tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15464241.post1422529639213646117..comments2010-03-20T08:09:07.245-05:00Jon Hoffmanhttps://profiles.google.com/104768165049763991086noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15464241.post-83718037385166595222010-03-20T08:09:07.235-05:002010-03-20T08:09:07.235-05:00I agree that this film has been completely misinterpreted by most people. However, I don't think it is even that ambiguous. I think Scorsese clearly suggests in the end that he was sane. I don't think this is even a matter of people having different interpretations. I think the whole film is trying to suggest that the people running Shutter Island are as bad as Nazis because they are doing experiments on people the way that the Nazis did in the death camps and we know that this sort of thing did happen in America. The officers guarding the prison are dressed like the SS and are often compared to Nazis. in the final scene DiCaprio's character is wearing a striped uniform exactly like the ones the prisoners of Nazi death camps wore. This analogy makes absolutely no sense if DiCaprio's character is insane and the people running the prison (who represent Nazis) are sane. In the final scene when it is clear that they have been unsuccessful at brain washing DiCaprio's character the orderlies walk towards him and there is a close up of an ice pick in their hands. The Dr in the cave told him that they were using ice picks to damage people's brains to turn them into "ghosts" - people that they could control and use. This close up of the ice pick is validating this claim. When DiCaprio's character says "It's better to die a good man than live a monster" I think he is saying that he would rather die than be one of them and cooperate with them - they're the monsters (like the Nazis) not him. I think the whole film would be pointless if you don't interpret it this way. The analogy between the Nazis and the prison staff and between the patients and the prisoners in concentration camps is made repeatedly throughout the film. If the Dicaprio character is the crazy murderer and the prison staff were the sane, good ones then the film would be suggesting that Nazis were good and sane and their victims were crazy and bad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com