Film Review : Shutter Island

American Sniper is a 2014 movie about Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal Sniper who served 4 tours of duty in Iraq, and credited with being the most lethal United States Sniper of all time. The movie follows Kyle’s life from the attacks of 9/11, the impetus for joining the military, through his 4 combat tours as a sniper in Iraq, and the years after his military service, including the event that led to his death in 2013. Much of the film shows Kyle’s combat experience, the actions he took, and consequently the turmoil that results from those actions. The movie was not only a commercial success, it was also a catalyst for debate on the morality of war, and how it affects those who fight wars. The first review I read was

Ah, The Sandlot. A movie full of fifth and sixth grade boys playing baseball in the Summer. If you think it sounds boring, you're wrong. This is an excellent movie. It starts with a boy, named Scotty (Tom Guiry) who needs friends. He needed friends so bad that his mom was even concerned about him being cooped up in the house for a quarter of the summer. One day, he wanders to a baseball field and his want to have friends and be a part of something comes true. He even got a nickname, "Smalls". The boys did everything together, even got into and out of trouble together. But the number one important thing all nine of the boys did, was meet at the baseball field every single day.

The film Shutter Island depicts the story of a World War 2 veteran Andrew Laeddis and his experience with mental illness, specifically portraying the memory phenomena of repressed and recovered memories also known as dissociative amnesia and dissociative fugue (Kikuchi et.al. 2010). The illness is triggered by a psychologically traumatic event, which included discovering his wife had murdered his three children, and in response, he killing his wife (Kikuchi et.al. 2010). Additionally, the portrayal exhibits many of the criteria for a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Friedman et.al. 1994). The DSM-V now classifies dissociative symptoms as an additional subcategory of PTSD diagnosis, however, the film concentrates

Shutter Island is a very complex movie seemingly about a U.S. Marshal named Teddy Daniels. As the movie begins, Daniels and his partner are shown traveling to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a mental hospital. However, as the plot unravels we see that Daniels has a mental disorder of his own. Though his diagnosis is not revealed in the movie, I believe this character suffered from Delusional Disorder, Persecutory Type.

The literary elements in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are very important in the way the movie and novel were made because without them there would be no novel nor movie. These differences were made due to the affects a book has on a reader and the affects a movie has on them. A book needs plenty of detail to show how the reader is feeling and what the surrounding area is like, while a movie only needs a few significant main events to put in. The reason Ken Kesey made differences in the movie from the book is because not as much detail is needed to get the story across in the movie. These differences did change the way the story is portrayed however. With the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel into film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest displays differences in characterization, setting, symbolism, plot, and theme, affecting the reader’s perspective.

Into the Wild is a log on the experiences of a young traveler by the name of Christopher McCandless. His story is revealed only in the trail he left behind as he was on his mission to escape society. McCandless’ story is featured in both book, written by Jon Krakauer, and movie, directed by Sean Penn, both presenting the path taken by McCandless up into his final venture into the Alaskan wilderness, while the movie is based on the book by Krakauer, Penn is able to tie in his own ideas about the events leading up to Chris McCandless’ death creating a new view on the subject. The major difference between novel and movie lie in the characterization of Chris McCandless. In the book Krakauer states that he does his best to keep the story as

While trying to figure out what to do with the body they go have a look at the cook Mrs. Ho to find her murdered in the kitchen, with the knife in her back. On coming back to the study Mr. Boddy has vanished to be later found bleeding from the head in the washroom attacked with the candlestick.

The movie Shutter Island presents wrenching twists and turns from a psychological state of mind. The author of the story, Lehane, makes it certain that the psychic mind of the main character helps to enhance the plot of the story. The darkness of the story is based off of the year nineteen fifty-four to drive the setting of the story. Throughout the film, clues are given that eventually give way to the realization of reality. When the story begins in medias res, it helps engage the audience and jumpstart theories. Manipulation is a present factor used throughout the story with both the audience and the characters to create a thrilling story.

The opening scene of the film is U.S. Marshals Edward Daniels and Chuck Aule arriving on Shutter Island. Daniels and Aule, played by DiCaprio and Ruffalo, respectively, have come to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Ashecliffe, Rachel Solando. Daniels was allowed in the hospital, but needed to obtain permission and be accompanied in Ward C, which was only for the most dangerous patients. While inspecting Solando’s room, Daniels finds a piece of paper that seemed to have a clue on it, “The law of 4; who is 67?” (Medavoy & Scorsese, 2010). When the authorities on the island are not cooperating with Daniels, he decides to leave. However, a storm prevents them from returning to the mainland so Daniels and Aule continue their investigation. Along with occasional migraines, Daniels sees hallucinations of his wife Dolores Chanal, who, according to Daniels, died in a fire started by arsonist Andrew Laeddis. In one such hallucination, Chanal told Daniels that Solando is still alive and on the island. Then,

