Shutter Island Class Analysis

Shutter Island Class Analysis

During class we looked at the opening of the film Shutter Island.

We focused on four main areas: Camera work, editing, mise en scene and sound.

A few things we noticed for camera work were:

1. The ECU on Teddy's police badge. Is he really a policeman? Should we question him?

2. Whilst the truck is driving up to the gates, we see from Teddy's POV. Even though we are unsure whether or not to trust Teddy, seeing from his point of view makes the audience sympathise with him as we are in the same position as him - seeing the strange hospital for the first time.

3. One last thing that was noticed is the long shot of Teddy and his new partner. It means we can get a good look at both of them and leads us on to the question; "Who can we trust?"

A few things we noticed for editing were:

1. There was a lot of slow motion. One example of this was when the creepy woman looked at Teddy in the garden. This makes the audience focus on her more and really try to figure her out.

2. The flashback was extremely fast paced. It cut from shot to shot very quickly. This is possibly to confuse the audience or perhaps a form of narrative retardation. The quickness is so the audience doesn't have time to see everything that is going on. They can't understand the whole flashback.

3. There is a montage during the flashback. It includes a tie, a record player, Teddy's wife and random water. What is the relevance of all these things? The audience has to work to figure it out.

A few things we noticed for mise en scene were:

1. There is obviously set and costume styling relating to the 1950s. You can tell from all the costumes and set roughly when the film is set in. It really makes you believe the film as it feels accurate and as it is set in the past you question; could this have happened?

2. Ward C was very dark and colourless compared to the other wards. This links to the fact that it is off limits. It also foreshadows the dark horrors held inside Ward C and makes the audience wonder if (and when) Teddy will pay Ward C a visit.

A few things we noticed for sound were:

1. Teddy says "Can't stomach the water." This foreshadows the drowning of his water later on in the film and makes the audience wonder why he doesn't like the water. This links to the random appearance of water during his flashback.

2.There is eerie music at the beginning which really makes the audience uncomfortable. There is also loud music when Teddy is going to the hospital which builds and gets louder. This makes the audience think something bad is going to happen to Teddy despite nothing bad actually happening then.

3. When Teddy looks at a creepy woman in the garden, there is silence. The creepy music stops as he stares at her. This is to make the audience focus on her more rather than on anything else (e.g. the music). This links to the slow motion when he looks at her. It makes the audience focus on her so much that they miss other details. She turns out, however, to be a red herring.