shutter island analysis
TRANSCRIPT
Shutter Island analysis*Spoiler alert
INFOMATIONPLOT: Drama set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is
investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding nearby.
RATING: 8/10
GENRE: Drama/Mystery/Psychological/Thriller
MAIN ACTORS: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer & Mark Ruffalo
RELEASE DATE: 2010
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITERS: Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay) & Dennis Lehane (novel)
Director trademarks& how they relate to Shutter Island
• Frequent use of slow motion• Main character will fall in love, but will end in disaster –
wife kills their children and he in turn kills her (the love twist within a film is a common trait of thriller films)
• Main character prone to violence – has beaten up a fellow inmate
• Long tacking shots – across the shores, then focuses on the light house
• Guilt is a prominent theme in most of this films – he feels guilt for killing his wife but also that he didn’t see what was going on with her
Thriller elementsIt is considered a psychological thriller (pt’s) due to many elements: the
setting is an insane asylum typical of pt’s as it is an affliction of the mind, it remains to be complex which confuses the viewer keeping them on the edge as a lot of the elements are tricks of the mind. The main character also has a duel personality which keeps the viewer in the dark about the truth, invoking a rush of emotion when the truth is revealed.
The plot itself is keeps the viewer in the dark the majority of the time, it also puts the main focus of the film on Leonardo DiCaprios character who turns out to be 2 people simultaneously, this blurs the viewers emotions and makes it difficult for them to separate their feelings for both characters. The viewer isn’t told the truth until the end of the film which justifies it as a mystery thriller.
Clip analysisThe use of the bars is a common in psychological
thrillers, this creates the
impression that the person is
being detained as they are
dangerous, or in this case have mental issues
The close up shots allow the viewer to see a selected persons reactions, it also enables them to see this characters wounds, which
adds to the mystery of how he came to be injured.
The editing shows the colour change between the scene that is real, and the scene that he is seeing in his mind. Psychological thrillers are based on the mind
making things up.
The close ups again show not only emotions but how she is
not really there where the main character is perceiving
her to be. You can then see the close switch between his
reality and his imagination, and how closely they are
linked. Again a common trait in psychological thrillers, seeing
things that are not there.