Saw Shutter Island yesterday. There were some very unusual and disorienting switches in camera position during the ferry ride. First it showed the two actors from the left and then from the right, and back and forth a couple of times more. Having read the book, I wondered if this was supposed to be some sort of clue, but I couldn’t work anything out. I didn’t care for the fast panning shots early on, either. The scene where the guard says “and on the right…” and the camera swivels like a head “and on the left…” ditto. There were a couple of other instances like that that just pulled me out of the movie and made me overly aware of the camera.
It seemed to settle down after that, or at least I stopped noticing it. The film sagged heavily in the middle, but there were some very nice performances by Patricia Clarkson and Ted Levine. Ben Kingsley steals the film, I think. DiCaprio, not so much, and Ruffalo, it’s like he’s not really there, he leaves so little impression. Michelle Williams is quite good, too, and Max von Sydow has a fun role. It wasn’t a terrible movie, and better than the book, I’d say. I’d give it a B-minus. I loved the scene between Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, also from Monk) and DiCaprio in the jeep. While discussing the inherent violence of man, Levine’s character says something to the effect: “If I were to lean over and bite your eye out, do you think you could stop me?”
Among the trailers: a remake of the British movie Death at a Funeral that seems close to a shot for shot duplicate, with a few exceptions. There’s even one actor who appears in both versions (Peter Dinklage). The original was pretty funny. It was directed by Frank Oz (of Muppets fame) and featured Keeley Hawes from Ashes to Ashes and Alan Tudyk from Firefly.
Iron Man 2 looks like it could be fun, and I’m really looking forward to Ghost Writer, which stars Pierce Brosnan as the British prime minister, directed by Roman Polanski. Finally, I think Wall Street 2 could be a lot of fun, and it features Carey Mulligan, who Dr. Who fans know from the excellent episode Blink and who starred in An Education.
You couldn’t drag me to see Clash of the Titans.
Did you not notice any coincidence between the Dark Tower and this film (Shutter Island)? The light house with its spiral staircase and the film with its repeating theme? The main character sure has a tendency of violence, and seems doomed to repeat himself. Are these themes not a like? With the final image of the light house standing like a dark tower, I couldn’t help but believe the books by Mr. King were a big influence on the book and movie.
The novel was published in 2003, which means it was written long before the last few books in the Dark Tower series came out, so the repetition concept couldn’t have been borrowed from King. Remove that from the equation and all you have left is a violent man and a lighthouse. I think it’s just a coincidence.
I wasn’t suggesting that anyone “borrowed” anything from anyone. Merely pointing out what I see is a very real common ground. I believe they share much more than a violent man and a tower symbol. Do they (Roland and Andrew) not seem both doomed to repeat there journey over and over knowing at the end of each journey the truth only to fail, and have to start over? Are both men not haunted by their own sins and the question of what must be done to achieve a goal? Of course I realize that the Dark Tower is a much longer, much broader series of books, and I am not trying to condense the theme of any of these books to prove a point. But, from the moment I watched as Andrew walked up the spiral stairs of the Dark Tower opening doors to room after room on each level, I knew what was going to happen. For me, this would not have been possible without the knowledge of the Dark Tower. Thank you for your time.
My wife and I both noticed a similarity to The Dark Tower, but it was only a slight one.
Shutter Island absolutely reminded me of the Dark Tower Series, and even before the light house scene. When DeCaprio and his partner were first walking around the island I thought the whole place looked familiar… Because shutter island looks EXACTLY like my mind had pictured the Devar Toi, the minimum security prison in Thunder Clap within End World. The green, beautiful landscaping and buildings, yet the eerie and ominous presence of the guards and the feeling that something much more terrible is going on. Even the architecture of the buildings in Shutter Island reminded me of the Devar Toi in Thunder Clap, where the breakers were kept as prisoners. Come to think of it, the breakers and “the insane” in Shutter Island draw another parallel…
Shutter Island the book may have been written beforehand, but I have no doubt the director was influenced by Stephen King’s Dark Tower series when he made the film. The visual affects are too similar.
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