Style and Tone Research - Shutter Island

Style and Tone Research

Shutter island, having been already analysed in a previous post is a film about Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his psychological battle to try and obtain sanity - having been sent to an state jail located on an isolated island. Some shots in the film allow us to gage Teddy's personality and to what extent he has a fragmented personality. The shot seen to the right, an establishing, fixed shot is essential in seeing his deteriation in mental health from the start of the film to the end, where he is seen holding a match in front of his face, wearing prisoner clothes.  In the shot seen above, the focus of the camera is on Teddy, with everything around him blurred. The presence of a police officer is the background allows us to set the scene, with the obviously artificial lighting helping build the atmosphere. Compared to our film, this shot is very similar to the first shot in ours, with the zoom in to Kevins face. We figured we could take the idea of a blurred background and transpose it to our film, helping to build the same atmosphere as Shutter Island at this point.

As mentioned above, this shot helps us to see the mental and physical deteriation of the main character. The use of the mid - close shot with the blurred background again allows us to focus on Teddy and analyse his looks, without being distracted by the background. The dark lighting with the only thing illuminating his face being a match allows us to paint the picture of the fragmented personality. The image shown below right is referring to a dream Teddy has, where he sees his dead wife only for her to dissapear leaving nothing but blood in the room. Rather obviously, these are not normal dreams to have. The shot itsself takes place in a dessolated place, seemingly the couples old house. The fading away of his wifes body represents the fading of his sanity and the effect of his pass on him.

Overall, in Shutter Island the use of lighting is the main way in which style and tone is portrayed. The usually dark or isolated imagery are essential in showing us the workings of Teddy's mind, especially his fragmented personality and mental deteriation through the film.

JL