Shutter Island

[island]

Re: Shutter Island

I was a PA on this movie when it shot back east 2 years ago. My expectations were sky high after witnessing the production unfold, and for a year and a half I told everyone I knew to be prepared to be absolutely blown away.

Man oh man was I wrong. The movie was good but it could have been so much better....

[Optimus]

Re: Shutter Island

Mild spoilers ahead...


Finally saw this. It was...eh...okay. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it for the most part, but I figured out the ending within the first 20 minutes. It was pretty obvious.

The "protag is really a delusional mental patient" story has been done several times now that it's pretty easy to spot. Though I do like how it was executed in this story.

That kind of deflated my enjoyment of the film. I'd already figured it out, because it really wasn't very hard to, and then realized I had to sit through nearly 2 more hours of film to get to an ending I already pretty much knew. Totally took the suspense out of it for me because I was taken out of the story at that point.

I liked how the story wrapped up and I admit that I didn't have the bit with the wife and kids figured out, so that was a nice twist for me.

But, I tend to be dopey and like endings that are more on the happy side, which Scorcese films usually aren't even though I enjoy his films, so an ending where the protag decides to fake that he hasn't recovered so he can be voluntarily lobotomized was kind of a let down. Just my personal taste, though.

Overall, it was good but not great because the "twist" wasn't really a twist because it wasn't hidden well at all. I wish the movie had been tougher to figure out until the end.

[lordmanji]

Re: Shutter Island

**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** **SPOILERS**





I took Leo's line in that scene, "Is it better to live as a monster or to die as a good man?", to mean that he was faking his final relapse, favouring being lobotomized over living with the knowledge of killing his wife. Ruffalo calling him by monikers from his fantasy life, as Leo departed, seemed like the doctor realising his patient is actually cured and trying to get Leo to respond to the other name in the hope that he was wrong.

thanks for the explanation of the ending.

[lordmanji]

Re: Shutter Island

This movie was very meh. Too predictable and very slow in parts. The continuity editing was so terrible I found it distracting me from the plot.

lol i know. the editing was sooo horrible. jump cuts and wrong placements of hands and people talking when theyre not.

[MacG]

Re: Shutter Island

Fair enough. (No handshake emoticon is currently avalable.)

Damn these shortcomings of emoticon technology!

[Ire]

Re: Shutter Island

Fair enough. (No handshake emoticon is currently avalable.)

[MacG]

Re: Shutter Island

[Scorsese] might be old and he might be off his game, but he still makes movies with an obsession that is still worth my time watching and writing about.

That's fair. But I don't revere any filmmaker that much. If one of the industry's "great" directors turns in a flawed (or downright bad) pic, I'm gonna call 'em on it and will probably even deem it a waste of time.

But that's just crazy ol' smug me talking.

[Ire]

Re: Shutter Island

I'm not being smug -- I'm expressing a contrary position to yours with very firm language. I hated the movie and you didn't. I thought it was awful and you didn't. Let it go, Ire. (Or at the very least, be adult about how you present a counter-argument.)

That said, I don't think your argument holds water, re: Ruffalo. If he was there to keep an eye on Leo, why did Ruffalo end up vanishing for the last, what, fifteen of the film prior to the big reveal?

I mean, who's to say Leo wouldn't have fallen off the rocks and drowned moments after they parted? Did they pad the area on the off-chance he slipped?

Additionally, I would hardly say Ruffalo's character did a good job of keeping Leo in check when he's a huge catalyst for fueling Leo's plunge into paranoia during the scene in the cemetery when he says that all his digging around on the mainland means it's no accident Leo is on the island, i.e, it's all been one big set-up.

Other logistical problems with the story that are never answered include the opening on the boat: how did Leo get on it? Why doesn't he remember getting on it? Why doesn't he remember being on the island? Kingsley's character said Andrew has a "re-set" button of sorts but it's still a stretch to believe they could coordinate things so precisely.

But let's say for the sake of argument they can accomplish all of the above. It's still a stroke of massive luck that Andrew's "re-set" himself just at the moment a massive storm is rolling in that will keep trapped on the island. I understand they would've played their ace in the hole and trotted out the "missing" patient to keep him a while longer, but the storm and it's after effects were still needed to allow Leo to get to Building C.

Wow, "let it go." Okay. Hardly contrarian from my pov. I didn't say I loved this movie. I'm just sayin' it's hardly awful. I think I should have been more specific laughable and awful. That's what prompted the smug remark. Had you expounded the way you did in your response, I would have given deference as to why you thought it was awful and laughable. If this were a thread about Meet Dave or One Missed Call I would expect terse sentences from users with Awful. and "Laughable" to be easily bandied about. Imo, Scorsese warrants a little more. That's just my opinnion.

