“Did you know that the word ‘trauma’ comes from the Greek for ‘wound’? Hm? And what is the German word for ‘dream’? Traum. Ein Traum. Wounds can create monsters you have so many wounds, officer.”
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring
It was Feb. 19, 2010, when the film version of the novel Shutter Island was released in theaters, “a hybrid of the Brontë sisters’ books and Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” as it is described by Lehane himself, author of the novel (the one of Mystic River) on which the film is based. Directed by Martin Scorsese, with the Di Caprio – Ruffalo pair dominating the screen, Kalogridis’ adaptation is counted among the director’s masterpieces, despite receiving no awards and very few nominations (just 2: one at the Silver Ribbon Award as Best Non-European Film and 1 to Di Caprio at the Saturn Awards as Best Actor in a Leading Role. Three if we consider Di Caprio’s nomination and win at the Teen Choice Awards); in fact, it is the only film by the Scorsese-Di Caprio team not to have received Oscar nominations. In return, it represents Scorsese’s highest box-office gross.
With Shutter Island Scorsese wanted to pay homage to Hitchcock and mixed different genres: detective story, psychological thriller, noir, and even a dash of fantasy.
So what is this film, so appreciated by the public, about?
In 1954, U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo – by the way, did you know he got the role by writing a letter to Scorsese? Just as Margot Robbie did with Tarantino, who then offered her the part in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) are sent to Shutter Island, one of the Boston Harbor Islands on which a federal psychiatric hospital for criminal patients is located, to investigate the escape of a patient named Rachel (Emily Mortimer), even though it is impossible to escape from the island. Here they meet Deputy Director McPherson (John Carroll Lynch) and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), who explain that the hospital is divided between those who believe in lobotomies as a form of treatment and those who prefer the new psychotropic drugs. While searching Rachel’s room for clues, they find a mysterious note that reads, “The Law of 4. Who is 67?” and that will turn out to be the key to everything.
During a staff meeting, they discover that Rachel’s doctor, Shaheen, has just left for a vacation, arousing the anger of Teddy, who meanwhile has frequent flashbacks to his past as a soldier in World War II, particularly a horrific experience in the Dachau concentration camp. The story unfolds intertwining Teddy’s present and past, with his subconscious continually haunted by the death of his wife Dolores from a fire in their home. Teddy begins to suspect that there is something much more sinister behind Rachel’s escape and the eerie atmosphere of Shutter Island, especially when the patient is found without a single scratch and taken back to her room, where she has a violent reaction. One day Teddy and Chuck are investigating the island and return next to the lighthouse. (Fun fact: The tremendous hurricane that hits the island with a storm that lasts several days, represents the real Hurricane Carol, one of the three major hurricanes that hit New England in 1954) . Teddy goes away for a moment but on his return discovers that Chuck is gone and finds the true Rachel, who is still in hiding and warns him that illegal experiments are being carried out on patients in the hospital also revealing to him that he too has probably already been drugged as soon as he arrived on the island.
Teddy is found by the director and brought back to the hospital, where he tries to escape but is stopped and the whole truth is revealed to him.
– SPOILER: READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE –
There have been differing opinions about the ending of the film, in which Laeddis asks Dr. Sheehan, ‘Which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?’ (which, if you think about it, might also be a response to the phrase Dr. Cawley tells him at the beginning, “Sanity is not a choice”), a phrase that does not appear in the book. According to Professor James Gilligan of New York University, Scorsese’s psychiatric consultant, Laeddis’s last words mean, “I feel too guilty to go on living. I’m not really going to commit suicide, but I’m going to do it by handing myself over to these people who are going to lobotomize me.” Instead, Dennis Lehane, author of the novel, said, “Personally, I think Laeddis has a momentary flash. It’s just a moment of sanity amid all the other delusions.”
In short, as with many films, the ending is open to the viewer’s evaluation.
If you carefully watch the film, in the early scenes it is possible to glimpse clues that foreshadow the surprise ending, such as objects that appear in some shots and disappear in others or the fact that every time DiCaprio’s character smokes a cigarette, he has someone else light it for him since mentally ill people were not allowed to have matches.
Another detail that can be noticed only after watching the film: whenever there is water, the scene is real, while when there is fire, it is all “constructed.”
Finally, a curious detail: “Shutter Island” is an anagram for “truths and lies.”
Shutter Island filming locations in Massachusetts
Being among our favorite films, when we organized the trip to New England one of the things we did first was mapping the film’s locations. It was filmed mostly in Massachusetts, around Boston (apart from a few scenes shot in California and Bar Harbor, Maine). The map above shows the itinerary, it takes half a day considering a 3-hour drive – from the southernmost to the northernmost point – and the various stops.
Missing from the map above, however, is Peddocks Island, one of the main locations of the film, which can be reached by taking a ferry from Boston (find all the info on the Boston Harbor Islands website) to which another half day should be devoted. I suggest you divide the itinerary into two days: the first day inland, which can end in Boston so you can start discovering the city, and the next morning you can take the ferry to the island.
