Reviews

The way I see it, there are three interpretations of the film, which I will call The Doctor is Bad, The Doctor is Good, and The Doctor is God.

The Doctor is Bad (Teddy is sane and there really is a government conspiracy) The Doctor is Good (Teddy is insane and the Doctor is trying to give him therapy) The Doctor is God (Teddy is dead and the "Doctor" is trying to get him to acknowledge where he really is and what he has done in his life).

Let's consider the third possibility for a moment. Ben Kingsley's character was a benevolent person, and he spoke repeatedly by cure his patients with love and understanding. The ex-military Warden, too, is fighting for his soul. He offers Teddy the observation, that we are all evil, and nature itself is not full of God's love, but violence. He asks, "The only question is, whose violence is stronger?" This is basically a materialist, satanic world view as it is understood from a Christian perspective. I find this a possible reference to Christ's forgiveness. He gave Teddy repeated chances to admit his guilt, but his pride won't allow him to do it.

Teddy has to go the process all over again, and he must be turned over to "the Warden" (war, violence, lust for power) who gets to torture him by living through it again. Only this film seems to suggest that "hell" is merely being tied to the illusion of the world. He can't get past it because he won't admit he is a sinner. He will keep doing it over again in the "real world" (perhaps for eternity) until he repents. Auschwitz, Shutter Island, and Purgatory (?!) all have a gate and a sign outside. What if this isn't Shutter Island at all? What if the German Commandant is really Teddy? The evocative soundtrack seems to suggest much more is going on here than meets the eye on first viewing.

As for the Oedipus myth, we do see Greek statues in the Doctor's study during the storm, perhaps making reference to Oedipus/Teddy's search for the truth, which will only destroy him by finding it. Like Oedipus, he is "blinded" by the ice pick during the lobotomy.

I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised by a recent film for the first time in a long time. Even though I immediately picked up on the Warden/Satan vibe, and even though I noted the Greco-Roman references, my mind just couldn't break free. It wasn't until you made the connection to purgatory/hell that it all hit me like a flash. I think even though intellectually people can "get it" we are so resistant to metaphysical ideas that we subconsciously discount them...at first. I didn't see what this film was, even though it was right in front of me. I needed to connect the dots. I never really pegged Scorsese much as a deep thinker. Only a few of his films have attempted deep metaphysical themes, Last Temptation, Kundun, and now Shutter Island. His films I have always found very gritty and earthy, but just as often flashy, hedonistic, and even a bit mean spirited. I do think he is a great director, but not my favorite by a long haul. I watched thinking it was a simple matter of sane/insane, but with a decided lean towards insane.

Scorsese in his films has rarely touched upon whatever Catholicism or religious beliefs he may hold, with the obvious exception of The Last Temptation of Christ. I mentioned Kundun before. I always wondered what attracted him to that material, as his films are very Western and usually pretty earthy. Looking back now after seeing Shutter Island, this is interesting, because of the parallels with Buddhist concepts like karma. The illusion of reality is the ultimate cause of ego, pride, what have you. This creates an endless cycles of suffering until the illusory nature of the world is broken. The other film, Last Temptation, as everyone knows was a highly unorthodox and controversial depiction of the Gospels. If the references to Greek mythology are also present in Shutter Island (as I suspect they are), then this also touches on the suffering caused by the human folly of pride from a non-Christian perspective. One thing Buddhism, Christianity and Greek Tragedy all have in common is that pride goes before the fall. All of this suggests that Scorsese's interpretation of Christianity is very different the official orthodoxy. Unlike Catholic teaching, God does not give us the chance to be saved only while we are alive. His mercy is endless, and more in keeping with Buddhism, we are given many chances in Purgatory to break the hold of worldly illusion on us. One more link to Buddhist karma for me: Teddy's friend in Cell Block C said "Let it go!" in reference to his dead wife/past life. Dr. Cawley speaks of a "new way" of treating patients/sinners. This isn't a one shot through the pearly gates or into the Lake of Fire you go. Cawley has great patience, although you could argue that the end of the film might indicate that time has run out for Teddy. I personally think his memory of coming to Shutter Island is merely wiped clean again. Not for the purpose of punishment as giving Teddy yet another chance to let go of his illusions of the world. Teddy isn't there for the purpose of punishment, though. His suffering is a consequence of his inability to let go his ego. I find this a very humane and enlightened version of Christ's forgiveness.

