RESEARCH: Genre

Shutter Island

Released: 2010

Certificated: bbfc 15

Director: Martin Scorsese

Deconstruction of first 2 minutes:

The establishing shot of the film
shows a boat in the middle of the sea;
diagetic sound of choppy water and an insert which says ‘Boston Harbour Islands
1954’ are used in this shot because the dates shows 1954 we know the film was
set in the past therefore everything will be old fashioned. We know ‘Teddy’ the
main character is on this boat because the shot later cuts to him inside the
cabin toilet, we immediately known Teddy is feeling sea-sic because the first
shot from inside the boat shows him gagging, sweating and murmuring to himself
‘pull yourself together Teddy’. Just after this point Teddy bends down into the
sink and creates a loud gagging sound; a bus-shot from Teddy’s point of view then
cuts to a tap running; this infers that Teddy has just been sick and he is
washing away the mess. After washing his
hands Teddy tell himself ‘It’s just water’ a point of view shot then shows
Teddy looking out the small circular window and saying ‘A lot of water’ he then
leaves the toilet and a match-on-action shot shows him walking through a dirty,
gloomy room filled with dangling chains and handcuffs, a tense atmosphere is
created by the single sounds of the chains clanking this suggests that maybe
this room was used a prison.
Match-on-action shots continue to
be used as Teddy walks out on to the deck as he does so the diagetic sound of
choppy water is brought back, Teddy then stops walking and rests on the rails
of the boat whilst standing next to a new character; this character then greets
Teddy with ‘Hey Boss’ this obviously indicated that Teddy is this man’s boss,
Teddy acts slightly surprised and this suggests that this is news to him. A two
shot is then used showing the two characters resting on the boat rail as they
talk about the institution which has sent them on the journey which they are
currently on Teddy constantly twitches which suggests he still feels ill. A key
line in the conversation is the reaction Teddy has when his colleague calls his
a legend a close-up shot shows Teddy’s face light with a grin; this suggests
that maybe Teddy must be good at his job to be referred to as a legend;
therefore he is represented as a hard worker or maybe talented because of his
successfulness. The pair then shares a
cigarette and the next part of their conversation is shown using shot-reverse
shots the pair talk about Teddy’s dead wife and when a short clip of her is
shown the brightness of the shot is high and all sound is muffled out, this infers
the footage shown is a memory of Teddy’s.