Shutter Island (2010)
Shutter Island (2010)
In 2010 two big names in the film industry, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, came together to create a great psychological thriller, that pulls inspiration from classics such as The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari and the Ninth Configuration. Shutter Island, is a psychological thriller that brings in elements of classic film noir mystery, and psychological horror. The film is centered around Leonardo DiCaprio's character Edward "Teddy" Daniels who is a US Marshall sent to an asylum for the criminally insane on Shutter Island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate a missing patient. But as the film goes on something seems incredibly wrong, and we see Daniels lose his hold on reality...what even is real!? The film leads up to a shocking twist that at the time surprised audiences.
Shutter Island is directed by Martin Scorsese, with a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis. The film is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Shutter Island was produced by Phoenix Pictures, Sikelia Productions, and Appian Way Productions, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures in 2010. Though the film was originally slated for a 2009 release, to allow the budget for a proper promotion for an award worthy film, Paramount choose to push back its release date to 2010. Shutter Island received mostly positive reviews upon release, though retrospective reviews tend to be less favourable. The film was Scorsese's second highest grossing $294.8 million in the box office, against its budget of $80 million, making it also a big box office success.
Shutter Island is directed by Martin Scorsese, with a screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis. The film is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Shutter Island was produced by Phoenix Pictures, Sikelia Productions, and Appian Way Productions, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures in 2010. Though the film was originally slated for a 2009 release, to allow the budget for a proper promotion for an award worthy film, Paramount choose to push back its release date to 2010. Shutter Island received mostly positive reviews upon release, though retrospective reviews tend to be less favourable. The film was Scorsese's second highest grossing $294.8 million in the box office, against its budget of $80 million, making it also a big box office success.
Shutter Island featured a talented cast, starring (some details are omitted here as to not spoil the ending or any important twists, which also means a few minor but important characters also won't be listed here) Leonardo DiCaprio as Edward "Teddy" Daniels, Mark Ruffalo as Chuck Aule (Teddy's partner), Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Cawley, Max von Sydow as Dr Jeremiah Naehring, Michelle Williams as Teddy's wife Dolores Chanal, Ted Levine (who played Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs) as Warden, and John Carroll Lynch as Deputy Warden McPherson. The film has a great cast, we see DiCaprio in a powerful role, that takes a lot of skill to successfully pull of. All of the actors were amazing in their complex roles that they played, and nothing in this film is quite as meets the eye.
You might be wondering why, on Maine Movie Mondays I am talking about a film that was set and mostly filmed in Massachusetts? Well, I'm glad you asked! While researching films shot or set in Maine, I discovered that parts of Shutter Island was filmed at Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The part of the film where "Teddy" is scaling the cliffs was the part that was shot at Otter Cliffs, though the turbulent water crashing beneath him was actually a shot of the ocean off of Big Sur on the coast of California, because though the cliffs were right for the scene, the ocean was too calm for the shot. The lighthouse in the film, interestingly enough doesn't even exist, they built the base of the lighthouse, but the upper portion was computer generated. The filming locations in this film are quite interesting, because some are multiple locations mixed into one location by using computer generated effects, like the scene I mentioned shot at Otter Cliffs.
I feel like Shutter Island is a film that loses its magic if you watch it multiple times, though I want to think about how this film felt the first time I saw it, and now watching it again, it had been long enough that I had forgotten really what happened. I can say that the film had an amazing twist ending, that you might have guessed as it went, but I felt it was even more wild than I guessed it would be. I think that this is a very effective film, and that ending makes you question so much about so much. I read a critic that said that this film lacked the ability to make the viewers have any emotion towards the characters, and I totally disagree. I felt so much emotion during this film, and when the truth comes out about his wife he keeps having flashbacks about I was so shocked and emotional, I felt the terror, I felt the emotion of the characters. I feel like the writers did a great job at writing in emotions that can really touch the viewer. I honestly think that this is a really well done film. If you have not yet seen it, I hope that no one has spoiled the ending for you, because this film is the best when you don't know what to expect, and I think the reason that it doesn't have better scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb is because people knew what to expect and when the twist happened it didn't affect them as much because they knew what was coming, and I feel sorry for them to have such a great film, with such a great ruined for them, or just to be so jaded and lacking in imagination that they couldn't at least imagine what it would feel like to see that for the first time not knowing what was going to happen. I honestly think though that a lot of critics lack empathy, and they are incapable of understand how it would feel for someone to see something for the first time, to feel the magic of cinema, and to experience a powerful plot twist, to not already know that that twist was coming. I usually am able to watch a film, even one that I have seen dozens of times, and try to empathise with what a viewer watching it for the first time might experience. So if you have not yet experienced Shutter Island, don't let anyone tell you about the film until you experience it yourself, it is an amazing and powerful film, and one I highly recommend checking out.
You might be wondering why, on Maine Movie Mondays I am talking about a film that was set and mostly filmed in Massachusetts? Well, I'm glad you asked! While researching films shot or set in Maine, I discovered that parts of Shutter Island was filmed at Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The part of the film where "Teddy" is scaling the cliffs was the part that was shot at Otter Cliffs, though the turbulent water crashing beneath him was actually a shot of the ocean off of Big Sur on the coast of California, because though the cliffs were right for the scene, the ocean was too calm for the shot. The lighthouse in the film, interestingly enough doesn't even exist, they built the base of the lighthouse, but the upper portion was computer generated. The filming locations in this film are quite interesting, because some are multiple locations mixed into one location by using computer generated effects, like the scene I mentioned shot at Otter Cliffs.
I feel like Shutter Island is a film that loses its magic if you watch it multiple times, though I want to think about how this film felt the first time I saw it, and now watching it again, it had been long enough that I had forgotten really what happened. I can say that the film had an amazing twist ending, that you might have guessed as it went, but I felt it was even more wild than I guessed it would be. I think that this is a very effective film, and that ending makes you question so much about so much. I read a critic that said that this film lacked the ability to make the viewers have any emotion towards the characters, and I totally disagree. I felt so much emotion during this film, and when the truth comes out about his wife he keeps having flashbacks about I was so shocked and emotional, I felt the terror, I felt the emotion of the characters. I feel like the writers did a great job at writing in emotions that can really touch the viewer. I honestly think that this is a really well done film. If you have not yet seen it, I hope that no one has spoiled the ending for you, because this film is the best when you don't know what to expect, and I think the reason that it doesn't have better scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb is because people knew what to expect and when the twist happened it didn't affect them as much because they knew what was coming, and I feel sorry for them to have such a great film, with such a great ruined for them, or just to be so jaded and lacking in imagination that they couldn't at least imagine what it would feel like to see that for the first time not knowing what was going to happen. I honestly think though that a lot of critics lack empathy, and they are incapable of understand how it would feel for someone to see something for the first time, to feel the magic of cinema, and to experience a powerful plot twist, to not already know that that twist was coming. I usually am able to watch a film, even one that I have seen dozens of times, and try to empathise with what a viewer watching it for the first time might experience. So if you have not yet experienced Shutter Island, don't let anyone tell you about the film until you experience it yourself, it is an amazing and powerful film, and one I highly recommend checking out.
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