In Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island (2010), U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) investigates the disappearance of a woman within the walls of a secluded mental hospital. Once there, however, the film twists and complicates the question of who is the agent of this narrative.
Discussion Questions
After watching this clip from Shutter Island, consider the questions below. Then submit your response.
1. In this disturbing sequence from Shutter Island, there are three different “time zones.” Describe them. How and why might the ordering of these events intentionally confuse the temporal relation between them?
2. Can this sequence be described as a narrative dream sequence? If so, what visual clues indicate it as such? Or, on the other hand, are there indications that it is a flashback or flashforward? Might the answer be somewhere in between?