OK so I saw the other threads for this movie, but one was mainly just hype from before it came out or opinions on it, and the other mainly focused on the twist ending. I mean this thread to be basically an FAQ on the movie's events.
I'd like to know what exactly occurred in reality in the movie?
I've heard conspiracy theories of all sorts, saying nothing happened; Teddy just dreamed it all, or Teddy was right, they really were performing experiments, the hospital really did perform lobotomies in the Lighthouse, and about a million other ones.
Here's what I do know, what I think I know, and what I don't know but would like to know.
Fact: Leonardo DiCaprio's Teddy Daniels shot his wife in the Spring of 1952 when he discovered she drowned their 3 children. As a result, he's been housed in Ashcliffe, in Ward C with their most dangerous criminally insane offenders. I think in that second to last scene where Teddy confesses his murder and admits his identity in front of Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, and Ted Levine, we are meant to interpret that as fact.
Fact: Teddy Daniels is definitely not a marshal, at least not any more. If he were, he would have the authority to get any information he wants. Yet Kingsley's Dr. Cawley and Sydow's Dr. Naehring don't allow him access to patient's files or the staff's information. He should be allowed in doctor meetings, yet when he interrupts one, Naehring gets pissed off and asks why is he here? Also, the gun that he is so sure is his is a toy.
Fact: Dr. Cawley really did orchestrate an elaborate, island-wide role-play to get Teddy to realize he is Andrew Laeddis. Throughout the film, characters look to Cawley for guidance on how they should respond to Teddy's questions and actions. Also, Levine's Warden openly says, 'they think they can fix you, but I know you're true nature is violence and you won't change.' Or something like that. Later, when Teddy meets George Noyce, Noyce clearly says, 'this whole thing's a charade set up specifically for you'.
Theory: Teddy was drugged or fell asleep and was brought to the ferry in the opening scene to be awakened in his fantasy, and thus set the role-play in motion. There's a shot of some unlocked handcuffs hanging in the boat, so I assume Teddy was chained and drugged, then his cuffs were removed before he woke up.
Fact: Rachel Solando did not exist. She was a character played by the nurse (Emily Mortimer); we know she's the nurse acting and not a patient because we see her attending to Teddy in that second to last scene when he admits his identity, and she's wearing a nurse's uniform. She acts so weird in her cell when Teddy interrogates her because Cawley coached her to act like his wife to jog his memory. Teddy's visibly shaken after he hugs her and immediately gets migraines because his brain is rejecting reality. Also, when the guards are supposed to be looking for the escaped Rachel Solando, they're just skipping rocks or sitting around chatting-(because they know she doesn't exist.)
Fact: The guards, orderlies, and nurses were in on the charade. When Teddy first arrives on the island, the guards clench their guns tighter and stare at him nervously. The deputy says they're all "on edge." Later, when Teddy's investigating the nurses and orderlies, the head nurse takes his questions as a joke, and everyone responds to the things he says with laughter.
Theory: At least two of Ashcliffe's real patients were in the role-playing. The 'normal' woman who axed her husband and the young man with sexual inadequacy issues. They both seem legitimately crazy, even when not in front of Teddy, so they're not just acting crazy. When the woman asks Chuck for a glass of water and scribbles 'RUN' in his notepad, I think she was breaching the charade and telling Teddy is what his best opportunity to escape. When asked if she knew Laeddis, she said no very uncomfortably. A sane person wouldn't have had trouble just saying no, but she felt weird saying she didn't know the man she was talking to because she's crazy. More were probably in on it as well, since they smiled at him so eerily when he first arrived. One crazy lady even says 'ssshhh' as if she's saying don't give away the secret. Of course, she's crazy and is actually gesturing at the person the secret is supposed to be kept from.
Fact: There was no one hiding in the caves on the side of Shutter Island. It's definitely not Rachel Solando, since we know she doesn't exist, and it isn't anyone else either. Patricia Clarkson's character says essentially everything Teddy wants to hear. I think it's just Teddy rationalizing things to himself, or reassuring himself he's not crazy.
