Martin Scorses’s “Shutter Island” is a movie that plays with the history of World War II in a very interesting way. In the film, the insane Asylum they are in is constantly being compared to a concentration camp and I found that very intriguing. This film also plays with the history of World War II in arguably a more appropriate way than the previous film we watched, “Inglorious Basterds”. This film’s ending is also interesting because it is up for interpretation.
The asylum itself is compared to a concentration camp from the moment we first see it. As Teddie and his partner are driving up to the asylum Teddie comments on how the electric fence around the building reminded him of somewhere, a concentration camp. The guards also look and act like nazis. The way they lord of the patients and control their day to day lives. The way that insane people are depicted in this film is similar to how jews were depicted by nazis in World War II, they were treated inhumanely. The most obvious comparison is the torture aspect. The treatments being done at the asylum are reminiscent of the testing nazi doctors would conduct on jews during the holocaust. Teddie even acknowledges this and wants to stop any sort of crude or evil testing they are doing on the patients.
The way WWII in this film is depicted much differently than in “Inglorious Basterds” is that the entire war is viewed as horrible and sad, even the killing of nazis. Teddie suffers from severe PTSD from when he and his platoon liberated a concentration camp and massacred all the guards. No part of what Teddie went through is portrayed in a cool or fun way like it may have been in “Inglorious Basterds”. There are scenes in both these movies where a large group of nazis is murdered. In “Inglorious Basterds” it’s at the end and the feeling you get is triumphant and satisfying. In “Shutter Island” this act is viewed as evil and nothing more than murder, even though they are killing nazis. One could easily say that “Shutter Island” is portraying war in general in a more realistic light. However, both of the films play with the idea of Americans using methods similar to ones a nazi might use. In “Inglorious Basterds” it was the gruesomeness with which the Basterds tortured and murdered every nazi they found and in “Shutter Island” it was doctors using nazi testing and treatments on their patients.
Lastly, the end of this film is open to interpretation. In my opinion, where Teddie is going at the end of the film is obvious, the doctor is going to lobotomize him, but the question is whether he’s insane or not. Right before he walks off to get his lobotomy he says to Chuck “Is it better to live as a monster or die as a good man?” implying that he’s not insane and what he’s doing he’s doing because he can’t take life anymore. He’s saying its better to believe and die as Teddie the federal marshal, than Teddie the man who killed his wife. Him saying that opens so many questions at the end of this film that you just have to decide for yourself what is and what is not the truth and whether Teddie was or was not actually insane, I believe that he wasn’t.
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