Shutter Island - Full Reaction
Added 2021-10-18 04:45:51 +0000 UTCWOW !! That was mind-bending and another unexpected twist! I thought Leo and Mark Ruffalo were incredible. I really want to watch it again knowing what I know now. It was a completely heartbreaking story though and made me think a lot. I thought it would be scary, but although very suspenseful, it wasn't scary in the traditional sense. As you can tell, I was very into the movie and my mind was processing so much, that I feel like I say less than usual, I hope it's still a fun watch along :)
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Comments
One of those films that only gets better on repeat viewings, finding all the subtle hints. The other Scorsese/DiCaprio collaboration I would recommend is The Aviator, based on the life of famous inventor/pilot Howard Hughes.
Odd Thomas
2023-01-07 20:53:01 +0000 UTCThis was my first time watching this film as well. I started to watch it a little later than I probably should have. My eyes were becoming heavy and I could feel myself drifting off a little as my concentration was definitely becoming cloudy. So I put this down to why I felt the whole film was extremely hazy. The way the characters we interacting just felt abnormally hinky. Then just under half way through, it clicked what was happening as I jolted awake. My mind switched back on as it occurred to me that he was the missing patient. Embolden by notion that he was experiencing the very circumstance of constructing his own reality. This was only because the explanation of a person rejecting an unpalatable reality had been exposition dumped earlier in the film as part of the initial investigation. After that, unfortunately the other half of the film felt like it was really dragging. As I still tried to stay awake, see if I could peice the missing bits together and find out if I was right. I thought Chuck was only in his imagination, so I was a little off about that. I was quite close on a few of the other details. What's funny, without that explanation, the reveal might be harder for the audience to buy. But with it, it's quite a large sign post to what's going on. The balance can be difficult when constructing a narrative.
Daryl
2021-10-21 23:42:33 +0000 UTCThree Christs, if you haven't you should watch it sometime. Its about 3 men who believe they are Jesus Christ. With Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins, Bradley Whitford all portraying patients who believe they are Christ. And Richard Gere playing the Dr which is all loosely based off The film adaptation of The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, Rokeach's 1964 book-length psychiatric case study of three patients whose paranoid schizophrenic delusions cause each of them to believe he is Jesus Christ.
David RedEagle
2021-10-20 08:27:47 +0000 UTCHave you watched Leo in The Revenant? Its what finally won Leo a long overdue oscar.
David RedEagle
2021-10-20 05:58:56 +0000 UTCI am in the same camp although I have not revisited it since my first viewing. Liked the book more than the movie which is surprising given it was directed by Martin Scorsese. I may have to revisit it to see if it improves on a second watch. I actually remember calling this "Shitter Island" for my dislike of it.
Brian McGovern
2021-10-20 01:46:35 +0000 UTCYah I see him more making the choose to put an end to the harm he's caused. He says in his room he killed his wife and kids. He finds out he's been hurting others including inmates. He even blew up a car! He's also told he has relapsed before. So I took it as him taking his chance of clarity to end his strike of harm to others. That way he knows he is going to die a good man.
Bret
2021-10-19 18:43:20 +0000 UTCI’m in the camp that at the end he was back to reality but was choosing to get the lobotomy because of the things he felt guilty about in his life. Thus the statement about living as monsters or dying as a good man. Good flick. Good reaction.
Krusty “Topher”
2021-10-19 01:43:10 +0000 UTCJust to make more sense to the story I believe the rain and thunderstorm was fake, he made up the storm giving the fact that he actually couldn’t leave the island.
FranciscoGios
2021-10-18 23:59:03 +0000 UTCIt amazes me that Leo didn´t get an Oscar until just recently and that he got one for The Revenantwhich is definitely one of his sub-par movie. But it might have been to controversial to give him one for The wolf of Wall street which would have been much more correct. Well, or for Shutter island.
Björn Von Knorring
2021-10-18 19:46:54 +0000 UTCI left the theater when it first came out thinking this was one of Scorsese’s best, and wondering if I was crazy or just hyped about the movie. I haven’t seen it since until watching it with you last night, and I’m definitely right, it’s a Top 5 Scorsese film, severely underrated. The dream/hallucination sequences are beautiful, the tone is perfect, even the dialogue is excellent. One of Leo’s best performances. So glad I watched it again.
Brian Harris
2021-10-18 19:37:56 +0000 UTCLove Leo's Boston accent in this: "We awh duhly appointed fedruhl mawshals." Haven't seen this since theaters, since the final reveal/flashback was a bit tough for me to want to re-visit, but love the filmmaking and the acting. This movie is also such a sad commentary on the lack of resources WWII veterans had for dealing with PTSD or war trauma, very much issues we still struggle with now.
Alex Villarreal
2021-10-18 18:53:27 +0000 UTCApparently, I didn't really appreciate this movie the first time. I left the theater thinking, "It was okay for a Scorsese movie." I guess I expected more then. On this second pass, I thought it was rather brilliant. I would say this could somewhat faintly constitute a “horror” movie to the more easily rattled folk. It had some eerie moments. There were a couple of thin jump scares in the Ward ‘C’ scene. Then there was the ominous music score throughout... And it did coax the frightened reaction of "DON'T GO IN THERE!" --which is a horror movie staple. Also bed covers were raised and hidden behind a few times (I was referring to Cassie—not myself).
Mr. Writhms
2021-10-18 16:03:53 +0000 UTCI totally forgot that Martin Scorsese directed this. He and Leo really do make magic happen on screen. Glad you enjoyed this Cassie. There are a bunch of movies that Scorsese and DiCaprio have made together that are well worth watching. Gangs of New York, The Departed, The Aviator, Wolf of Wall Street are all on that list. When you have time you must see all of them at least once as well as Scorsese's other works including GoodFellas which is in my top 5 movies of all time.