Fact: Cawley was not drugging Teddy with the pills and cigarettes. He gave him painkillers when he got migraines and regular cigarettes because his got wet in the rain. We know Teddy used to be on a cocktail of drugs, and went off them for the role-play. He was feeling acute effects of withdrawal, not the effects of psychotropic drugs.
Things I Don't Know: Were lobotomies performed in the lighthouse or not? The movie strongly suggests no throughout, but in the end when we clearly see the lobotomy tools and Teddy's walking off for the operation, the camera slowly pans up to the lighthouse, as if that's where they're going. Noyce also seems pretty convinced they perform lobotomies in Ashcliffe, and he seemed to be right about everything else; but he is a paranoid schizophrenic. It's also just the final shot of the film and since the lighthouse was such a significant symbol throughout the movie, it would be a haunting ending. IDK.
A weird thing happened in the axe lady's interrogation scene: When she drinks the glass of water she requests, we see her bring her hand to her mouth without the glass. The next shot is a rapid cup to her placing the empty cup down on the table with her other hand. What happened to the water? Did she drink it? Was there any?
Did the hurricane really hit? Was there a storm? We see Teddy and Chuck walk through a storm in many scenes, so I would assume there was a storm. We also see severe hurricane damage and overhear the doctors wondering what they would do in case of a flood or if the gates mechanically unlock with a power failure. They are talking about this before Teddy enters the room, so I assume this conversation is real. But in the lighthouse scene in the end, Cawley says something like, 'we've heard it a million times-the rule of 4, Andrew Laeddis killed my wife, 'the storm...' suggesting these things were all part of Teddy's fantasy. So was that part of his fantasy as well? Or was it part of his fantasy, but it also really did storm that day? Also, weren't the grounds perfectly clean in the final scene. In previous scenes there were tree limbs all over, broken stones, and random hurricane disaster.
There's also a LOT more, but I can't think of all of them. I'm really having trouble piecing together the story cohesively. Some things seem to make sense in one scene, then contradict itself in another.
Has anyone seen the movie enough to offer some good interpretations?
I'd like to know what exactly occurred in reality in the movie?
I've heard conspiracy theories of all sorts, saying nothing happened; Teddy just dreamed it all, or Teddy was right, they really were performing experiments, the hospital really did perform lobotomies in the Lighthouse, and about a million other ones.
Here's what I do know, what I think I know, and what I don't know but would like to know.
Fact: Leonardo DiCaprio's Teddy Daniels shot his wife in the Spring of 1952 when he discovered she drowned their 3 children. As a result, he's been housed in Ashcliffe, in Ward C with their most dangerous criminally insane offenders. I think in that second to last scene where Teddy confesses his murder and admits his identity in front of Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, and Ted Levine, we are meant to interpret that as fact.
Fact: Teddy Daniels is definitely not a marshal, at least not any more. If he were, he would have the authority to get any information he wants. Yet Kingsley's Dr. Cawley and Sydow's Dr. Naehring don't allow him access to patient's files or the staff's information. He should be allowed in doctor meetings, yet when he interrupts one, Naehring gets pissed off and asks why is he here? Also, the gun that he is so sure is his is a toy.
Fact: Dr. Cawley really did orchestrate an elaborate, island-wide role-play to get Teddy to realize he is Andrew Laeddis. Throughout the film, characters look to Cawley for guidance on how they should respond to Teddy's questions and actions. Also, Levine's Warden openly says, 'they think they can fix you, but I know you're true nature is violence and you won't change.' Or something like that. Later, when Teddy meets George Noyce, Noyce clearly says, 'this whole thing's a charade set up specifically for you'.
Theory: Teddy was drugged or fell asleep and was brought to the ferry in the opening scene to be awakened in his fantasy, and thus set the role-play in motion. There's a shot of some unlocked handcuffs hanging in the boat, so I assume Teddy was chained and drugged, then his cuffs were removed before he woke up.
