Enter the mind of Martin Scorsese, mind your head.
Scorsese’s first entry this decade, in a career spanning 5 of them is brimming with trauma. His strongest films have some of the most traumatised, and traumatising characters ever to Grace our screen from Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, Cape Fear’s Max Cady and Jesus Christ himself in The Last Temptation of Christ. His passion for older films inspired by America’s most traumatic events such as The Cold War and The Vietnam War, brimming with paranoia, violence and melodrama shines through in his latest work, Shutter Island.
A thick white fog, ominous horns dominating the soundtrack and nauseating camera angles are used to introduce the film, immediately bringing forth an atmosphere of foreboding dread. Breaking through the fog comes a ship heading towards Shutter Island, a high security asylum for the criminally insane. It carries two detectives, Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule; their assignment is to investigate the disappearance of a prisoner who seemingly slipped out of her cell which was locked from the outside. Once they arrive, all is not what it seems, the staff seem reluctant to help and Daniels his haunted by the ghosts of his past. He quickly realises he is unable to leave the Island, and beings a quest to uncover the truth about the real goings on, leading him into a world of cold war paranoia and insanity.
To reveal much more is to spoil the fun of the film. It is one long build up to a climatic ‘grand reveal’ and its trick is intricately set up with magician like skills by Scorsese. The twist is fairly obvious within 30 minutes; if you watch the trailer close enough you’ll be able to work it out, but that didn’t stop me questioning and doubting my thoughts throughout its’ long running time.
Scorsese’s films have been compared to as works of art; he blends the mainstream and the art-house brilliantly here, whilst mixing several different genres creating an unnerving and gripping experience. DiCaprio, his current muse, is strong as usual playing a hardboiled detective with a demeanour straight out of 1950’s film noir. He is no simple Humphrey Bogart imitator though, as the plot thickens his haunted past beings to meld with his present and he becomes a vulnerable and shaken character.
His past traumas, a murdered wife and his memories of a WW2 death camp are revealed in flashbacks. Delving into his psyche is moving and captivating, beautifully shot and insightfully revealing. Scenes with his wife played by Michel Williams provide the film with tenderness and contribute towards the story arc well. The scenes dealing with the genocide of the Jews are disturbing (as anything dealing with the Holocaust should be), well filmed, but ultimately unnecessary. Teddy has enough material to traumatise him, and the audience enough plot strands to deal with.
Ben Kingsley plays the asylums lead doctor, and is a joy to watch and work out as he balances on the line of caring doctor, and evil mastermind. Teddy begins to fear that the island may be using its patients for psychotropic experimentation and Kingsley along with the other staff never appears completely trustworthy. They are no less unnerving than the patients, but the real star of the show is the sets. Rundown buildings, jagged cliff edges, crashing waves, and woods complete with grave yards create a great playground for the mystery to take place.
Adding to the psychological thriller of a plot, and the film noir characters is a heavy layer of gothic horror. Several sequences are expertly crafted and nail bitingly suspenseful. Once the Island is stuck by a hurricane, the film takes on the form of a 1930s horror, and is the most successful attempt at the gothic genre in a recent series of failed efforts (see Wolfman Review). One particular set piece sees Teddy and Aule enter ‘Ward C’ the area for the most dangerous criminals, they are warned that due to a power outage some of them are still roaming free. This line alone is enough to send audiences into a frenzy of nervous tension, and Scorsese plays on this using fantastic sound effects. Whispers, metal clanks and heavy breathing occur whilst Teddy uses matches to light the narrow corridors around him.
As homage to melodramatic films of the past, and as an exploration of trauma and paranoia Shutter Island succeeds. Its’ style may be off putting to some simply because at times it is so extravagant. Loud discordant classical music, along with consistent heavy thunder, and frequent bizarre dream sequences may seem plain silly to cynics. However this is an exploration of the mind, a disturbed one at that, and no other director could have done it so much justice.
Verdict
Overblown, overlong, yet fantastic and gripping; it’s a horror/thriller/melodrama/film noir all rolled into one, and only Scorsese could pull it off with such clarity and meticulousness. Its ending may not come as a great shock, but you’ll have a great time getting there.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment