****WARNING MAY CONTAIN UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS****

Went and saw a late showing of Shutter Island last night and came away from it quite impressed. I have mixed views on Scorsese's films, I liked The Aviator and The Departed. I didn't like Cape Fear, and thought Goodfells and Gangs of New York were just alright. Shutter Island is definitely his best so far and probably one of my favorite movies of all time at this point. The cinematography is just plain stunning, you could be entertained just by watching what the camera has to show you, no plot, acting or action necesary. There is a great amount of detail in each scene along with some subtle visual cues that make up a compelling visual motif.The soundtrack is perfect, constantly building up tension and suspense. The entire cast does some really great and very believable acting. The story is well thought out, self reflecting, kept my attention all the way through, and is just plain excellent. There are a lot of mind games being played both on Di Caprio's character and the viewer throughout the film. At the end of the film you are left with two distinctly opposite and yet intertwined possiblities of what was really going on throughout the film. I honestly still can't decide which way was truly the way it happened. My only complaint is that the dialogue is a little akward at some points, but when it works it comes across as genius.

My overall interpreatation is that the whole film is an elabortae overarching analogy for human life. Shutter Island is our world, the insane asylum our society, and the crazy people are the citizens. The caretakers in the film represent our caretakers in life, government, religion, and so on. Sure they control us but we have no clue as to their intentions, and they could very well be insane themseleves, even convincing the world that it is insane and to hand itself over to their control, and there's no telling what they'll do to keep that control. The soon to be famous line, "You're a rat trapped in a maze." rings very true. In this analogy, we're rats in a amaze, trying to find an aswer to life, just as Di Caprio's character is trying to find an answer to his case. When we eventually find what we consider to be the answer tot his problem, it's often not the answer we expected or wanted, just as Di Caprio's character finds out in the film. There's also a strong possiblity that it's not even the real answer, which again is an extremely prevalent theme in the film. We can take this a step further and ask, "What is reality? Do we really know what reality is?". The rat would likely consider the maze it is stuck in to be its sole reality, not knowing the infinite universe awaiting it right outside. Di Caprio's character in the film is extremely sure of his reality until the last third or so in which he undergoes a transofrmation as a result from recent events that makes him question if what he thought of as reality was truly real. To go further into the pondering, in the end of the film it is clear which reality he chose, but how are we to know it was the true reality? Is reality what you choose it to be? Some of these people in the asylum in the film might try and argue this to be so. Is there even a single true answer for what reality is? Or a single true answer for anything for that matter? Just as in life there is no way to tell if Di Caprio's character makes the right decisions in the film, and again we go back to the question of what is right and if there is such a thing as right, is there one right answer? Not only does this film bring such important and potentially unaswerable questions such as these but also notes a few things about our society. There are several God references. The one that stuck out to me the most was when a psychiatrist asked Di Caprio's character if he believed in god, which he was unable to really answer, but it was obvious he had his doubts. Another reference to our society I liked was when a crazy man told Di Caprio's character he wouldn't want to leave the asylum if he could, because the real world is even crazier and more dangerous. There are also subtle nods to the potential effects of groupthink and knowing who your true friends are, but I won't ruin that for you. Without spoiling anything, at the end of the film Di Caprio's character says a line which has a basic and commonly understood surface value before making his final decision, effectively ending the story. Upon further reflection of the film you will realize that there's a lot more to the question he asks then some may interpret. Again, trying not to spoil anything here, but his question was a major existensial question about his reality and life in general.

I hope people take the time to go and see this film, because it's really truly excellent. I loved it and I'm goin to pre-order the dvd when it comes around. I hope you all enjoy it on a similar level as I did, and please come here and tell me what you thought of the film and my interpetation.