Fact: Rachel Solando did not exist. She was a character played by the nurse (Emily Mortimer); we know she's the nurse acting and not a patient because we see her attending to Teddy in that second to last scene when he admits his identity, and she's wearing a nurse's uniform. She acts so weird in her cell when Teddy interrogates her because Cawley coached her to act like his wife to jog his memory. Teddy's visibly shaken after he hugs her and immediately gets migraines because his brain is rejecting reality. Also, when the guards are supposed to be looking for the escaped Rachel Solando, they're just skipping rocks or sitting around chatting-(because they know she doesn't exist.)
Fact: The guards, orderlies, and nurses were in on the charade. When Teddy first arrives on the island, the guards clench their guns tighter and stare at him nervously. The deputy says they're all "on edge." Later, when Teddy's investigating the nurses and orderlies, the head nurse takes his questions as a joke, and everyone responds to the things he says with laughter.
Theory: At least two of Ashcliffe's real patients were in the role-playing. The 'normal' woman who axed her husband and the young man with sexual inadequacy issues. They both seem legitimately crazy, even when not in front of Teddy, so they're not just acting crazy. When the woman asks Chuck for a glass of water and scribbles 'RUN' in his notepad, I think she was breaching the charade and telling Teddy is what his best opportunity to escape. When asked if she knew Laeddis, she said no very uncomfortably. A sane person wouldn't have had trouble just saying no, but she felt weird saying she didn't know the man she was talking to because she's crazy. More were probably in on it as well, since they smiled at him so eerily when he first arrived. One crazy lady even says 'ssshhh' as if she's saying don't give away the secret. Of course, she's crazy and is actually gesturing at the person the secret is supposed to be kept from.
Fact: There was no one hiding in the caves on the side of Shutter Island. It's definitely not Rachel Solando, since we know she doesn't exist, and it isn't anyone else either. Patricia Clarkson's character says essentially everything Teddy wants to hear. I think it's just Teddy rationalizing things to himself, or reassuring himself he's not crazy.
Fact: Cawley was not drugging Teddy with the pills and cigarettes. He gave him painkillers when he got migraines and regular cigarettes because his got wet in the rain. We know Teddy used to be on a cocktail of drugs, and went off them for the role-play. He was feeling acute effects of withdrawal, not the effects of psychotropic drugs.
Things I Don't Know: Were lobotomies performed in the lighthouse or not? The movie strongly suggests no throughout, but in the end when we clearly see the lobotomy tools and Teddy's walking off for the operation, the camera slowly pans up to the lighthouse, as if that's where they're going. Noyce also seems pretty convinced they perform lobotomies in Ashcliffe, and he seemed to be right about everything else; but he is a paranoid schizophrenic. It's also just the final shot of the film and since the lighthouse was such a significant symbol throughout the movie, it would be a haunting ending. IDK.
A weird thing happened in the axe lady's interrogation scene: When she drinks the glass of water she requests, we see her bring her hand to her mouth without the glass. The next shot is a rapid cup to her placing the empty cup down on the table with her other hand. What happened to the water? Did she drink it? Was there any?
Did the hurricane really hit? Was there a storm? We see Teddy and Chuck walk through a storm in many scenes, so I would assume there was a storm. We also see severe hurricane damage and overhear the doctors wondering what they would do in case of a flood or if the gates mechanically unlock with a power failure. They are talking about this before Teddy enters the room, so I assume this conversation is real. But in the lighthouse scene in the end, Cawley says something like, 'we've heard it a million times-the rule of 4, Andrew Laeddis killed my wife, 'the storm...' suggesting these things were all part of Teddy's fantasy. So was that part of his fantasy as well? Or was it part of his fantasy, but it also really did storm that day? Also, weren't the grounds perfectly clean in the final scene. In previous scenes there were tree limbs all over, broken stones, and random hurricane disaster.
There's also a LOT more, but I can't think of all of them. I'm really having trouble piecing together the story cohesively. Some things seem to make sense in one scene, then contradict itself in another.
Has anyone seen the movie enough to offer some good interpretations?
__________________
"I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema" -Francois Truffaut
"I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema" -Francois Truffaut
Last edited by Cries&Whispers; 07-02-10 at 06:00 AM.