hire Jack Torrence
as the caretaker, and by employing James Bond himself. Um, I find it to be a completely under the table homage to Diamonds Are Forever um and Kubrick is again sort of suggesting that he is the guy who faked the moon landing footage. And I found that fascinating. I had no idea about that. I just discovered that Richard in the last week. Uh, Barry Nelson Stuart Allman is the first actor to play Double O seven. It was
not Sean Connery. It would have been too obvious if he if he hired Sean Connery to play Yeah, yeah, obvious, But I mean, I just I just found that fascinating. I couldn't believe it when I found that out. You know, it was Barry Nelson was the first actor to play James Bond in a TV production of Climax from nineteen fifty four, So I guess you could see that you could view the shining as a kind of Stanley Kubrick's confession. Yeah, I think that's I think that's a fair way to
put it. I think when you look at the evidence of it with the Little Boy with the Apollo eleven, and then you have Diamonds or Forever in nineteen seventy one, the Shining just a few years later, I mean, yeah, I mean I think the evidence definitely, as a lawyer, definitely begins to tip the scales without question in favor that, Yeah,
Kubrick definitely must have had a hand in this. And then again, the real smoking gun on all this, which a lot of people aren't aware of, is the movie that he made before The Shining, which was Barry Linden, which you know he filmed with NASA lenses. You know, the camera equipment all came from nassas, so he clearly had a working relationship with them. I'll just add real quick the reason the reason he needed NASAD technology for
Barry Linden. It's set during the Napoleonic era, and he wanted the film seems scenes exclusively lit by candlelight, which you can't do. Um, they're too dark. Um. If you ever watch a movie in the forties and fifties or even sixties. Whenever there's a scene set by exclusive candle light, you can see then you know the lighting coming from the side, they're just too dark. NASA had developed lenses that were way ahead of their time that allows you to do that that that you know, fractured the light
and you know, enhanced the candlelight. So Krubrick found this out and went to NASA and got these cameras, got these specific lenses that he used to film these scenes strictly lit by candlelight in Barry Lindon and again that's sort of the real smoking nun On. This is it proves this relationship, the symbiotic relationship became between Brick and NASA. And when you couple that with what's going on in the Shining and certainly now you can add in Barry
Nelson as a James Bond diamonds are forever reference. Uh you know James Bond himself. Yeah, I mean, I think I think the scales are definitely tilted in the to the idea that Cooper had a hand in this. Robert W. Sullivan The Fourth Cinema Symbolism Volumes one through three. Are you working on volume four? Yes? I am. That is actually being worked on as I speak, and that is
coming along very very well. How often do you have to watch a movie until you start to make all of these connections and determine, Okay, this is the occult theme, here, the occult casting and somewhere. How often do you have to watch the film? Oh, more than once? Usually, when I watch a movie for the first time, it's usually just done for entertainment value, unless it becomes very very obvious to me that there are things just leaping off
the screen the flat screen at me. But no more than one time, and even on multiple occasions I'll miss something. There are movies to this day that if I sit down and watch them, despite the fact of having watched them countless times in the past, I'm never really going to pick up on something new, you know. I think of a movie like Black Swan, the one that I've watched repeatedly that's just over overloaded with stuff. Is the last Halloween movie, Halloween Ends, that's got lots of stuff
going on in it. That's what I would describe as if Hallow, if a Halloween movie was made by David Lynch, that's what it would look like, because that thing really tweaks with reality and what's happening and what's happening on the screen and is Michael Myers even there? Lots going on in that movie. Like I said to you, I I just went back and rewatched all the James Bond movies from start to finish. Lots going on in those.
The one that I just picked up one was the one I just mentioned, But there's another one from nineteen seventy five, The Man with the Golden Gun. Listen to More Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern, and go to Coast to Coast am dot com for more