Since 2002, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have collaborated on multiple feature films. These two iconic fixtures of modern American cinema first worked together on the dramatic films – Gangs of New York and The Aviator, followed by The Departed which garnered acclaim, including a long overdue Best Picture and Best Director Academy Award for Scorsese. These collaborations have proven to be successful both critically and financially, with all of DiCaprio’s features directed by Scorsese grossing over 100 million dollars. However, the one of these films that might feel the least typical for either Scorsese or DiCaprio remains an underrated fixture in both of their filmographies.
Shutter Island, based on a 2003 book written by Dennis Lehane, follows DiCaprio’s character, a U.S. Marshal named Teddy Daniels, investigating the disappearance of a patient at a secretive, isolated psychiatric facility. DiCaprio is joined by Mark Ruffalo as his partner, Chuck. The island-set facility is overseen by two doctors portrayed by legendary actors Ben Kingsley and the late Max von Sydow. DiCaprio’s role undergoes a grueling mental transformation over the course of the film, and the intensity of the performance is unmatched in quality.
‘Shutter Island’ Is More Than Your Typical Thriller
Shutter Island reveals itself to be something more than a simple detective story, as strange occurrences and coverups slowly morph the thriller from a movie about a missing person investigation into a paranoid psychological horror film. Although he is often most closely associated with his work within the crime genre thanks to gangster movie classics like Goodfellas and The Irishman, Scorsese has shown no signs that he is opposed to the horror genre, and has worked within it several times. In fact, one of the most financially successful films of Scorsese’s career was his remake of the classic horror film Cape Fear, which earned Robert De Niro an Academy Award nomination for taking on the role of a vicious serial killer who was portrayed by Robert Mitchum in the original 1962 film. Shutter Island is sometimes classified as a psychological thriller because it does not include the jump scares that are often associated with the genre, but the grotesque places that Cape Fear goes to couldn’t be seen as anything other than horror.
Many of Scorsese’s most underrated films are within the horror genre, including his 1999 film Bringing Out The Dead, which starred Nicolas Cage as a mentally disturbed ambulance driver that begins to have haunting visions. Although the film may have been different in tone than some of Scorsese’s other films, it retained the haunting depiction of New York City that was present in classics like Taxi Driver, After Hours, and The King of Comedy. The film also deals with Catholic guilt and repression, which are common topics in many Scorsese projects, including his religious epics The Last Temptation of Christ and Silence. While it was not as broadly well received at the time of its initial release, Bringing Out the Dead has subsequently earned praise for being one of Scorsese’s more underappreciated films, and one of the better performances that Cage has ever given. Perhaps it got overlooked due to its release in 1999, which is often cited as being one of the greatest years in cinematic history, due to the sheer number of all-time classics that were released within the twelve-month period.
Shutter Island is easily the most underrated project that Scorsese and DiCaprio made together, as it is the only film that they collaborated on that did not receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. This isn’t entirely surprising, as the film was released in February, and thus did not get the same robust campaign that most fall releases do; it also is a horror film, which is a genre that has notoriously struggled at the Oscars. Nonetheless, Shutter Island is still remembered as one of the most interesting projects of both of their careers, proving that horror was a genre that was worthy of taking seriously. Much of the initial attention that Shutter Island received was due to its twist, but knowing the ending certainly does not make it any weaker on subsequent viewings. In fact, the film’s thrilling deconstruction of mental health, paranoia, and toxic masculinity only becomes more prominent for viewers that have seen the film multiple times, and can see that Scorsese was hinting at the shocking twist from the very beginning.
What Makes Martin Scorsese’s ‘Shutter Island’ Feel Like a Horror Movie?
Martin Scorsese is known to be a masterful director with a keen eye for the right material to fill out scenes, sweeping camera movements, and attention to detail. This makes Shutter Island a uniquely discomforting movie as every element is designed around creating an off-kilter experience. From the opening shot of a ship slowly materializing through a sea of haze, with a blaring foghorn and the ocean waves filling the soundscape, Shutter Island is already building suspense. As U.S. Marshal Daniels makes his way onto the island, a chilling point-of-view shot depicts a patient on the island silently miming a shushing gesture. Her uncanny body language and pale eyes staring right down the camera – at the viewer as much as at Daniels – combine to make some of the creepiest imagery in any Scorsese film.
