Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?
Throughout Martin Scorsese’s career he has been creating art that seeks to understand the ramifications that guilt, paranoia, and violence have on humanity. In “Raging Bull” Scorsese gave us a man enthralled in violence and self destruction, whose hostilities beget guilt and ultimately humility. “Goodfellas” has Scorsese dealing with men who chose to live in a world of continual violence, and how paranoia and guilt slowly began to destroy that world. With “Cape Fear” Scorsese madly twists the conventional postulations of guilt and justice as the audience is invited to view them through the distorted eyes of Max Cady. Scorsese’s great crime drama “The Departed” displays how devilish violence affects two men who are engaged in the bloodshed for completely different reasons, and how each of them cope with the guilt that stems from their actions. In his twenty-third feature film release (not counting his numerous documentary films, which would take him up to nearly 50) Scorsese takes the audience back to 1954 to explore his preferred themes of guilt, violence, paranoia, and the toll they take on the human psyche.
The film opens on a ship that is shifting along a discomfited sea. Two detectives are bearing towards an island that, we are told, is the site of a high security asylum for the criminally insane. Scorsese’s long time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, sets the anxious tone from the outset with some remarkably sharp editing. Scorsese also wastes no time transporting his audience back in time to the 1950’s, the era of Film Noir and Hitchcock, not only with costumes and props but more importantly with dialogue, tone, and music. As the detectives, and through voyeuristic association the audience, approach the gates to the asylum the tone and music revel in this bombastic ’50’s style. Like the best movies of that period, Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” generates style and tone with the assistance of the score as well as several intense low and high angled shots that evoke the essence of 1920’s German Expressionism. These cues, from their origins in the ’20’s, to the Noir of the ’50’s, as well as here, intend to set up a world of outlandish events and settings where anything is possible. This creates a world surrounded in mystery and danger that is always dangling somewhere on the edge of feeling like a dream, or in many cases a nightmare. Scorsese even utilizes artificial, rear projection style backgrounds in certain shots to give that 50′s stylized look to the film. There is no question, once the detectives arrive at the asylum, Scorsese’s propensity is clearly driven to create a world as close to Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”, or Tourneur’s “Out of the Past”, as possible. If the audience has not jumped on board with that conception within the first five minutes then they may likely miss much of the intention of this scintillating film.
The two detectives are sent to Shutter Island (where names and titles evolve in their motivation and meaning as we draw closer to the truth) for the purpose of investigating the inexplicable disappearance of one of the asylum’s inmates. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers another excellent performance in this film (his fourth outing with Mr. Scorsese) as Detective Teddy Daniels . The audience is told that he is a very respectable detective, who has a history of getting the job done at any cost. Through a series of striking visions into the mind of this man, motivations of guilt and regret that are surrounded by violence begin to unfold as Daniels’ inducement to discover the truth comes into focus. His partner Detective Chuck Aule, the always cool and reserved Mark Ruffalo, is working with Detective Daniels for the first time. The bond they construct in this hostile environment appears reliable, yet the uncertainty of having a new partner slowly builds into paranoia as the world around them begins to fall apart. Of course the world of Shutter Island never evokes stability for the Detectives or the audience from the moment we step foot on the island. This is due, in no small part, to the colorful cast of characters within the asylum, all played brilliantly by an all-star supporting cast. We first meet Deputy Warden McPherson, played by John Carroll Lynch, who can never quite convince us that he is the stalwart of truth that he intends to imbue. The detectives are promptly introduced to Ben Kingsley’s Dr. Cawley, whose name itself supplicates an association with the harsh nagging of a crow’s call, and yet Kingsley’s tempered delivery appears to belie the moniker. Max von Sydow delivers a haunting performance as Dr. Naehring who appears to seethe with mendacious intent in every scene. Jackie Earl Haley and Elias Koteas offer unnerving performances that intensify the uncertainty and paranoia that the audience already feels from running through the labyrinthine implications presented by the clues DiCaprio’s Detective Daniels has picked up along the way. As Detective Daniels receives information from the striking women in the cast, whether it be the elegant Michelle Williams as his lamented wife or from the ever splendiferous Patricia Clarkson as the missing patient, it becomes clear that the truth of the island may be far more sinister than our detective could have dreamed.
Scorsese takes delight in driving the audience into this world of fear and paranoia through the nightmarishsettings of the maximum security wing of the asylum or the unforgiving and overbearing natural settings in the woods, the edges of cliffs, and the sea. Scorsese uses these settings as well as the visions into the mind of Daniels to offset the audiences ability to clearly delineate reality from the dream. These excursions allow DiCaprio to disinter the emotional depths within the character of Daniels, which affords him one of his greatest performances to date. These scenes also carry the audience along an emotional thrill ride that captivates and decimates our expectations, leaving us as much of an emotional wreck as many of the characters in the film. It is in this construct that Scorsese uses the film to ask deeper questions about film theory, and the audiences’ voyeuristic response to what is being presented, that opens another level of complexity to the film that the story alone does not demand. As this film draws towards it’s end it becomes clear that Scorsese is just as concerned with provoking the boundaries of where film can take us as he is with telling a great story. In “Shutter Island” he exceptionally succeeds in doing both.
Several years ago Quentin Tarantino said that Martin Scorsese was not directing films that were provocative and edgy like his early work, and that Scorsese’s work had become lazy. Scorsese is a legend in film making, with no need to prove anything. Here he proves that he is still enraptured with the medium of film and that he will continue to challenge himself and his audiences to continue to be moved by the aggregation of images, music, performances, and themes that form the art of film.
cast & credits
Teddy Daniels: Leonardo DiCaprio
Chuck Aule: Mark Ruffalo
Dr. Cawley: Ben Kingsley
Dr. Naehring: Max von Sydow
Dolores: Michelle Williams
Rachel 1: Emily Mortimer
Rachel 2: Patricia Clarkson
George: Jackie Earle Haley
Warden: Ted Levine
Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Martin Scorsese
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