Shutter Island (film)

Shutter Island is a 2010 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay was adapted by Laeta Kalogridis from the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It follows Deputy U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his partner Chuck, who come to the fictional Shutter Island in Boston Harbor to investigate its criminal psychiatric facility after one of its patients goes missing; Daniels has his own ulterior motives for taking the case. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, with Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow and Michelle Williams in supporting roles.

Development began when Phoenix Pictures acquired the film rights to the novel directly from Lehane after Columbia Pictures had allowed their rights to lapse in 2003. Phoenix hired Laeta Kalogridis to work on a screenplay for a year, and in 2007 announced that Scorsese and DiCaprio had both joined the project. Production began on March 6, 2008 at various locations in Massachusetts; filming ended on July 2, 2008.

Partnering with Paramount Pictures, the film had its wide release on February 19, 2010, and received generally positive reviews from critics. It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2010, and grossed $295 million worldwide. The film is also noted for its soundtrack, which prominently used classical music, such as that of Gustav Mahler, Krzysztof Penderecki, György Ligeti, John Cage, Ingram Marshall, and Max Richter. In 2025, the film was voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 169.

Plot

In 1954, U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, travel to Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island in Boston Harbor. The purpose of their visit is to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, a patient of the hospital who had drowned her three children.

The staff, led by psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley and his colleague Dr. Jerimiah Naehring, appears uncooperative. The marshals learn that Dr. Lester Sheehan, who was treating Solando, left the island on vacation immediately after Solando disappeared. Teddy experiences migraines, flashbacks of his time as a U.S. soldier in the liberation of Dachau, and vivid dreams of his wife, Dolores, who was killed in a fire in their building set by pyromaniac Andrew Laeddis. Teddy tells Chuck that he took this case to find Laeddis, who he believes is a patient. Solando suddenly resurfaces but believes Teddy is her husband. Later, Teddy breaks into the restricted Ward C to find Laeddis, but meets patient George Noyce, who knows Teddy from his past. Noyce says that the doctors experiment on patients and lobotomize them in the lighthouse. He warns Teddy that everyone will deceive him and not to trust his partner, Chuck.

Teddy and Chuck climb the cliffs toward the lighthouse, but are separated. Believing he saw Chuck's body on the rocks below, Teddy climbs down but finds only a cave where a woman claiming to be the real Rachel Solando is hiding. She reveals that she is a former psychiatrist; after discovering clandestine experiments on mind control at the facility, she was silenced by being forcibly committed. She warns that Cawley and Naehring will use Teddy's war trauma to feign a psychotic break, allowing them to have him committed as well. Teddy returns to the hospital. When he asks about Chuck, Cawley insists that Teddy arrived at Shutter Island alone.

Convinced Chuck has been taken to the lighthouse, Teddy is intercepted by Naehring, who attempts to sedate him. Teddy overpowers him and breaks into the lighthouse to discover Cawley waiting for him. Cawley tells him that Rachel Solando never existed. He adds that Teddy has not been drugged, but is experiencing withdrawal from chlorpromazine, a neuroleptic medication Teddy has been taking for the past two years. Chuck arrives and reveals that he is actually Dr. Sheehan. "Teddy" is really Andrew Laeddis, a former U.S. Marshal. Laeddis was incarcerated at Ashecliffe for killing his manic depressive wife, Dolores Chanal, after she drowned their three children. Andrew had failed to seek treatment for Dolores after she burned down their apartment; instead, he moved his family to a lakehouse, which is where Dolores carried out the killings. As a result of his guilt, Andrew became delusional and created the alternate persona of Edward Daniels. The "investigation" of Rachel Solando was an elaborate roleplay, supported by hospital staff, to help Andrew play out his delusion so that he might break out of it and come back to reality. Overwhelmed, Andrew faints.

