How Shutter Island’s Twist Ending Ruined A Masterpiece

How Shutter Island’s Twist Ending Ruined A Masterpiece

Shutter Island, the creepy psychological thriller from director Martin Scorsese, is a masterful film, but its cheap twist ending misses the mark.

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How Shutter Island’s Twist Ending Ruined A Masterpiece

Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s bestselling novel, is known for its twist ending, but the twist betrays an otherwise great film. Released in 2010, Shutter Island follows Deputy U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), investigating a missing patient at a mysterious psychiatric facility. It’s a spine-chilling journey into the heart of the island, unearthing all the secrets the facility holds.

In the movie’s climax, it’s revealed that Teddy isn’t actually a U.S. Marshal, but rather a patient at the facility who suffered a break from reality after murdering his wife. The events of Shutter Island were actually part of an experimental treatment, made all the more real by Teddy’s hallucinations. The huge twist shocked viewers, only to be followed up by an ambiguous coda where Teddy is being prepared for a lobotomy, with the audience left uncertain as to whether he has actually returned to his delusions. So, why does such an exciting turn damage the movie?

The reveal that the events of Shutter Island are all in Teddy’s head misunderstands what is great about the film in the first place. Shutter Island isn’t a movie that needed a clever ending to make audiences gasp. It’s a uniquely ambiguous and murky story that only suffers from the sudden jolt of clarity. The decision to wrap things up with such a tidy conclusion betrays what’s unique about Scorsese’s vision.

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Shutter Island crafts an excellent mystery, but the movie’s plot twist lets it down. The film presents many possible answers to what is behind the strange happenings on the island. Is the facility using mind-control technology or psychotropic drugs? Could the cause even be supernatural in nature? Ultimately, the events all being hallucinations is the least interesting outcome. It’s a cliche and one that’s only marginally more compelling than the trope of everything being a dream. It takes a fantastically unique movie and caps it off with a boilerplate finale.

The best parts of Shutter Island are undercut by the ending. Scorsese’s nightmarish, meticulously crafted visuals and the Kafkaesque portrayal of the facility are defining aspects of the film. They’re part of what makes Shutter Island one of Scorsese’s best movies featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. But both qualities become so much less interesting as simple figments of Teddy’s imagination. The intended charm of the twist is to recontextualize these scenes, giving them new depth upon second viewing. The knowing glances Teddy receives aren’t omens, they’re simply recognition from his fellow patients. In reality, these scenes don’t benefit from the knowledge that they’re all imaginary. They’re diminished by it, each one now easily discarded as a simple delusion. Every small question now has the same answer, over and over.

Shutter Island suffers from feeling obligated to dispel its supernatural elements. Movies create a world where anything can happen, and indulging in the impossible is what made Shutter Island great. The twist ending fulfills a desire for simple answers, but those answers should enhance the journey, not reduce it. Ultimately, despite all its brilliance, Shutter Island’s twist ending takes up all of the film’s beautifully mysterious plot threads, ties them in a knot, and calls it a bow.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/shutter-island-twist-ending-ruined-movie-masterpiece/

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