First and
foremost, this movie, Shutter Island, was quite amazing. It is clear that the common viewer
would enjoy it very much and nearly anyone with a psychology background would
love it. Just by watching it the
reasonable observer can pick up on certain hints throughout this film. Though
there are plenty of underlying hints that some, maybe even most, people would miss
without any knowledge in psychology. Every person should realize that Leonardo Dicaprio's character “Teddy Daniels” is actually Andrew Laeddis, mainly because
it comes right out and says it in the film. Laeddis was sent to Shutter Island
as a patient, but “Daniels” believes that this man is the person who killed his
wife and is desperately trying to find him and possibly seek revenge. In
reality he is the man who killed his wife in a fire that he caused. Unable to
deal with this he created an alternate world where he is still a war hero and
never had kids. He made up an ugly monster and blamed him for his wife’s death.
In this new world that he created he believes that he is still an US Marshall
and was sent to Shutter Island to investigate a missing person’s case.Flashbacks
Whilst at
Shutter Island he starts to experience psychotic flashbacks and visions. Some
may notice, whenever he is around fire, since the real him was a pyromaniac, he
has a flashback of burning down his apartment, his children being deceased. He
also always sees his late wife, Dolores, when he is around fire and his
destruction causing his wife’s death. When he is near water on the other hand
he has flashbacks of finding his three children murdered by the hands of
Dolores. As the movie progresses, he has more vivid hallucinations and starts
hearing his daughter ask him why he did not save her and the others. He believes
the doctors are trying to drug him secretly, either in his cigarettes or the
medicine he took for his headache. This is not the case though; he actually was
taken off his medicine in a final attempt to get him back to reality before the
only option left was surgery. 
Therapy
The whole movie
was a roleplaying game to get “Teddy” to understand that he is Andrew. The
doctors want Andrew to realize that he made up “Teddy” and he is the one who
took his wife’s life and then went crazy from guilt. “Teddy’s” partner, “Chuck”
was actually his primary psychiatrist, Dr. Sheehan. He pretended to be his
partner in order to keep an eye on him. This was their last chance to convince
him of the truth. If it failed then Andrew would have to have a lobotomy. The
doctors were trying to avoid doing this because they truly believed they could
break through to him.
Truth
Truth
Some people could say that they did break through
to him. While others would strongly disagree, this is up to each viewer. Those who believe they did break through would say that at the end he understood what happened and simply did not want to live with
that memory. At the end he states that he knows what he did and who is really
is but then it shows him moments later smoking with Dr. Sheehan, where he calls
him his partner again, so they feel that they must do the lobotomy because the
doctors believe they have failed. Just as DiCapio’s character was walking
towards the doctors for his lobotomy he turned to Dr. Sheehan and said, “This
place really makes you think. Is it better to live knowing what you have done,
or die a good man?” That is where you are left unsure if he was Andrew or his
made up character “Teddy”.