Shutter Island portrays multiple mental illnesses in the main character as well as in supporting characters. One might call it an abnormal psychology “goldmine.” It takes place at a water-bound psychiatric facility, Shutter Island, housing the criminally insane. The plot is about a man who refers to himself as Teddy. He believes he and his partner are detectives, on the island, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. He is also in search of a patient named Andrew Laeddis, who Teddy believes murdered his wife. The detective becomes paranoid that the facility is treating the patients unfairly and performing experimental lobotomies. The delusion goes on for several months, Teddy never realizing he is actually a patient, until he is brought back to reality at the climax of the movie. His delusion ends. He realizes he’s a patient for a very short amount of time before he goes back to believing he’s a detective. The delusion starts all over again. Throughout most of the film, viewers see his delusion as a reality, until the twist at the end when it is revealed that he is actually a patient.

In 2006 a movie called United 93 was released in theatres all over the world. It was directed by Paul Greengrass, who is from England. The theme is terror and is about what happened to the fourth and final hijacked plane on 9/11. This movie tells the story of both what went on inside the plane with the passengers and the terrorists, and what happened “behind the scenes” in the FAA and in the flight control towers all over USA. Already when the film was produced, some people thought it was too early for a movie on this subject and disrespectful to the families of the victims. But was it really too early after 5 years? I don’t think so. How can it be disrespectful, when he asked for permission to make this film from all the

The movie Gran Torino, is an American film directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as the main character. The movie was set in Highland Park, Michigan which was a nearby suburb of Detroit. In prior years, Highland Park was populated by white families that had come to the area to work in the Ford car factories, but over time, “the damn chinks” moved into the neighborhood as Walt Kowalski would say. This show was the first American film to show Hmong Americans, which were war refugees that had resettled in the U.S. following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975 (Yuen). The main character, Clint Eastwood is a widowed Korean War veteran who often shows bursts of racism and anger towards people of different race, especially the Asian immigrants in his neighborhood. His neighbor, Thao Vang Lor, a young Hmong teenager becomes a key character in the movie after he gets pressured into stealing Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino in an attempt to be initiated into a Hmong gang in which his cousin is involved with. While attempting to steal the car, Walt catches Thao and is sure to prove a point that he is not going to take any slack from him and or the Hmong gang members.

One of the most iconic movies from the 80’s is Top Gun. From the thrilling flight scenes to Tom Cruise 's winning smile, the movie was, and remains, a hit. Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, is sent to an elite naval flight school with his best friend Goose. Both men must undergo training in an extremely competitive environment. to become the best pilots in the academy. They face many challenges and loss along the way. Throughout the movie Top Gun, the hyper-masculine environment of flight school allows for there to be a much more fluid relationship between homosexuality and homosociality. Unlike in everyday occurrences, where romantic exchanges between men are considered gay, the exchanges between the characters in the movie are often considered completely normal. Though not every scene in the movie portrays this accepting, modern perception of homosocial relations. The movie often contradicts itself by also displaying hypermasculine scenes. This contradiction illustrates how there 's not only multiple perceptions of masculine behavior but also a conflict in society about the proper way for men to act while together.

Shutter Island and Insomnia use stylistic features to unpack the theme of appearance versus reality and documents the effects of the psychological effects on the protagonists. Both films portray the common theme of appearance vs reality in different ways. Noticeable similarities and differences can be seen in the portrayal of social issues, cinematic techniques and characterisation.

The movie I selected for this assignment is Forrest Gump, mostly because it is one of the most widely known movies of all time. Instantly quotable and memorizable, and one I have watched a million times over in every way possible. Forrest Gump, of Greenbow, AL, has one of the most historically and culturally significant lives possible, from playing football for the University of Alabama, to serving as an Infantry Sergeant in the Vietnam War. He also played ping-pong, fished for shrimp, and met presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He met other famous people to include a young Elvis, as well as John Lennon while on TV. He ran back and forth across the country for “3 years, 2 months, 14 days, 16 hours” as he put, and became a good father for his son when his lifelong romantic interest died. He does all of this without realizing what he is doing as he is doing it, simply because he is mildly retarded and just goes through life doing simply what he is told or what he feels like doing. This story also contains examples of the concepts of interpersonal communications, which consists of: the transactional nature of communications, self-image, self-esteem, self-concept, online disclosures, and self-fulfilling prophecies, perception, principles of nonverbal communication and personal presentation, and listening.