Martin Scorsese wasn't kidding when he said that his neo-noir psychological thriller Shutter
Island would be twice as profitable because moviegoers would have to see it again just
to understand the ending.
Even a second viewing of the pic can still leave audiences confused about what was actually
happening to Leonardo DiCaprio's character, though.
So, let's walk through what went down on that stormy island and see if we can make sense
of this enigmatic movie experience.
And of course, there are spoilers ahead.
Finding the truth
There's still some disagreement over whether the central character is actually named Edward
Daniels, as he thinks, or if the doctors are right, and his real name is Andrew Laeddis.
But let's just call him Teddy, to keep it simple.
After Teddy arrives to the island with his new partner Chuck, who eventually claims to
be his treating physician, Dr. Sheehan, he's slowly reintroduced to his supposed reality.
Teddy is told that he shot his wife after she lost her mind and drowned their three
children in his lake house.
Taken at face value, it might seem like Teddy has simply been repressing that memory on
a loop.
Instead of shouldering the blame for his wife's mental deterioration and neglect, he's convinced
himself that he's a U.S. Marshal investigating a patient's disappearance on the island and,
by extension, tracking down the man who burned his apartment with his wife inside.
That might be all well and good for other people because there are a lot of patients
that are left to linger in their own little worlds.
But during his delusions, Teddy tends to exhibit dangerous behavior and has been scheduled
for a lobotomy as a result.
Dr. Cawley desperately wants to avoid such a fate by letting him live out this policing
fantasy one last time, on a grander scale, in hopes of making a mental breakthrough that'll
stick for good.
Knowing this makes certain earlier moments make more sense -- like the fact that Chuck
struggles to hand over his sidearm to the guards and the moment when another patient
loses her cool over the mention of his supposed real name.
The doctors seem to be unsuccessful in the end, as Teddy appears to relapse once again.
But there's reason to believe it may have actually worked this time because he tells
Chuck:
"Which would be worse: to live as a monster or to die as a good man?"
Sheehan himself seems to recognize this as a moment of veiled lucidity.
But has he fully embraced the reality they've given him, or is there an even darker truth
that everyone's been trying to hide?
Another reality
Even if Teddy has come to terms with his crime, it's still possible that he actually did something
worse than what he's been told.
The warden, who visibly hates him and doesn't seem as on-board with the experiment effort
as others, makes mention of the fact that Teddy's committed terrible atrocities in his
time.
But even the memory Teddy's said to be suppressing isn't that condemning.
If his wife really did drown his children and had become so far gone that she wanted
to place their lifeless bodies at the dinner table, then his reaction is relatively sympathetic.
So, some theorists believe that story may have also been a fabrication.
Considering his wife is shown turning to embers earlier on in his dreams, the movie seems
to suggest that she actually did perish in the fire that burned down his apartment, as
he'd previously believed.
And since he was convinced it was a man named Andrew Laeddis who lit the match, he may have
also been correct on that front, too -- even if he just didn't realize he was after himself
the whole time.
That would certainly explain all the symbolism of his use of matches in the jail cells and
his pyro treatment of Cawley's car.
And it would also suggest that perhaps those three children whose photos were thrust in
his face to convince him of the story were never actually his.
After all, he did see the same girl in the wreckage during his flashbacks to the war.
And he never sees the children floating in his lake until he's shown those images.
Which means ...
Choosing an out
If Teddy did cause his wife's demise by fire, he may have done so in a moment of post-traumatic
stress stemming from his service in World War II.
"I killed a lot of people in the war."
As he says throughout the movie, he has been overwhelmed by the depravity he witnessed
while storming the concentration camp and taking out the guards, even though they were
surrendering to his troops.
Because of his extreme guilt and inability to accept the crimes he has committed, Teddy
may have chosen to manufacture a false reality in which he is a U.S. Marshal on the hunt
for his wife's attacker.
Meanwhile, his doctors may still have conjured up the story about his wife's criminality
in order to make him feel better about what he'd actually done in hopes of him living
out his days on the island in relative peace.
After all, Teddy's probably not alone in his PTSD from the war, and maybe he's just patient
zero in trying to find a humane way to handle soldiers who do terrible things as a result
of their mentally taxing experiences overseas.
"If we fail with you, then everything we've tried to do here will be discredited.
Everything."
In the film's much-debated final scene, that elaborate brainwashing project appears to
have failed, with Teddy outwardly assuming the role of U.S. Marshal once again.
And because the doctors are unable to bring Teddy "back to reality," they have no choice
but to lobotomize him.
However, what we really see transpire is Teddy choosing to be lobotomized.
The doctors' aggressive role play may have actually worked—just not in the way they
hoped.
Perhaps the reason Teddy seems to accept the controversial surgical intervention is that
Teddy does, in fact, remember that he burnt down his apartment building and with his wife
inside.
He may also know that, even if the alternative scenario is true, he still attacked his wife
at the lake house and lost his three young children.
Either way, the pain is too great to bear.
Considering he's been confronted with two possible truths about his past violence, and
can live with neither of them, his choice to embrace the unknown seems pretty understandable.
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