Shutter Island content Flashcards
Structure
INNOVATIVE plot strucutre in which the audience only learnt the significance of early scenes at the conclusion of the film
- attentive re-viewings
- doesn’t exactly follow chronological order with flashbacks and dreams
Inciting event ( introduces main adversary)
Climax
Resolution
Inciting event
Arriving on Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a patient from the mental asylum
Meets Naehring psychiatrist who accuses Teddy of being a “man of violence” compliments him on his “defense mechanisms”
Requests to see patient files but shut down
- mental illness
Subtle moment that’s easy to dismiss in retrospect can see it is the moment where Teddy first engages with the MAIN ADVERSARY - his own propopsed insanity
First time viewers who are unsure his sanity is on the line, provides a necessary turning point by appearing to be about Teddy’s investigation and the doctor’s passive-aggressive refusal to cooperate.
Climax
Overcome his aversion to water by physically swimming across to lighthouse which also is where doctors have been fuelling conspiracy theories about experiements
top of the lighthouse is Chuck (who he thought was dead) and Dr Cawley. They reveal he is living in a role play - have a paranoia so intense he is unable to separate perception from reality
Techniques are - handheld camera frenetic atmosphere/ “Why are you all wet baby”
Theme of P vs R
Resolution:
“Which would be worse: To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?”
At the end of the film Teddy is seen to be seated with Chuck outside the Ashecliffe institution. It is seen the medical board in the distance debating and Teddy says this quote. This shows that although he appears to be insane he actually is quite sane and has regressed, accepting his eventual ill-fated ending (to get a lobotomy). He accepts his current situation however explains his hatred for living the way he does in which he states is like “a monster”.
Talk about setting - frenetic into calm (Teddy’s denial vs now acceptance)
Reveals theme of morality - is it right or wrong to put an end people’s pain that are in a state such as this or let them continue life as it is for them
Themes
Love - all consuming between Dolores and Andrew
- Blinded by love - ignorant of her mental health issues and resulted in his
Guilt and trauma
- His crimes (war crimes and murder of his wife, Dachau)
- Dolores killing
“Where are the kids?” “School’s not in on Saturday”
Violence
Especially in dachau
“You have excellent defense mechanisms marshal” and “man of vioelence”
- Teddy’s familiarity with guns
Perception vs reality
- Perception of the world vs what he’s actually trying to avoid
Scorsese challenges our habitual perception of reality the audience is encouraged to see the world as not given or fixed but constantly changing
HUMAN NATURE TO SUPPRESS THE THINGS WE CANNOT FACE
Morality
- Prevalent medical debate/ patients suffering
Purpose = evoking an array of philosophical questions - what really is moral
How moral are these patient’s actions - are they justifiable, why do we dehumanize them then?
Challenges assumptions
Mental illness/insanity
- Teddy/Dolores and others
- Accurately presenting a severe case of mental illness to mainstream hollywood
UNRELIABLE NARRATION
Delusional disorder to create a false world escaping from the dark reality of his past
Setting
Dachau - place of violence, beginnings of his trauma
Dream sequence - apartment fire
Ashecliffe - as a whole, irony as he’s trying to escape an island but physically incapable
His choice of unsettling camera angles and complex tracking shots creates an immersive viewing experience, echoing the labyrinthine nature of Ashecliffe Hospital and Teddy’s spiralling descent into madness. Long establishing shots of the island are unsettling + highlights the vulnerability and isolation of the characters in a ‘foreboding fortress-like asylum’
Ward C - dull, only light is math which is his delusion - compared with outside of hospital gardens are well kept and maintained
and Dr Cawley’s office - homely and welcoming with music
Lake house - significant in the fact that where the trauma was caused
Conflict
Internal conflict - teddy
Situational conflict - teddy and storm
Relational conflict - dr cawley and teddy/ teddy and dolores
Internal conflict
Inability to separate the reality of the situation from his delusion
dream sequence - Teddy is torn between his realities and continues to fabricate his reality with lies
Dreams of Dolores - drenched with water while burning into ashes. Juxtaposition of the two symbols - fire and water
sympathise with Teddy, as the viewers are able to recognise that it is human nature to suppress the things we cannot face. However, we also are aware that emotions and memories can never be fully suppressed and removed from our consciousness and begin to understand the reminders Teddy encounters of his traumatising past.
relational conflict
Reveals morality and also challenges societal views on various treatments
“patient not prisoner”
tension between the two characters revealed through the cross-cutting of the camera (switching back and forth between Cawley and Daniels).
Even Daniels, as one of Cawley’s most fostered patients, tends to question his approach and perspectives towards the care of patients proposing the theme of morality
- IRONIC
Cawley, as the leader of the Ashecliffe institution, believes that the work at the hospital is “a moral fusion between law and order and clinical care” which includes treating the patient with respect, listening to them and attempting to get through to them.
Situational conflict
Teddy and storm
He has no physical escape, nor mental
PATHETIC FALLACY - link to techniques or vice versa.
The storm just like his mind is estranged and uncontrollable, eventuating to a climax in which both his mental symptoms subside.
THE STORM ALIGNS WITH HIS DELUSIONS!!
Talk about entrapment - debilitating and fatal mental illness trap. Brings awareness to the extremity of illness and how most of it happens behind clsoed doors (we will never truly be able to understand whart another person is thinking).
lighting
Chirascuro lighting in first scene with dialogue “pull yourself together Teddy” - while looking in mirror
Embodiment of his split personality represented on the mirror - audience is oblivious to this during the opening scene as we realise only the full circumstances at the end of the film
Derived from the styles of German Expressionist directors - obvious inspiration in Scorsese’s work
Sharp angles - black and white film reflect the time of the war
“Merging the realms of light and shadow”
language features
lighting
symbols
mise en sene
Mise en sene -
WARD C
The jail like and threatening features including stone cold walls, dull colours, shrp corners, jail bars (PROVIDE A METAPHOR FOR THE ENTRAPMENT)
ONly light in Ward C is the match he lights which is his delusion speaking anyways showing that not only he is physically entrapped but also mentally
Derived from german expressionism - Scorsese is paying respect to directors before him
Sound
Mahler 4th quartet - Remind us that the film is taking place a while back, reminder of the war for Teddy and triggers flash backs
Dark and foreboding fog horn - used upon entry to Shutter Island
Triggers feelings of uneasiness and builds suspense regarding what’s to come
Scorsese weaves an intense and genius soundtrack to accommodate to the feeling of the scenes
Also warns Teddy as he enters Ashecliffe, that this is not a safe place.
Symbolism
Fire
This symbol is repetitive throughout the film and FUELS TEDDY’s delusions.
Fabricates his reality through this symbol
Examples include during dream sequence where Dolores and apartment burn into ashes, in ward C when he lights match
Water
Represents the drastic reality of what happened to his kids and family. Why throughout the film he has a constant aversion to water.
Noticeable in the interview scenes where Teddy blocks out the water. It is this aversion that causes Teddy to mentally ignore the glass of water in Mrs Kearn’s hands until it later reappears in the next shot (outside of Teddy’s perspective) as an empty glass once she had drunk its contents.
The tie
The tie that Teddy was given to him as a gift from his deceased wife Dolores Chanal. Although Teddy seems to cherish the keepsake, he tells Dolores’s apparition towards the end of the film that he always thought the tie was “f**** ugly” before setting it on fire. The tie symbolises Teddy’s attachment to Dolores. This keepsake is the thing which is keeping him tethered to his delusional world.
