Shutter Island (spoilers probably... if a discussion gets going)

I saw the new Scorsese movie, Shutter Island last night. Fuckin loved it all in all. Not a near perfect movie but it offers droves for those inclined toward inward examinations of the macabre.. Or something like that, I reckon.. I'm curious to see if some discussion could be kicked off here - its been a while.

Here is very Edifying review of Shutter Island: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/movies/reviews/2010/shutterisland.html

The reviewer suggests considering these questions to get a discussion going

1. Who, if anyone, comes out of this film with integrity and morality intact? Can we discern the heroes from the villains?
2. What do you think Scorsese is trying to observe about good and evil in Shutter Island?
3. What do you make of the last line of the film?

I think the first question is a great one. I'd love to get into it... anyone else? I know the movies come out recently so the handful you chaps round these parts might not see it for a while. But drop a line here if you do, if you like. I might write something up anyway (one day) but I could tear in to this one with company.

"God loves violence" "There is no moral order at all. There's only, can my violence conquer yours?"

hmmmm

personally i dont think god loves violence, thats just my opinion, curious to see what other chaps think

I hear there's fantastic wig design in this film, can anyone confirm/deny?

Oh fiddle sticks...

http://i39.tinypic.com/21eqcud.jpg

SamG,
First of al, I'm currently working at SamG, a CG animation studio in Korea. Coincidence?

I saw Shutter Island recently, and I have to say, none of the questions you raise were evoked by my viewing. They seem academic.
What I got from the film was the tragic need to resign oneself to the inexorable truth of objective reality.
Ironic, that review from Christianity Today.

I've always thought of Scorsese's films as studies in solipsism.
All the main characters in his best films are guys who seem to be either bent on making the world conform to their limited world view, or oblivious to any opposing points of view.
In Taxi Driver, Raging Bull,The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, the guys succeed to some degree in bending the world around them, even if they never reach any self-awareness. Or even contact with objective reality.
The theme of the individual trapped in a world of his own making ties together even stories as diverse as The Aviator and The Departed.
In those latter two, along with Shutter Island, the character does become aware of the cage of his own mind, but is ultimately unable to be freed from its confines.

Hey Peter. Yeah funny coincidence. Its funny to see your posts here now actually - I have recently just for the first time in ages watched an Aeon Flux episode (Utopia or Deuteranopia). I showed it to my cousin who is the only other artist (including myself) in the family.

SPOILERS HERE ON

"What I got from the film was the tragic need to resign oneself to the inexorable truth of objective reality."

The lead resigns himself to the inexorable truth of objective reality but then through his ethos he escapes it. He says "Which would be worse? To live as a monster or die as a good man" He chooses the later option cause he's a moral guy. But is he being brave and good, or continuing to avoid living with his objective reality?

For me the soundtracks final notes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKsgUa5m1yk - and maybe that closing shot of the light house) served to hint at something ominous or sinister about the leads final decision. It's not music typical of the good hero tragically dying for his values, it made me think about scary notions of people avoiding reality to the point of madness and death.

Peter, I hadn't thought of the connections to Scorsese's other films like that.

"Since childhood, I've always had the strong feeling that the world we live in makes no sense. In my case, it's the one essential idea that drives creativity."

What you've said here from the Brian Eno thread (he worked on the Shutter Island soundtrack) I find it interesting to relate to Scorsese's theme of the individual trapped in a world of his own making. The role of a persons creativity in the worlds they live in is quite a topic.

Shutter Island and many other Scorsese films depict much violence being involved in people creating worlds for themselves. For me Shutter Island gets at something very strong about how avoiding objective reality (maybe through some sort of primal intolerance) can result in violently creating (physically and psychologically) of ones personal reality.

"God loves violence. There is no moral order at all. There's only, can my violence conquer yours?"

Not that this is relevant to Shutter Island but I watched Lolita last night and saw it was a Stanley Kubrick film. I remember Peter saying this one one of his fav directors.

I guess he was a hell of a director. Lolita, , in the book the girl was 11 years old. Subject matter still pretty taboo, and of course no one condones an affair with a captured 11 year old, no one approved by society anyway. The movie makes her out to be more of a very adult 16 or 17 year old and Humbolt a weak adult who falls deeply in love with this girl. Sue Lyons was beautiful. The story is so personal and tragic, I really think the movie is a masterpiece.

Hi Barb. Nice to see you here. I haven't seen Lolita myself. I'll have to get round to it :)

we ah doolee appointed feduhral mahshulls

such a fun rewatch.just caught it again on big screen

kingsley is miles off in it tho

Maybe wouldn't say I hate it but it's as close to objectively terrible as it's possible to get

i just dont see how it can be judged seriously enough for hate, i dont think it can bear that heavy a burden

but for fun, sheer nuts fun, ah its brilliant

needed lynch, got scorsese, probably deserved nolan

Yeah like I say I couldn't really hate it but it feels like a Nolan thing, thought the silliness was plodding a lot of the time

its really only sirben p much everyone else sells it i think