Shutter Island Analysis

Shutter Island is a psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio starring as Detective Teddy Daniels, Mark Ruffalo as Detective Chuck Aule, and Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Crawly. The film is considered a Neo-Noir story and blends several detective/mystery elements.

Shutter Island is set in the 1950’s on an island of the same name that is the location of the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. The first shot we see of the island shows it from afar while the boat carrying the two detectives approaches. On all sides the island seems to be surrounded by cliffs, it’s obvious that is not a place anyone would ever want to go to. Once the two detectives are off the boat, they’re taken to the hospital itself which looks pretty much like what someone would expect a mental hospital to look like. While the majority of the hospital has that stereotypical 19th-20th century hospital ‘look’ to them, the mansion that houses the doctors is much different, and appears to be a palace on the inside. The grounds of the hospital are well maintained with gardens throughout. There is essentially a mixture of darkness in the movie with the storm that blows in, and then brightness with a lot of color.

The plot of Shutter Island seems straight forward in the beginning of the movie. The two detectives searching for missing patient Rachel Solando. The story takes a big turn though, making the viewer believe there is much more at work than just a patient disappearing. Detective Daniels turns his focus from the patient to the search for a mysterious Patient 27, whom everyone says does not exist. About halfway and near the end of the film, Detective Daniels is convinced the hospital runs experiments on the patie...

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...ive Daniels overlooking the garden. The special effects played into the film’s story perfectly, in Detective Daniel’s dreams there was much more saturation compared to the real world in the movie and effects such as falling ash in his apartment, flying papers in the concentration camp, and his wife always appearing soaked with a bloody torso.

Shutter Island is a very complex film that takes more than one viewing to completely figure out. There is so much foreshadowing and clues in the film that point to the conclusion that are very hard to pick up when watching for the first time. The conclusion of the story, while straightforward to many viewers does leave many baffled as to whether Detective Daniels really was Andrew Laeddis or if he was really onto something and what was going to happen next once the story ended, and I think that’s what Martin Scorsese wanted.