Shutter Island - No Spoilers, Just Praise

chewbaccadoll

chewbaccadoll

Sr Member
I'm starting this thread for people who might be like me before I saw this flick...


Watched it tonight and thought it was brilliant.

I wasn't going to see it as the commercials painted it as a horror/thriller (at least it did for me), which I wasn't interested in... but since it was Marty, I thought I owed it a try, being a long time fan...

All I can say is that I was very pleased with this film... not his best of course, and I felt he sometimes lead the audience by the hand, but overall WELL WORTH WATCHING!


It reminds me of when Fight Club came out... from what I gathered the movie was about (another macho action fighting movie) I wanted nothing to do with it until a good friend told me to see it. He said "I know what you're thinking... just see it" and boy was he right!

So, I know everyone's tastes are different, but just in case there was someone like me out there on the fence about it, not sure, I say give it a shot.

Not usually a big Decaprio fan either, but he was pretty good!

Anyways, just my 2¢.
 
It arrived late this week via Blockbuster online. I'll be watching it this weekend. Glad to hear it's good. :thumbsup
 
Thought the movie was great as well. Very cerebral. Leo is good in just about everything he does. Due for an Oscar soon.
As an added bonus, I just discovered New Deal Studios. Phenomenal work from them. Thanks for the link....
 
Just saw it last night on PPV. Kinda slow and I would not want to see it again but I enjoyed it. Very predictable and I found the music very distracting at times, but did not feel cheated out of my money.
I think they really dropped the ball on the advertising. I really thought it was a horror/triller film and wanted to see in based on that. They took every scene that could send that message and used it in the trailers - easy to be disappointed when it is not the genre you expect.
 
KnightAsylum said:
I think they really dropped the ball on the advertising. I really thought it was a horror/triller film and wanted to see in based on that. They took every scene that could send that message and used it in the trailers - easy to be disappointed when it is not the genre you expect.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was talking about. The same reasons Scott wanted to see it were the same reasons I wasn't so interested... both based on the advertising.

Why would you call attention to misleading scenes/imagery and make the focus of the trailer appear to be something it's not?
 
I just watched based on the praise in this thread. I didn't hate it, but wasn't a fan. Looking purely at the cinematography - is this Scorcese's worst movie? The editing was horrrrrible. Scenes where someone is smoking/cut/not smoking anymore happened all throughout that movie, starting with the opening scene. It's so blatant I thought 'ok, is this some kind of dream sequence?' There are a few scenes where the white balance changes in scene. How can a Scorsese movie have that?

It was very predictable but i didn't mind that but man....I felt like Scorcese gave this film to an assistant and went on vacation. There's some real questionable film making in this one.

I liked the last scene.

EDIT: Another glaring error. The first time we are introduced to the lighthouse, Leo is looking way UP at it. Later in the film when we see the lighthouse it's pretty much right at sea level save for a few rocks. There is nowhere but underwater anyone could have looked up at the lighthouse at that angle.
 
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I started watching it on a plane and didnt get to see the last 20 or so minutes. I kinda get where it was headed (no spoilers), but still want to see it unfold.
 
Potential spoiler below!

letmebestormy said:
The editing was horrrrrible. Scenes where someone is smoking/cut/not smoking anymore happened all throughout that movie, starting with the opening scene. It's so blatant I thought 'ok, is this some kind of dream sequence?' There are a few scenes where the white balance changes in scene. How can a Scorsese movie have that?

EDIT: Another glaring error. The first time we are introduced to the lighthouse, Leo is looking way UP at it. Later in the film when we see the lighthouse it's pretty much right at sea level save for a few rocks. There is nowhere but underwater anyone could have looked up at the lighthouse at that angle.
Click to expand...

Some of that stuff seems to be intentional, perhaps showing the character's disconnect from reality. I'm pretty sure that when they were interrogating the woman who wrote "RUN" on his notes, we saw her raise her hand to take a sip of the water Dr. Sheehan brought and there was no glass, then it quickly cut to her putting down an empty glass.

I thought the movie was okay. I loved the tone and look of the first half, even the blatant stage shots (which allowed the original performances to remain intact, rather than relooping all of the dialogue - on the boat, for instance). I'd rather have no twist than a twist you can see coming the entire time (whether you know what the twist will be or not... We called this one early on though). Also, the scene of him coming home to his murdered children and killing his wife was too much. Our first son, who is five months old, was sleeping upstairs while we watched the movie and that scene literally ruined our night. It's enough to reveal that truth in the final confrontation. You don't need such a traumatic and drawn out depiction of it. Something more akin to the other flashes throughout the movie would have been enough for me.

DiCaprio was stellar as always. It seems a lot of people are hesitant to take him seriously - perhaps because of his starring in the highest-grossing "chick flick" of all time - but there's a reason why great directors keep going to him. This is what, his third go-round with Scorsese? He obviously views him as this generation's DeNiro or Pacino. He's very selective about his roles these days, and it's always evident how much he cares about his performances. I tend to put some stock in a film if he's in it now, and there are not many actors I can say that about.
 
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westies 14 said:
Also, the scene of him coming home to his murdered children and killing his wife was too much. Our first son, who is five months old, was sleeping upstairs while we watched the movie and that scene literally ruined our night. It's enough to reveal that truth in the final confrontation. You don't need such a traumatic and drawn out depiction of it. Something more akin to the other flashes throughout the movie would have been enough for me.
Click to expand...


I agree with this. Very graphic and disturbing and lingered way too long... although I wonder if that's just one of Marty's "stylings"... I can't help but remember the "shoot 'em up" scene at the end in Taxi Driver.

THAT was extremely violent and the scene seemed to linger longer than necessary, but then again, it did amplify what the whole story had been building up to.

I've thought about it and my theory is that Marty chose to show that scene in SI the way he did and for the length it played in order for it's true impact to hit you as if you were LD's character... this is what lead to LD's character to... well, you know if you saw it.

MS is clearly not afraid of offending an audience and even though it disturbed me, I think that is what the meaning behind it was.

I do agree though that it could have be executed more artfully and more surreal... but again, impact. This is real life for some people.


Either that or he's flaking out as a director. :lol

PS. Doug, this is supposed to be a NON spoiler thread!
 
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