I agree that the Ruffalo character shadowing Leo fell apart when they were on the rocks - literally and figuratively. I don't have easy answers to defend the way Scorsese handled the "reality." Scorses seems more interested in the non-reality going on. And true, to those who have mentioned it, the story is nothing too new these days when it comes to twists. Maybe Fincher would have been handled the story and weaved the reality and non-reality with more thriller technical finesse.

For me, what's worthy about the movie is that it's Scorsese's fevered nightmare. It's definitely flawed. It could have been better. But it's still a Scorsese. He might be old and he might be off his game, but he still makes movies with an obsession that is still worth my time watching and writing about.

[EvilRbt]

Re: Shutter Island

I only saw this yesterday so I only just read this thread. Some fascinating reactions and debate, for which I thank you all.

Unfortunately, for me, the big reveal is something I've seen and read far too many times for it to be effective.

[Be Not Nobody]

Re: Shutter Island

The living as a monster was imo manifested in his behavior where he was acting "monstrously" lighting the car on fire, attacking the guard, strangling another inmate, as he pursued "the truth." It's not exactly the most monstrous behavior in cinema history, but it does make his character seem unleashed.

Maybe he was heading down that path, but for me he'd not really completed his descent. Even when he does attack the guard at the lighthouse, he says that he's not going to hurt him. That, to me, shows that he values human life, particularly given that he's a stranger -- or more importantly, someone who is standing between Andrew/Ted and his "meal", as the warden put it.

Whatever way I look at it, I can't reconcile the fact that Leo's character actually IS a monster, and because of this the movie basically falls down at every level. For this to work, at least for me, he needed to be the one who drowned his kids, not his wife.

[MontanaHans]

Re: Shutter Island

@MacG: Those are all very good points. While I enjoyed the film in spite of these flaws, I definitely feel you.

[MacG]

Re: Shutter Island

That was techinically what Ruffalo's character was there for, so DiCaprio wasn't "unchecked."

Hardly awful.

Ah, the usual smugness...

I'm not being smug -- I'm expressing a contrary position to yours with very firm language. I hated the movie and you didn't. I thought it was awful and you didn't. Let it go, Ire. (Or at the very least, be adult about how you present a counter-argument.)

That said, I don't think your argument holds water, re: Ruffalo. If he was there to keep an eye on Leo, why did Ruffalo end up vanishing for the last, what, fifteen of the film prior to the big reveal?

I mean, who's to say Leo wouldn't have fallen off the rocks and drowned moments after they parted? Did they pad the area on the off-chance he slipped?

Additionally, I would hardly say Ruffalo's character did a good job of keeping Leo in check when he's a huge catalyst for fueling Leo's plunge into paranoia during the scene in the cemetery when he says that all his digging around on the mainland means it's no accident Leo is on the island, i.e, it's all been one big set-up.

Other logistical problems with the story that are never answered include the opening on the boat: how did Leo get on it? Why doesn't he remember getting on it? Why doesn't he remember being on the island? Kingsley's character said Andrew has a "re-set" button of sorts but it's still a stretch to believe they could coordinate things so precisely.

But let's say for the sake of argument they can accomplish all of the above. It's still a stroke of massive luck that Andrew's "re-set" himself just at the moment a massive storm is rolling in that will keep trapped on the island. I understand they would've played their ace in the hole and trotted out the "missing" patient to keep him a while longer, but the storm and it's after effects were still needed to allow Leo to get to Building C.

[Ire]

Re: Shutter Island

The living as a monster was imo manifested in his behavior where he was acting "monstrously" lighting the car on fire, attacking the guard, strangling another inmate, as he pursued "the truth." It's not exactly the most monstrous behavior in cinema history, but it does make his character seem unleashed.

[Be Not Nobody]

Re: Shutter Island

I didn't care for it at all. The twist was predictable and the ending didn't really work for me.

The living as a monster vs dying as a hero idea was interesting, but I still don't really see it's relevance. Presuming he is insane, which I think he is, what exactly makes him a monster? Killing your wife after she drowns your three kids, whilst not perhaps the most agreeable act around, is by no means something I'd associate with a monster. If anything it shows him to be morally and emotionally aware. A monster, at least in my books, is anything but.

[Ire]

Re: Shutter Island

Awful film.





SPOILERS.



The idea that Kingsley would let a mentally ill patient run wild on the island for two days, allowing him to delve DEEPER into his psychosis, unchecked -- and even encouraging it at times -- as a means to bring him to the realization he's crazy was laughable.

That was techinically what Ruffalo's character was there for, so DiCaprio wasn't "unchecked."

Hardly awful.

Ah, the usual smugness...