The first stop on this itinerary on Shutter Island’s locations is in Taunton, at 437 Whittenton Street, where there is an old abandoned textile factory. In the film, the location was used to represent the Dachau concentration camp in Teddy Daniels’ memories, those flashes in which he relives traumatic events he endured while in the military during World War II. Incidentally, the killing of the Nazis at Dachau is a historical event that really happened on April 29, 1945, when the Americans liberated the camp (the “Dachau Massacre”).
Today it is still an old abandoned factory, with nothing special about it except “cinematic charm.”
Once here, however, one can stop by and visit the small but interesting Old Colony History Museum in Taunton to find out more about the history of the area.
Continuing north, one reaches Borderland State Park. At 259 Massapoag Avenue, on the banks of Leach Pond, is a small wood-and-stone house, the one that appears in Laeddis’s real memories, where the event took place that traumatized him (I won’t tell it so as not to be a spoiler, in case you haven’t seen the movie. Yes I know, twenty-five years have passed and it is no longer spoilers, but I prefer not to say anything, hoping to inspire that curiosity that entices you to go see the film, as well as visit the places).
Once there, you can stroll inside the park (a map with family-friendly trails can be found here) and visit the Ames Mansion, the home of Blanche Ames, an American artist and activist whose work is exhibited at the New York Metropolitan, also known for inventing a method for trapping enemy planes inspired by the way sewing machine thread jams.
We then come to the most important location – as much as Peddocks Island – in the film: the Medfield State Hospital Campus.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The hospital today is abandoned but going inside the buildings is absolutely forbidden, both because of the unsafe ondition they are in and also because they are filled with asbestos. So it is fine to take a walk outside – it is regularly accessible during the day and events are also held there – but DO NOT ENTER INSIDE THE BUILDINGS.
The Medfield State Hospital Campus opened its doors in 1896 and was the first hospital complex in Massachusetts. Designed by William Pitt Wentworth, a Vermont architect, the buildings in which patients stayed were divided into two floors: bedrooms on the second floor and spaces on the second floor that resembled those of home to let them relax and welcome their families. In the years before this hospital was established, the way patients were treated was labeled “barbaric.” Patients themselves were called inmates as if they were being admitted to be locked up instead of being treated. The idea of Medfield State Hospital was to change all this (it is also echoed in the film when Cawley explains that they prefer the use of the new psychotropic drugs to the old lobotomy). The official name was Medfield Insane Asylum, but years later it was changed to Medfield State Hospital. Over the years the hospital grew further and at one point came to consist of nearly 60 buildings spread over about 3 square miles of land, housing up to 2,000 patients and 1,000 employees. It produced its own heat and electricity, and it had agricultural fields and livestock to produce enough food for the patients and employees, as well as its own water source.
Many of the patients had no one outside the hospital, and when they died, their bodies were donated to Harvard University. Out of this loneliness and the isolation in which they were forced to live came the plaque seen in the film, which you will find among the hospital buildings today and is also found in Medfield’s Vine Lake Cemetery: “Remember us, for we too have lived, loved and laughed.”
The itinerary continues to Wilson Mountain Reservation, where the scenes were filmed in which Teddy and Chuck are caught in the storm while investigating the island. Here, in addition to looking for the exact spot where the scenes were filmed (384 Common Street) if you are a hiking enthusiast, you can delight in nice walks and get to the point where you can admire the Boston skyline from above.
The penultimate stop is East Point, Nahant, where the most famous lighthouse scenes were filmed.
The road to get here – Nahant Road, a tongue of land in Nahant Bay – will give you a wonderful view of the Boston skyline, and for that alone, it is worth getting there. To get to the exact spot where the scenes were filmed, you have to park your car where possible and walk about ten minutes to Lodge Park, a beautiful place with a stunning ocean view (and here is the second reason why it is absolutely worth getting there). Once here, however, do not look for the lighthouse because it does not exist. In reality, only the base was built and the rest was created by computer. Take advantage, however, of the walk around the park and relax while enjoying the view and the sea breeze.
Last stop on this unusual – but beautiful! – Massachusetts itinerary on the Shutter Island locations, is 251 Topsfield Road, in Ipswich. Here is the Turner Hill Golf Club, home to the Turner Hill Mansion, inside which the scenes were filmed in which Teddy and Chuck are hosted by Dr. Cawley in his home for drinks.
The name of the mansion dates back to 1638 when the property belonged to Captain Nathaniel Turner. In 1899, Anne Proctor and Charles G. Rice purchased the entire estate, then known as Brackett Farm, which included both Turner Hill and Little Turner Hill. Construction of the main residence began in 1900 under the direction of architect William G. Rantoul, who accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Rice to England to draw inspiration for their Elizabethan-style home. The mansion was completed in 1903 and included fourteen buildings, including the butler’s cottage, the garage with chauffeur’s quarters, the gardener’s house built in 1918, stables, and a greenhouse. After Charles Rice died in 1943, the estate was sold to the Missionaries of La Salette, who established a spiritual retreat there. Later, the property was converted into a golf club, with the main residence used as a clubhouse. Today, Turner Hill offers an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, an outdoor swimming pool, and other recreational facilities.
The perfect place to relax at the end of the itinerary!