I do think this is a flawed but often brilliant film. I have a simple suggestion for how to make the film more effective by slightly rearranged the story order. You may still disagree with the environmental politics of the film, but at least Kurosawa's case is more forcefully argued this way.

I think this should be the order:

1) Sunshine Through the Rain 2) The Peach Orchard 3) The Blizzard 4) The Tunnel 5) *Mount Fuji in Red (could also be deleted altogether) 6) The Weeping Demon 7) *Crows (move this episode down two notches) 8) Village of the Watermills

Moving Mount Fuji and Weeping Demon ahead of Crows fulfills several things:

a) Simple cinematic effectiveness:

With The Tunnel the film gets gradually darker, more like nightmares than dreams. The Tunnel has an ominous ending with the barking dog. The stories that immediately following The Tunnel should explore the darker end of things rather than being followed by a lighter story like Crows, which is a mistake for dramatic reasons.

b) This also makes the film's point clearer:

The first two stories feature a young boy. As a child we have a much more innocent relationship to nature. A child might wish to penetrate nature's secrets, but does so innocently. The boy merely wanted to watch the fox wedding. He was caught looking, but meant no real harm. Even so, the boy is rejected by his mother and he is sent on a quest to seek forgiveness from the foxes. A recurring theme in this film is that interfering with nature can have serious consequences. The boy in The Peach Orchard is too young to do anything about the trees being cut down. He simply loves peaches and trees in bloom. At the end the boy realizes how terrible the consequences can be if Man acts against nature.

The following four stories #3-#6 show a fully grown adult (presumably the boy grown up?). In the Blizzard, he is struggling against nature, which he sees as threatening and hostile to him, unlike the boy's less confrontational feelings towards it. An interesting thing in The Blizzard is the ambiguity of the Snow Spirit woman. Is she trying to help the mountain climber or kill him? It is left deliberately obscure. I interpret this to mean that the forces of nature, while very beautiful, can also be deadly. We should show nature the proper respect. Next in The Tunnel, the subject is the ultimate destructive act of Mankind, war. The man claims to have sympathy for his dead troops, which they meekly accept and go back to the grave. However, the company dog is not so easy to fool. It is an animal and does not accept the rationalizations that his men do for being sent to their deaths. The dog is depicted almost as a Hell Hound on the his trail.

This is why Crows MUST NOT following The Tunnel. The Tunnel should have set up the next two stories featuring the fully grown adult. These take the idea of being at war with nature to the most hellish extreme. The dog in the Tunnel acts as an omen and a harbinger of doom which we seen in the nightmares of Mount Fuji and The Weeping Demon. The Weeping Demon is nothing less than a vision of hell on earth. Finally, the last two stories feature an older man (Van Gogh and the village elder respectively) who impart the wisdom of old age to a younger man. These men are totally in harmony with their natural surroundings. Crows plays better if it isn't sandwiched between The Tunnel and Mount Fuji and Weeping Demon. It comes across as irrelevant and lightweight in its present position in the film. FIX IT YOURSELF! Repositioning it makes it seem more effective, even if this doesn't fully address the films other weaknesses.

The village elder in the final episode has the innocence of a second childhood, tempered with a whole lifetime of experience. This is why Crows and Village of the Windmills should be paired together as the last two stories. We have gone from youthful daydreams, to the nightmares of the adult world, into a second rebirth of innocence. The Village of the Windmills is not so much a real place but rather a kind of "Heaven on Earth", the mirror opposite of the Weeping Demon's hell on earth. The Village "has no name", just like in the U2 song "Where the Streets Have No Name", which of course refers to Heaven. I think is a clue that this village is not of this world but rather the next. It is a perhaps impossible dream of total harmony with nature that Mankind can aspire to, though it may be unachievable in this world. If you look at the meaning of Village of the Windmills in this way, the ending is incredibly melancholy, as is the music on the soundtrack.

Perhaps the "dreams" referred to in this film aren't necessarily dreams Kurosawa had while he was sleeping, but his waking dreams and nightmares about Man's relationship with nature. Mount Fuji in Red is the least effective sequence precisely because it is too literal, coming across as even more preachy and didactic than the rest of the film. It feels like something out of a Godzilla movie or an Irwin Allen disaster picture. If we eliminate Mount Fuji, then one story about war follows another. The Tunnel is about World War II, and the Weeping Demon is about World War III. This makes that argument that warfare is Man's ultimate (and unnatural) way of making war against nature. This is why the company dog in The Tunnel behaves the way it does, because it sees the threat Mankind may ultimately pose to nature itself in a way the officer's dead soldiers cannot or will not.