Shutter Island (2010)

Director: Martin Scorsese                                  Writer: Laeta Kalogridis
Film Score: Robbie Robertson                           Cinematography: Robert Richardson
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson

On its own, Shutter Island may not be a great piece of cinema, but as a remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, it’s brilliant. I have to begin by saying that I’ve never really liked Leonardo DiCaprio, but apparently Martin Scorsese sees something in him that I don’t. That said, as he has matured I’ve been able to allow him not to get in the way of the story. That transformation, for me, probably came about in Revolutionary Road, as that felt like the first film where he was able to shed his more juvenile image.

Okay, first things first. Author Dennis Lehane claims never to have seen Caligari, and in doing so has actually become one of the delusional characters in his novel. The fact is, there is so much in the film that comes straight out of Caligari that it’s closer to the original than the 1962 remake with Glynis Johns. The plot, of course, is exactly the same, but there are also subtle homages to the original that are incredibly ingenious. Produced immediately after World War I, the original Caligari was a reaction to the carnage and a response to the jingoism that led so many young men to slaughter on the battlefield. In Shutter Island, it is the aftermath of World War II, with Nazis and Communists playing the roles of the enemies.

In both films the main character is convinced that an evil doctor of an insane asylum is using his patients for experiments in mind control. In Caligari the titular doctor is responsible for hypnotizing the somnambulist Caesar into killing for him. The doctor, of course, represents the German authorities who brainwashed the nation in to fighting a devastating war that killed millions of young men. In Shutter Island it is the communists, but with a twist. It is the House Un-American Activities Committee who is apparently controlling the asylum and operating on patients to turn them into killing machines for the government. It’s a beautiful symmetry.

All the way around it’s a wonderful film. The production, while relying a bit much on CGI, still has an appropriately eerie atmosphere. The cast is also great. Max von Sydow, who has reemerged lately in films like The Wolfman and Robin Hood, has a small but vital role as the former Nazi doctor. Ben Kingsley is as solid as ever as the head doctor of the asylum. Also onboard are Mark Ruffalo, Ted Levine, and the wonderful Patricia Clarkson in supporting roles. But there’s no doubting it’s DiCaprio’s film and he does a terrific job of gradually becoming consumed by his search for a missing patient and increasingly paranoid as his quest uncovers the dark secrets residing in his own mind. Again, Shutter Island may not be the greatest film in it’s own right, but it is an ingenious and rewarding remake of the 1919 silent German classic.