Shutter Island

[Horus_Risen]

SPOILER ALERT!

So last week I went and checked out the latest Scorsese flick Shutter Island. Off the bat, here's a little bit of trivia, Shutter Island is an anagram for "truths and lies." One of the more interesting plot points has to deal with the idea that Nazi scientists that fled from Germany ended up working for America after WWII. I must say that it seemed risky to talk about this sort of thing in such a mainstream film and I was proud of Scorsese for making such a bold statement. Unfortunately, this all ends up being a part of a paranoid delusion of DiCaprio's character, even though you can do a little research and discover that this kind of business actually happened in history.

Another thing that bothered me was that I was able to predict the ending of the film after about 30 minutes in. Still it's decent enough to check out. It will make you think, at least a little bit.

 

[buzzzzzzz]

I think its a very good one, symbolized some information or some conspiracy theory such as mind control...
and in my opinion, Teddy is sane, all of those monsters set up the play to try to get him insane, but he had no choice in the end even he realized everything is a conspiracy as he assumed in the beginning...

 

[Tigersoap]

I saw it and I think that although the setting, casts and idea could have been great I was not convinced by the underlying theme that this movie wanted to convey :
Conspiracy theorists are a bunch of deluded persons who'd be better be locked up in an asylum, that's how it sounded to me.
Nice timing for such movie to be released.
And the lighthouse ? what an interesting choice isn't ? Di Caprio learns the truth and the truth is that he is insane...

my two cents.

 

[cagoule]

SPOILER

I think the first 2/3 of this movie was excellent but I was very disappointed with the ending. At the time it felt like it was building up to the uncovering of some big consiracy theory with mind control and Nazi scientists but then it turns out that Teddy was just crazy.

However, thinking back the ending is actually quite poignant. When Teddy states, "which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?", I think he is sane but wants to be lobotomized in an attempt to erase his memory.

 

[AdamJM]

i thought this one was rather good, for the most part, and had me guessing right up to the end. i still reckon it would have been better if the conspiracy was true and they had managed to convince him he was insane! especially as, like it was said above, this same thing has taken place. operation paper clip anyone?

 

[Beau]

However, thinking back the ending is actually quite poignant. When Teddy states, "which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?", I think he is sane but wants to be lobotomized in an attempt to erase his memory.

Yes, that was the same reaction I had at the final scene. If he was still crazy, then he would not have been able to make the choice he did. I actually thought that scene was quite moving, you could tell his doctor knew that he was not crazy anymore and that he was willingly sacrificing his life for the things he had done.

 

[RAJAWANG]

Although I enjoyed the movie, the beginning of it had already make me wondering: why the two officers acted like they just met, casually, on the boat, halway to the island. for such an important assignment. Maybe I'm wrong....

 

[Z...]

Shutter Island - your worst nightmare in every sense

IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO WATCH THIS MOVIE DO NOT READ FURTHER ​

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT




Every since I've seen The Tenant by Roman Polanski I developed strong dislike for the movies about insanity. The Tenant left me frustrated because it was unclear if the main character was insane or maybe not and everything was happening for real. Up until it started to have the same flavor, Shutter Island had a promise of a great movie, recreation of one's worst nightmare.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the movie didn't end on this note but instead suddenly turned into the ode to psychiatry leaving me completely disgusted with such pitiful anticlimax.
I was always a big fan of Martin Scorsese hence my disappointment is even bigger.

In fact, after thinking a bit about this movie I ended up being irritated as it seems Shutter Island serves no other purpose but to dismiss every talk of mind controlling experiments by Nazis and USA Government as conspiracy theories plotted by lunatics.
Therefore nothing but thumbs down. Plus bunch of rotten tomatoes because Scorsese has managed to neutralize excellent photography, excellent cast, choice of music etc with completely meaningless plot.

 

[Beau]

I merged your post with the pre-existing thread on Shutter Island Corto.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

However, thinking back the ending is actually quite poignant. When Teddy states, "which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?", I think he is sane but wants to be lobotomized in an attempt to erase his memory.

Yes, that was the same reaction I had at the final scene. If he was still crazy, then he would not have been able to make the choice he did. I actually thought that scene was quite moving, you could tell his doctor knew that he was not crazy anymore and that he was willingly sacrificing his life for the things he had done.

I saw this movie last night and enjoyed it. I thought the same thing as both of you. Having said that...

IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO WATCH THIS MOVIE DO NOT READ FURTHER ​

In fact, after thinking a bit about this movie I ended up being irritated as it seems Shutter Island serves no other purpose but to dismiss every talk of mind controlling experiments by Nazis and USA Government as conspiracy theories plotted by lunatics.

If you think about it.. IF the movie ended the way Heimdallr describes- isn't the movie then pointing to the fact that if consiperacy theories such as nazi scientists doing experiments on the mind in US got out to a point of attracting federal marshals- even government officials would be silenced-whatever way possible. Therefore, isn't Scorsese pointing directly at the theory being true?

I guess it depends what kind of ending you picked up, but that's how I see it.

 

[Z...]

Thnx Heimdalir , being a fairly new release I thought if there is a thread it must be on the first page so I didn't look further

I guess it depends what kind of ending you picked up, but that's how I see it.

Well, there weren't many different options to pick OSIT.
The movie makes it quite clear the main character is insane and the whole conspiracy theory is just his paranoia. Or maybe I missed something?

When I read through the thread I was very surprised to read this:

However, thinking back the ending is actually quite poignant. When Teddy states, "which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?", I think he is sane but wants to be lobotomized in an attempt to erase his memory.

Yes, that was the same reaction I had at the final scene. If he was still crazy, then he would not have been able to make the choice he did. I actually thought that scene was quite moving, you could tell his doctor knew that he was not crazy anymore and that he was willingly sacrificing his life for the things he had done.

Based on what you guys concluded he is sane? I thought the exact opposite was completely obvious.
Have we seen the same movie?

 

[Tigersoap]

I did not know but the movie is from the book of the same name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_Island

From the plot summary of the book, Teddy/Andrew has reverted back to his insane persona, which I thought was also clear in the movie that it's all in his mind.

 

[Cosmos]

I liked the Film but it's sad how Scorsese ends the Film.

In the end the feeling this movie give's to the people is like "Corto" said:

to dismiss every talk of mind controlling experiments by Nazis and USA Government as conspiracy theories plotted by lunatics

 

[Divide by Zero]

I didn't feel that he was insane, but didn't have specific facts.

This video http://vimeo.com/13398426 explains the peculiarities throughout the film that make the case that he wasn't insane. Instead they were practicing mind control on him!

 

[Gertrudes]

However, thinking back the ending is actually quite poignant. When Teddy states, "which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?", I think he is sane but wants to be lobotomized in an attempt to erase his memory.

Yes, that was the same reaction I had at the final scene. If he was still crazy, then he would not have been able to make the choice he did. I actually thought that scene was quite moving, you could tell his doctor knew that he was not crazy anymore and that he was willingly sacrificing his life for the things he had done.

Based on what you guys concluded he is sane? I thought the exact opposite was completely obvious.
Have we seen the same movie?

I just finished watching this movie and had the same feeling as Heimdallr and cagoule.
As I interpreted it, he was insane from the beginning and in the end he acknowledged what he had done but simply couldn't live with it. So he decided for lobotomy, as he said: "better to die as a good man" (as in, he dies as the good personality he had created for himself), then to continue living with his memories as a monster (Andrew who had killed his wife).