When I first saw Shutter Island it absolutely blew me away. It was
a film that I knew nothing about and I picked it up relatively cheap on the
recommendation of a woman who I did not know. It was a complete unknown.
However, skipping forward two and a half years and it is one of my favourite
films. It is the film that cemented Leonardo Di Caprio as one of my favourite
actors, and to this day whenever I watch it I pick up new things about the
story.
Basically it’s about a guy called Teddy Daniels who is sent to
investigate an escaped patient at a hospital for the criminally insane.
Alongside his partner Chuck, he investigates her disappearance in the eerily
creepy hospital. However, things start to get a little bit mysterious and scary.
Added to Teddy’s flashbacks to his experiences in the war and his
hallucinations of his dead wife, the audience is soon aware that something
isn’t right. By the time the twist came around there was no way I saw it
coming, and even at the end there is an ambiguity which leaves me pondering the
outcome for hours after I see it.
Like Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed before it,
Shutter Island is another collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di
Caprio. Of all the Di Caprio-Scorsese films I have seen (three out of five)
this one is the one I enjoyed the most. While it is not Scorsese’s best film in
terms of direction and impact and what not, I found it so fantastically
enjoyable that I rank it up there with some of his best work (much to the
dismay of many Scorsese purists I’m sure).
Leonardo Di Caprio is fantastic in the film. He plays a character
who starts out angry, and by the end of the film, what with everything that has
gone on, is positively fuming. If you haven’t seen the film before then skip
over the next couple of sentences because there will be spoilers. Ready? Good.
His acting is so convincing that even when Dr Cawley and Chuck were telling him
the truth about his identity, I was fairly convinced that it was part of the plot
to trap him there. This is a credit both to Di Caprio’s involvement in his
character, and to the writers for making the story so absorbing. I have nothing
but praise for Di Caprio in this film and, although it is not one of the best
acting performances ever, it comes in a film that is so engaging and enjoyable
that it is hard not to like his character, and feel for him at the end of the
film.
Ben Kingsley is riveting as the enigmatic Dr Cawley. Throughout
the film, largely due to the emerging plot around Ashecliffe, the audience is
unsure whether he is trustworthy or not. Ben Kingsley, in the nicest possible
way of course, has an appearance that breeds a certain ambiguity about his
character. At the end of the film though (spoilers) he is revealed as an
inherently caring man who always wants what is best for his patients. Although
there is evidence of this throughout, it only becomes apparent when the
audience is made aware of the twist.
Shutter Island is based on a book by the same name. The film does follow
the book relatively closely. However, the ending of the film and the book are
relatively different. While there are some parts of the book that the film
would be unable to include (for obvious reasons of time) the film adds one line
in at the end (“is it better to die as a
good man or to live as a monster?”). This is the line which makes the
ending so much of a mindblower. However, it isn’t in the book and creates a
more pointed sense of ambiguity. The inclusion of this line points much more
towards one direction of the sane-insane ending. This isn’t necessarily a bad
thing though, and I fully trust Scorsese’s judgement on this one. Ultimately,
he has directed more candidate films for the ‘best of all time’ than I have.
When you watch the film for a second time, with knowledge of how
it is going to play out, it becomes much better as you are able to appreciate
every little bit of information that points you in the direction of the
conclusion. From the initial reactions of the guards when Teddy and Chuck
arrive through to the fear that the patients have of the marshalls, the
exchange between the Warden (Ted Levine) and Teddy, and the nature of Dr
Naehring’s (Max von Sydow) conversations with Teddy. Everything becomes
apparent the second time and this is why I enjoy the film so much, even now
when I have seen it more times than I can remember. I pick up new bits of
information every time I watch it, and it is a film with many different layers
to it. That probably sounds weird, but it is a film with every last bit of
Scorsese’s subtext as his other masterpieces. There is ambiguity over the
positioning of the lighthouse and the angles from which it is viewed, as well
as the flashbacks Teddy has.
Ultimately, Shutter Island is one of those films that you have to
make your own mind up about. Personally, (spoilers) I think that he is sane but
realises that he is too dangerous to risk relapsing again and sacrifices
himself. I cannot recommend that you watch Shutter Island strongly enough, just
so you can make your own mind up about what is going on. It is a fantastic
film, very enjoyable, and captures your attention without difficulty.
Unmissable in my opinion.
Django Unchained - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/django-unchained.htmlThe Great Gatsby - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-great-gatsby.html
Other films directed by Martin Scorsese
Casino - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/casino_28.htmlRaging Bull - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/raging-bull.html
Other Scorsese-Di Caprio films
The Departed - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-departed.html
The Aviator - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-aviator.html
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