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Shutter Island Opinions

Andrew Rieger

Andrew Rieger

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Just saw it and I can't seem to get it out of my head. That movie really threw me for a loop. Anyone else have opinions of Martin's latest movie? I have no idea why critics are not very enthusiastic.
 
Zakaree, terrible editing??? - great editing in my opinion.

I saw it 3 days ago, seems to be stuck in my head too. Excellent direction and cinematography. The mood in it is fantastic, the tension building/ suspense...

ok the dream sequences were not the strongest (just my opinion)... but I understand why they chose to shoot them the way they did. The women in the theatre were really scared, the men seemed unaffected.

The flashbacks to WW2 I loved.

all in all I would love to see it again, knowing what you do after the first time you see it.
 
The point is, there is enough support to go both ways in the end. Either he was always there and he made it all up or they really were able to trap him and turn him into a patient. We will never know. You can't say you called the ending because you are not even sure if what you saw in the end even happened. Brilliant ending. Not Martin's best but I think that it will grow on people. I think people are having a hard time accepting this film because it is so different from what he has done in the past. It seems like it is a David Lynch film.
 
terrrrrrible editing.. there were scenes for example.. where his detective buddy was going for cigs.. and his hand was just grabbing them.. then they cut to a different shot.. and the detectives hand was back at his side and going for the cigs again.. stuff like that all over the place.
 
Zakaree Sandberg said:
terrrrrrible editing.. there were scenes for example.. where his detective buddy was going for cigs.. and his hand was just grabbing them.. then they cut to a different shot.. and the detectives hand was back at his side and going for the cigs again.. stuff like that all over the place.
Click to expand...

So legendary Thelma suddenly went senile? :smilielol5:
 
The film seems stuck in my head as well. I was sucked into the movie and found it very entertaining.

My biggest problems with it were how fake the green screen scenes looked.

1. The opening scene on the boat looked soooooooo fake, it pulled me out.
2. When he was riding in the jeep with the military officer it looked terrible to me. I couldn't even concentrate on what they were saying.

Other than that I highly recommend it!
 
Zakaree Sandberg said:
terrrrrrible editing.. there were scenes for example.. where his detective buddy was going for cigs.. and his hand was just grabbing them.. then they cut to a different shot.. and the detectives hand was back at his side and going for the cigs again.. stuff like that all over the place.
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen Taxi Driver? Thats how all of the editing was. Its the unconventional Godard style of editing that makes Martin different from other directors. It was a nice homage to his earlier work and it fit the theme of the movie where not everything is as it seems.
 
Jerrod Cordell said:
Have you ever seen Taxi Driver? Thats how all of the editing was. Its the unconventional Godard style of editing that makes Martin different from other directors. It was a nice homage to his earlier work and it fit the theme of the movie where not everything is as it seems.
Click to expand...

Yeah you are correct. Watch Goodfellas and Casino again closely... you'll see the same thing. Scorsese has said in several different interviews that he favors the performance over absolute continuity between edits. I can't remember the dvd, but in one of the special features he even points out some of the continuity errors in Goodfellas (I think). On a side note, I have always been amazed that Kubrick was able to get such indelible and unique performances and seemingly maintain perfect continuity between his edits.

In regards to Shutter Island, I think that the cinematography and tone were excellent. Stunning in fact. However, my wife and I saw the twist coming from a mile away. I seemed like a film that should have been done 10 years ago. I'll definitely watch it again because I love Scorsese, but IMHO, not a classic.
 
Shutter Island is based on the novel of the same name. Don't want to give a way the twist, but if you read the book, you'll see that the ending is not ambiguous. What you see is what is also made quite clear in the novel's climax.
 
Zakaree Sandberg said:
terrrrrrible editing.. there were scenes for example.. where his detective buddy was going for cigs.. and his hand was just grabbing them.. then they cut to a different shot.. and the detectives hand was back at his side and going for the cigs again.. stuff like that all over the place.
Click to expand...

If you think that you can do better than Thelma, contact Martin and send him your resume. The editing was done that way on purpose to strengthen the illusion that what we are seeing may or may not be happening. The movie was full of jump cuts for dramatic effect. Anyone who claims they saw the ending coming is ignoring the fact that there really was no definitive ending. You can go either way in your conclusions. And to those who think that Scorsese is just following the trend of twist endings must remember that the Departed had an ending that was a twist as well. Besides, there is nothing like a good twist. I think that this work was quite daring on his part and is in a realm he has never explored before. He is the master of the gangster movie but I really love it when directors break their own mold.

About the twist... yes, I thought I saw it coming and it did happen but then I was not so sure. The ending is perfect not because we did not see it coming but because when the twist does happen, we have no reason to believe it is actually happening. The debate will go on. Opinions aside, I think that this film will be looked at much more favorably over time. Some of the films we admire the most we panned when they were released.
 