Scorsese and his masterful, decades-long collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker cut together the film with small, disorienting moments – most notably the invisible water glass during a scene between DiCaprio and Robin Bartlett – that add to the suspenseful, surreal quality of the story. Editing, cinematography, and stark use of sound design and classical music are all tools Scorsese and his crew utilize to craft a thrilling, brilliantly staged mystery thriller.
As Daniels’ investigation into the missing patient continues, he begins discovering that things are not what they seem at this facility. The trail of conspiracies leads him through interviews with Ben Kingsley’s Dr. John Cawley and many patients who seem like they are maybe being coached to respond in certain ways. Audiences definitely understand at this point that there may be some major reveals coming down the pike, as Daniels’ perspective slowly shifts, and it goes from a mystery film to something far more horrifying.
Why Is Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Shutter Island’ Performance So Strong?
The big reveal of Shutter Island is that Daniels is not investigating a missing patient. In fact, he is not Daniels at all, his name is Andrew Laeddis, and he is a former U.S. Marshal who has been a patient on the island since murdering his wife, Dolores, in a small but powerful turn from Michelle Williams, in a state of grief after she killed their three children. This shift occurs in a climactic moment where Laeddis confronts Dr. Cawley, and finds out the entire detective story has been an intense therapeutic exercise with the hopes of curing his mania and restoring his original personality while allowing him to overcome his grief. Even Chuck, his Marshal partner is revealed to have been a doctor on the island throughout the entire film, Laeddis’ own doctor who was personally invested in this exercise being successful in saving Laeddis from a lobotomy.
Shutter Island completely flips the story on its head with this new direction, and it requires Leonardo DiCaprio to essentially portray two distinctive characters. Daniels is a hard-boiled, no-nonsense investigator. He is professional and extremely dedicated to his work, to the point of desperation and exhaustion when he believes he is being manipulated by the doctors on the island. Laeddis, in contrast, is grief-stricken and mentally broken by his actions. Both have aggressive tendencies but behave in completely different ways. Leonardo DiCaprio has given great performances in many Martin Scorsese movies, but his shocking dual role in Shutter Island is an atypical dive into genre film acting that allows for a real showcase of his abilities. The mental transformation that occurs from the first moment to the ending is powerful, and the film’s themes of grief and reckoning with past transgressions rest entirely on the success of DiCaprio’s knockout acting ability.
‘Shutter Island’ Delivers One Last Gut-Punch in Its Final Minute
Laeddis accepts his identity and comes to terms with his past crime toward the end of the movie before the final sequence seems to reveal him having regressed back to his created personality. He sits on the steps and addresses his doctor as if they are both still in their roles as U.S. Marshals. Reluctantly going along with the role play, his doctor gives Dr. Cawley a look indicating the therapy was unsuccessful. Dr. Cawley, distraught and saddened by their inability to save Laeddis, must give up control and allow the lobotomy to commence.
This is already a tragic moment until Laeddis asks one more question of his doctor that indicates something more vital has occurred. He turns and asks whether it is worse “to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?” This question catches his doctor off guard, as Laeddis stands up and walks toward the men who are going to take him away to perform the life-altering and dangerous procedure. His doctor calls out, still assuming the role of his partner, but it is too late. This line, delivered masterfully with quiet pain and awareness, indicates Laeddis’ therapy was in fact successful. He knows who he is and what he did. DiCaprio lands the plane with this final, subtle twist that reveals an even darker ending, one where a man is so rattled by the guilt and horror of his actions that he would rather give himself over to these doctors than live with the pain he is facing.
Shutter Island is, in a way, a horror film, not in the sense that there are slasher villains, ghosts, or demons lurking around the frame, or jump scares provoking you to jolt in your seat. This is a horror film because it puts the audience through the most painful and disturbing identity crisis imaginable as Laeddis and the viewer at home must come to terms with the grave reality of his situation. Scorsese and DiCaprio did a hard pivot away from their typical collaborative works, crime epics, and prestige dramas, to deliver something as thrilling and disarming as the best the horror genre has to offer. Whatever Shutter Island lacks in traditional scares, these two artists in prime form make up for it with a powerful, sobering reflection on the horrors drawn from within our own minds.
Shutter Island is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Shutter Island
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
- Release Date
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February 19, 2010
- Runtime
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138 minutes
- Main Genre
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Drama
