That was Elias Koteas(Casey Jones in the old Ninja Turtle movies). He could definitely be DeNiro’s doppleganger.
This movie had a lot of other great actors in small parts too - Jackie Earl Haley, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer.
I found out about five minutes into the movie that I had read the book while in the Army. Due in part to enjoying the book beforehand (despite its gotcha climax), I liked the movie. It did disappoint me in that Scorcese’s version was less subtle with regard to Shutter Island’s surreal elements. He could of done more things like the female patient’s missing water glass and less turning a person to ash.
At minimum, Shutter Island is a better movie than The Sixth Sense.
How is this a twist anymore?
Dark City
Fight Club
Identity
The Others
The Sixth Sense
Vannila Sky
The Village
maybe Total Recall
Look, I’ve seen enough “twist” movies to know that if you are meeting your new partner to go out and investigate the creepy island insane asylum, chances are YOU are the inmate. Especially if your grasp on sanity already seems somewhat tenuous.
It’s not a twist. Why does everybody insist every plot point that comes at the end of the movie be a twist. If you want a movie to play a bullshit game of gotcha with, don’t bother with Shutter Island. That’s not the point of the film. If you would like to see a well-done, thoughtful, perfectly acted drama about sanity, guilt, and redemption, and you like the way Scorsese handles those themes, then buy a ticket and go. You’ll enjoy the experience.
Everything I’ve read about this movie calls it a twist ending.
Wikipedia says: “A twist ending is an unexpected conclusion to a work of fiction that causes the audience to reevaluate the narrative or characters.”
Now, one could certainly argue the “unexpected” part, since I’ve heard a lot of people say they knew that Leo was really an inmate after ten minutes into the movie. But it also seems clear that the film makers wanted and intended it to be unexpected. Otherwise it would have been revealed to the audience from the beginning. But the movie is clearly set up to have the audience believe that Leo is an investigator, rather than an inmate.
So it seems quite fair to call it a twist ending.
In all fairness, while I suspected he was an inmate all along, you really don’t know for certain until the very end. He seems to become increasingly disjointed from reality as the film progresses. So you don’t really know if he’s losing his mind, is being manipulated or fed drugs, or is actually an inmate.
Besides, twist endings shouldn’t be about some “bullshit game of gotcha”. If Scorcese wanted that, they could have made him the ghost of a Russian double agent, the island actually be in 2010, not 1954, the whole thing in a virtual reality simulation, abducted by space aliens all along, and have it turn out that the whole movie was a psychic premonition. Or if they REALLY wanted a twist do the “Finkle is Einhorn”/ **Crying Game **ending and have it turn out that HE is Rachel Solando.
Oh and Dr. Cawley is his father.
Yes, but, having guessed that twist from the trailer (and the setting), I still enjoyed the film, and kept second guessing myself til the twist was confirmed. And there is an additional brief twist at the end. Also, the full explanation for the twist is not easily guessable, and is interesting.
That’s how I feel, too. (In fact, I just wrote pretty much the same thing in this, related but a little more spoilery, thread.) Even if you want to call this a twist, this still very much isn’t a twist movie – i.e. the import of the movie doesn’t reside in the reveal, though it is complimented by it; but to reduce the movie to this ‘twist’ would be to take away most of the aspects that make it the movie it is (and that’s a damn good one, in my opinion).
My assumption during the movie was not that he was an inmate, but that he would regress during the investigation and not be able to get away before it was too late. I actually enjoyed the idea of the doctors and staff being evil and manipulative. A bit cliché, but the set up had some excitement. Then it all just faded into the Sixth sense. When he rushed into that lighthouse room (he climbed the tower of Babylon, yeah? – to his way of enlightenment. Next time he relapses they should just make him climb something big) I literally sighed of disappointment.
There wouldn’t be a wound on his forehead because by the 1950s they did them through an eye socket instead of drilling holes into the skull. He’d of had a black eye, though.
I just finished reading the book, and I’m having trouble matching the book up to the trailer. Is the spooky stuff in the trailer that suggests the supernatural just stuff from his dreams, or did they change a lot of the plot for the movie?
I did!
Why did Leo have a bandage on his forehead throughout the movie _ and then a scar at the end _ if he hadn’t had a lobotomy yet?
As efkin477 pointed out, they didn’t do lobotomies by going through the forehead. They went in through the eye socket. (This was even discussed in the movie.)
So whatever the bandage and scar were, they weren’t from a lobotomy.
They certainly went out of their way to explain how lobotomies were done, so in the end I agree that the bandage/scar must NOT have been symbolic of a lobotomy. But it certainly seemed like it meant something. The damn bandage made it through showers and hurricanes and who knows what else. I was convinced it would be revealed as significant.
Hey guys. Just finished watching the movie… was just plain awesome. Haven’t been so captivated by a movie in a VERY long time.
Anyways, with regards to the bandage. I believe that it DID indeed indicate that Leo had the lobotomy done BEFORE the actual role play was performed. “Spoke”, you are right that they did indeed discuss the procedure of performing the lobotomy during the movie. It was done through the eye socket, the very purpose being to NOT leave any kind of visible scar on the person’s head. But what key procedure directly preceded a lobotomy (as explained in the movie)… electric shock treatment! Where would the electrodes have been placed? On his temple, and if it it was unilateral shock therapy, only on the one side, explaining why he only had the bandage on the one side.
For me this has to be the explanation. There’s no way the director would have gone to SUCH pains to ensure the band aid was in place, for every single Leo scene, and have it be meaningless. Plus, as others have mentioned, to have it survive his island explorations and the hurricane rain! It did start to look a bit old and disheveled towards the end of the movie, indicating again, the directors desire for it to be a key element in the story!
What you guys think?