KTVindicare
2021-10-18 16:03:30 +0000 UTCi knew i recognized him! thank you!
Cassie
2021-10-18 14:14:35 +0000 UTCoh my i missed that! going to look now, i love the connections!
Cassie
2021-10-18 14:13:47 +0000 UTCi think you are right!
Cassie
2021-10-18 14:12:31 +0000 UTCAs others have pointed out, Laeddis isn't taken off to be executed at the end but to undergo a trans-orbital lobotomy, a brutal surgical operation which was performed in the thousands during the 1950s. A quack named Dr. Walter Freeman developed the operation, which involved ramming two metal icepicks into a patients optic cavities, around the eyeball, hammering them through the layer of bone around the brain, and then sweeping the metal picks back and forth to sever the prefrontal cortex from the thalamus. This supposedly "freed" the patient from their delusional states. In reality most who underwent the operation suffered nerve damage and diminished capacity. The flashbacks to the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp were based on a real event. When American troops entered this camp, one of the very worst death camps, they found something like ten thousand unburied corpses stacked all over the facility - in storerooms, on train cars, and piled in heaps outside. All the bodies were in a state of extreme emaciation and the victims had been tortured before death. The American soldiers were so enraged and horrified at what they found that they went on a rampage. Some reports state that they grabbed every German who had surrendered to them at the camp - not just death camp guards but ordinary soldiers who had retreated to the camp - and lined them up and shot them. Others state that surviving inmates were given guns and allowed to murder their torturers. It was an outright war crime but authorities had no stomach for prosecuting it, given the circumstances and the magnitude of the German war crimes being discovered, and it was pretty much quietly swept under the rug. This movie does benefit from a second viewing as you can follow the doctors' plan and see exactly why mysterious things are happening. There are hints from the very beginning that things are not as they seem. My favorite detail is when Teddy and Chuck are told to surrender their firearms as they enter the hospital. Teddy, a combat veteran, unholsters his sidearm and surrenders it easily, but "Chuck" fumbles with his (fake) gun and ends up pulling the entire holster out of his waistband and handing it over. Clearly not someone used to handling a firearm.
Patrick Flanagan
2021-10-18 10:11:54 +0000 UTCHey Cassie, did you recognize the Warden who was asking Teddy (DiCaprio) all of those very odd, violent questions? He was played by Ted Levine who also played Jame Gumb (aka "Buffalo Bill") in Silence of the Lambs.
Ron
2021-10-18 09:36:10 +0000 UTCAt the end, he's aware of who he is and what he's done. But he doesn't want to continue living with his memories, so he pretends to have relapsed so they can lobotomize him and make him forget everything
Shehab Dawoud
2021-10-18 09:09:38 +0000 UTCCassie, did you recognize the Captain of the Guard from Fargo? Why it's Norm Gunderson don't you know? Actor John Carroll Lynch.
Grinznmore
2021-10-18 09:02:12 +0000 UTCI Havnt seen this movie in 7 or 8 years, but I remembered the twist. I also remember questioning the ending as well. I think at the time I was a restless college kid so i didn't take the time to wonder about the weird vibe that the last scene gave me. So this time I watched the film a second time with you, knowing the reveal. It was very different and interesting, interpreting all the characters' behavior, and that ending hits pretty hard once you wrap your head around it. Leo is such a brilliant actor. If you think about it, he had to play Laedis, who was putting up the facade of Ted Daniels, in order to convince his doctors he hasn't accepted reality. He had to convey, to the attentive in the audience, a character trying to be someone else. If you watch his performance closely in the scene you can see the subtle nuances and small variations in his expressions that hint at what's really going on. He had to play Ted up just enough to make you think he could still be insane, and subtle enough for you to realize Laedis was their underneath it all. His comment on living as a monster and dead as a good man is indicative and his walk down the steps basically gives it away, walking nonchalantly rather than anxiously, wanting what's going to happen to him so he can end his suffering. Very sad, but brilliantly done.
Sahitya
2021-10-18 08:54:59 +0000 UTCyou mentioned "the others", so i kinda figured you were on the right track early on. But the omg's were aplenty, and appropriately so
Wu Sha Ling
2021-10-18 08:13:23 +0000 UTCHe said, "Would you rather live as a monster, or die as a good man?" when he started walking toward the guards, so I think he knew exactly what was happening and he saw his opportunity to quit being haunted by what happened.
Johnny
2021-10-18 07:32:44 +0000 UTCDefinitely a film where having read the book beforehand lessens it's impact. But I don't think it's terrible, not one of Scorsese's best but we're talking about a master here. That it doesn't rank among his best isn't too bad an indictment.
Jay
2021-10-18 05:08:13 +0000 UTCYou like Leo Alberta?? Seen that Inception?? And yes I already assumed you saw Titanic.
Krusty “Topher”
2021-10-18 04:57:18 +0000 UTCcool, now just got to wait for the HD watch along version to finish uploading :)
Allen Bond
2021-10-18 04:55:36 +0000 UTCMaybe this will benefit with a rewatch, but this is one of Martin Scorsese worst efforts. I did not like this movie when I saw it. I thought the book was good from what i remember, but the movie I thoguht was ordinary.
Brian McGovern
2021-10-18 04:54:18 +0000 UTCThis movie is an outright masterpiece, IMHO. Definitely a film that earns repeat value. Watching it a second time I was floored by Ben Kingsley's performance as Dr. Cawley and his driveness in what he was trying to accomplish and how it affected him both professionally and personally.
Jack the Narrator
2021-10-18 04:51:59 +0000 UTCI remember this well. I went to the theatre to see it with stomach flu and didn't make it 30 min in the movie. True story lol
William Bryan
2021-10-18 04:49:49 +0000 UTC