Awakening later, Andrew recounts the truth, satisfying the doctors that he is lucid. Cawley notes that they had achieved this state nine months ago, but that Andrew had quickly regressed. He warns that this will be Andrew's last chance; if he lapses into his delusion again, he will be lobotomized due to his violent conduct towards the guards and other patients, such as Noyce. Some time later, Andrew relaxes on the hospital grounds with Sheehan. Appearing delusional, he refers to Sheehan as "Chuck" and says that they must leave the island. Sheehan signals to a watching Cawley, who orders that Andrew be lobotomized. Andrew asks Sheehan if it would be worse "to live as a monster, or to die as a good man". A stunned Sheehan calls Andrew "Teddy", but the latter does not respond and leaves peacefully with the orderlies for his operation.

Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a former U.S. Marshal who investigates the Shutter Island insane asylum
• Mark Ruffalo as Chuck Aule, Teddy's Marshal partner
• Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Cawley, a senior psychiatrist at Shutter Island
• Max von Sydow as Dr. Naehring, a colleague of Cawley
• Michelle Williams as Dolores Chanal, Teddy's wife
• Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson as Rachel Solando
• Jackie Earle Haley as George Noyce, a patient in Ward C
• Ted Levine as Warden
• John Carroll Lynch as Deputy Warden McPherson
• Joseph Sikora as Glen Miga
• Elias Koteas as Laeddis
• Robin Bartlett as Bridget Kearns
• Christopher Denham as Peter Breene
• Curtiss Cook as Trey Washington

Production

Development

The rights to Dennis Lehane's novel Shutter Island were first optioned to Columbia Pictures in 2003. Columbia did not act on the option, and it lapsed back to Lehane, who sold it to Phoenix Pictures. Phoenix hired Laeta Kalogridis, and together they developed the film for a year. Director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio were both attracted to the project. Production began on March 6, 2008.

Lehane's inspiration for the hospital and island setting was Long Island in Boston Harbor, which he had visited during the blizzard of 1978 as a child with his uncle and family.

Filming

Shutter Island was mainly filmed in Massachusetts, with Taunton being the location for the World War II flashback scenes. Old industrial buildings in Taunton's Whittenton Mills Complex replicated the Dachau concentration camp. The old Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts, was another key location. Cawley's office scenes were the second floor of the chapel during the late evening. Lights were shone through the windows to make it look like it was daytime. The crew painted the hospital's brick walls to look like plywood. This served the dual purpose of acting as scenery and blocking the set from view of a local road. The crew wanted to film at the old Worcester State Hospital, but demolition of surrounding buildings made it impossible. The stone lodge, next to Leach Pond, at Borderland State Park in Easton, Massachusetts, was used for the cabin scene. The film used Peddocks Island as a setting for the story's island. East Point, in Nahant, Massachusetts, was the location for the lighthouse scenes. The scenes where Teddy and Chuck are caught in the hurricane were filmed at the Wilson Mountain Reservation in Dedham, Massachusetts. Filming ended on July 2, 2008.

Music

Shutter Island: Music from the Motion Picture was released on February 2, 2010, by Rhino Records. The film does not have an original score. Instead, Scorsese's longtime collaborator Robbie Robertson created an ensemble of previously recorded material to use in the film. According to a statement on Paramount's website: "The collection of modern classical music [on the soundtrack album] was hand-selected by Robertson, who is proud of its scope and sound. 'This may be the most outrageous and beautiful soundtrack I've ever heard.' [Robertson stated]."

Genre

Shutter Island is a period piece with nods to different films in the film noir and horror genres, paying particular homage to Alfred Hitchcock's works. Scorsese stated in an interview that the main reference to Teddy Daniels was Dana Andrews's character in Laura, and that he was also influenced by several very low-budget 1940s zombie movies made by Val Lewton. The main frame of the plot resembles that of William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration, as well as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. La Croix noted that Shutter Island was a "complex and puzzling" work that borrowed from genres as diverse as detective, fantasy, and the psychological thriller.