Plot of the movie “Shutter Island”
The movie “Shutter Island” opens with the scene of two police officers, Edward Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule. They are located on an island, where the institution that holds dangerous criminals suffering from mental illness is located. A patient has escaped from this structure, the two must find her. But Teddy’s main mission is another: he wants to find the killer of his wife, Andrew Laeddis, who he knows for sure is there.
During the investigation he finds a note, on which he finds the question “The law of four. Who is 67? “. Meanwhile, the escaped inmate, Rachel Solando, is found near a lighthouse. After a crude encounter with an old acquaintance in Hall C, the protagonist no longer finds Chuck, the partner. Looking for him, he descends into a cliff and instead finds the real Rachel Solando, hidden in a cave.
Upon his return, Teddy manages to either escape and reach the lighthouse, where he finds Cawley. The latter reveals to him that he is Andrew Laeddis himself and that the patient number 67 of the institute to which the message referred is him. To give him further proof he shows him that Edward Daniels is an anagram of Andrew Laeddis. The protagonist thus learns that it was he who killed his wife, who had drowned their three children. As a defense mechanism Andrew had created a story in his mind, and in the same way he had created the character of Rachel, who had committed the same crimes as his wife.
The person he identified as a partner was actually Dr. Sheehan, who had been following him for two years now. Cawley and Sheehan had therefore supported him in order to bring him back to reality, the only other way was the lobotomy. After these revelations the protagonist is flooded with memories, and becomes aware of the events that have taken place. But the next morning, when the doctor asks him a question, Andrew seems to have fallen back into the reality he created. The story therefore ends with the group of doctors and Laeddis heading towards the lighthouse for the lobotomy operation.
Judgment on the movie “Shutter Island”
In “Shutter Island” reality and fiction become one. The protagonist, but also the viewer, no longer knows what is true and what is not. The tools with which the director makes the truth understood are the protagonist’s flashbacks and dreams. In fact, during the protagonist’s sleep, we see his wife telling him to let her go to free himself from what has now become a recurring nightmare that won’t let him live.
During the film Laeddis is never left alone. The voices he hears continually tell him that he will never leave the island, that his destiny is now sealed. But he does not listen to him, he wants to proceed with his mission, and then go home.
The whole film is accompanied by a perennial sense of uneasiness. It is all based on darkness, in this mental case, taking advantage of the setting, the scenes and photography. It is shown how dark, mysterious and absurd the human mind can be. In fact, the protagonist sees you as the victim of a trauma and tries to mask it unconsciously. Furthermore, the insertions of the scenes in Dachau leave their mark, because they are very similar to reality.
Personally, I really enjoyed the movie “Shutter Island”. How it makes us reflect on the human mind, on the defense mechanisms that it activates without us realizing it. Teddy’s sometimes harmful impulsiveness, how perpetually defensive he is, sleep problems and hallucinations make it clear that he has had a traumatic past. And the emotions that the character feels can be heard leaking from the screen: the pain, the confusion, the rejection of a reality that is not what one would like. This film is particular: very few other films have had such an impact on me, but this one really leaves its mark. All this he achieves without large bloody or visually strong scenes, rather uses human psychology, which is, moreover, at the center of the film.
Quotes from the movie
Here are some quotes from the movie “Shutter Island” that particularly struck me with a brief thought about it.
“There’s no moral order at all. There’s just this: can my violence conquer yours?”
This sentence, said by the director of the institute, is aimed at the protagonist as a threat, rather than a teaching: since there is no morality, violence can be done. And one of the two will win over the other.
“Crazy people are perfect subjects: they talk and nobody listens to them.”
With this simple and clear sentence, the former doctor Solando tells a great truth: once a person is declared clinically insane, there is no way back. Whatever it does will be considered the action of a madman, including the denial of madness itself.
“Which would be worse: To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?”
This sentence is what concludes the film. Pronounced by the protagonist, if analyzed, it leaves a sense of initial confusion, and then turns into dismay and realization of the fact. Andrew seems to have simulated this latest fit of madness, to actually get the lobotomy operation. This is because by now he had become aware of what he had committed and did not want to live with the awareness of being a “monster”.
Curiosities about the movie
“Shutter Island” is the latest film shot entirely on film by director Martin Scorsese. It therefore represents an important step between the cinema of yesteryear and that of today, because he was among the first “great old men” to use digital. However, he used the film again for some scenes in new films, including “The Irishman” and “Silence”.
Mark Ruffalo, the co-star, got the part thanks to a letter written in his own hand addressed directly to the director. It was written by an admirer, so Scorsese chose it by discarding Josh Brolin and Robert Downey Jr. Ironically, today they are all three famous actors of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The manufacturer, Paramount, wanted to launch it in October in order to be in time for the 2010 Oscars. There were two obstacles though: the company didn’t have the money to promote it and DiCaprio was shooting “Inception”, so he couldn’t attend the interviews. and at launch. For this reason it was launched in February 2010, grossing $ 41 million in the first weekend. Although it did not get even an Oscar nomination (the only film with this outcome by the couple Scorsese – DiCaprio), it is still today the best director’s debut.
Throughout the film, continuity errors and inconsistencies are intentionally littered, and every time Teddy deals with fire or water, something important happens.
The main location of the story, the famous island, does not exist: it was completely a work of CGI, or computer graphics. The title itself suggests it: Shutter Island is in fact the anagram of Truth and Lies, or Truth and Lies. Obviously this is also linked to the parallel reality that the protagonist had created for himself. In short, the director likes anagrams and hidden clues.
Informations about the movie
The film is inspired by the novel by Dennis Lehane, a writer whom director Martin Scorsese admired. The script went on for about a year. Filming began with the WWII flashback in Massachussets.
“Shutter Island” is a film made in a distressing sequence shot, thus giving a lot of weight to many scenes. The recorder makes many close-ups and very close-ups, in order to highlight the emotions of the characters. During the protagonist’s dream, a scene is shot through a forward tracking shot, until the field is restrained on DiCaprio’s face. In the same scene, a junction of movement is seen as Andrew approaches his wife. In the scene in which an asylum patient is interrogated, a detail is made on the coloring of the sheet. During a dialogue between Andrew and the alleged partner, a reverse shot is made.
Many of the shots used in the film might suggest that Shutter Island is actually just Andrew’s dream. This is also aided by the frequent use of smoke and fog, which lend a dreamlike feel to the scenes. The soundtrack often accompanies the actor in the role of the protagonist, in fact his thoughts are followed and supported by incisive melodies.
Gli attori principali scelti per il film sono Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams e Emily Mortimer.
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