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Zakaree Sandberg said:
terrrrrrible editing.. there were scenes for example.. where his detective buddy was going for cigs.. and his hand was just grabbing them.. then they cut to a different shot.. and the detectives hand was back at his side and going for the cigs again.. stuff like that all over the place.
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*****SPOILER ALERT ****

I was of the opinion that the continuity errors were deliberate. That is was to resemble the emotional state of Leo.

I also felt that the ending was not as subjective as some have thought. I walked out of the cinema believing that Leo went into the hospital crazy, not as a detective, and still feel that way. I would like to see it again.

I do wonder if Leo had really regressed in the final scene or if he was acting because he didn’t want to continue living now having confronted what he had done.

I guess that’s the point of the film. Leo created an illusion because he couldn’t live with himself for what he had done. The doctors were successful in making him confront his past and he then chose to forget it anyway by having the brain surgery.

That’s my 2 cents. Anyway.
 
You probably should have said SPOILER ALERT in there...






Yes, I agree in the sense that the explanation that he was crazy is the true way to interpret all of what happened, but what is a bit ambiguous is the ending scene where he regresses once more, since he makes the statement about it being better to die a hero than live as a monster, or something like that. It suggests he didn't really regress at the end but chose his fate.

I enjoyed the movie though it wasn't too much of a mystery, it was more about seeing how it all played out for me. The "continuity errors" seem more like clues not to trust what you are seeing, even if originally it may have been an editor's way of dealing with actual continuity errors, in other words, it may have been an idea that occurred in post, not in shooting.
 
scott william said:
I was of the opinion that the continuity errors were deliberate. That is was to resemble the emotional state of Leo.

I also felt that the ending was not as subjective as some have thought. I walked out of the cinema believing that Leo went into the hospital crazy, not as a detective, and still feel that way. I would like to see it again.

I do wonder if Leo had really regressed in the final scene or if he was acting because he didn’t want to continue living now having confronted what he had done.

I guess that’s the point of the film. Leo created an illusion because he couldn’t live with himself for what he had done. The doctors were successful in making him confront his past and he then chose to forget it anyway by having the brain surgery.

That’s my 2 cents. Anyway.
Click to expand...

I agree with you about the ending (that he was crazy the whole time). Still, my friend gave a very convincing argument for the other side. That is the beauty of the film, we will never know for sure. When it comes to twists, there are great ones like the Sixth Sense and annoying ones like The book of Eli. I believe the ending of Shutter Island falls into the first category.
 
Andrew Rieger said:
If you think that you can do better than Thelma, contact Martin and send him your resume. The editing was done that way on purpose to strengthen the illusion that what we are seeing may or may not be happening. The movie was full of jump cuts for dramatic effect. Anyone who claims they saw the ending coming is ignoring the fact that there really was no definitive ending. You can go either way in your conclusions. And to those who think that Scorsese is just following the trend of twist endings must remember that the Departed had an ending that was a twist as well. Besides, there is nothing like a good twist. I think that this work was quite daring on his part and is in a realm he has never explored before. He is the master of the gangster movie but I really love it when directors break their own mold.

About the twist... yes, I thought I saw it coming and it did happen but then I was not so sure. The ending is perfect not because we did not see it coming but because when the twist does happen, we have no reason to believe it is actually happening. The debate will go on. Opinions aside, I think that this film will be looked at much more favorably over time. Some of the films we admire the most we panned when they were released.
Click to expand...

*****SPOILER ALERT ****

Hey Andrew, the reason I think leo was delusional to begin with was because the flash backs started before he reached the island right?
 
*****SPOILER ALERT ****

i think your right about the twist being a good one. I just dont see it so much as a twist but as a well crafted story where the ending was unpredictable but inevitable.

little details like how Rufflo couldn't get his gun off his pants, of course he couldn't he's a doctor not a policeman.

I think it's one of Scorsese's darkest films. Bring on Taxi Driver 2!
 
I feel that he came to realize his insanity and chose to have surgery in order to prevent himself from creating his fantasy world over and over (If we believe that he had done it before like Ben said). He leaves to get the lobotomy and frankly, he seems very accepting of his fate. If he truly had been the victim of forced insanity, than he would have not gone down so smoothly and would have tried to trick the doctors into thinking that he was cured in order to buy himself more time to escape. The conspiracy he believes in earlier in the movie seems too implausible. Still, I can't be 100% certain of this. The best films are the ones that stay in your head and may you think about them long after they are over, which is exactly what this film did.
 
Not his best, but still enjoyable.

I agree, I thought some of the green screen work and audio mixing, especially the first scene on the boat, was sub par.
 
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