Reading Log Number 6

Title: Shutter Island
Text: Movie
Author/Director: Martin Scrosese

Shutter Island directed by Martin Scrosese is about this US Marshall named Teddy Daniels who is assigned to investigate a disappearance of a patient called Rachel who has gone missing from shutter islands mental institution. Teddy wanted a assignment on the island for personal reasons, he's also still traumatised from what he saw when his army unit went to one of the Nazi concentration camps in World War 2 but also with the recent death of his wife who died in a fire. The head of the hospital gives Teddy a warm welcome but patients not so much. Teddy and his partner Chuck try to figure out who is the 67th patient at the institution. During the movie Teddy has flashbacks of his children haunting him and this ghost version of his wife telling him not to go into the lighthouse that is on the island which leads him to the lighthouse. He makes it to the top of the lighthouse and he sees the head of the hospital Dr John Crawley and all the mysteries of shutter island is answered.

A character that I found interesting was the main character Teddy Daniels. I found him interesting because he kept his delusion going for a very long time. At the start of the movie I honestly thought that he was just a US Marshall who was going to solve the mystery of Rachel's disappearance but he was really a demented killer called Andrew Laeddis who was actually a patient at the shutter island institution who was suggested to act out his delusion by his psychiatrist. Andrew had killed his wife because she had killed their 3 kids because she had mental issues of her own. What else that had surprised me was that the missing patient Rachel Solando was just a anagram of Andrews wife Dolores Chanal.

Something that was shown in the movie was denial. Teddy would have dreams and flashbacks of his wife. She'd keep telling him that Rachel is on the island and that her killer Andrew Laeddis is too. Near the end of the movie when Teddy is confronted by Dr John Crawley everything gets unfolded they were helping Andrew realise that he killed his wife because she killed their 3 kids and instead of helping her with her mental issues he killed her. Andrew breaks down because he realises that hes really Andrew Laeddis not Teddy Daniels. He killed his wife instead of getting her help and that he is the 67th patient of shutter islands institution. The denial in the movie made me feel sorry for Andrew because he had to make up a delusion to cover up the fact he had killed his wife because she had mental issues. The denial Andrew had to hold throughout the movie wasn't good for him as he kept thinking it was his fault his children died.

In conclusion the movie is very confusing and it takes a while to adjust and comprehend what is really happening and why it happened but it is a very good movie to watch and I recommend it if you like mysteries that really make you think. This movie convinced me to participate in the mental health awareness week which is next week for school and I can't wait.