Sutter Island (Movie Review Sample)

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Introduction
Sutter Island
Based on a 2003 thriller novel by Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island is a movie directed by Martin Scorsese, set in the 1950’s, an era when most American men from the WWII would easily get a job as uniformed police officers. In this film, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of US Marshal Teddy Daniels who mission to "Shutter Island" located in Boston Harbor is to investigate about a psychiatric facility on the island. However, this is not his main reason for being profoundly troubled. His wife’s death and war record seem to be Daniells cause his troubled personal life.
Daniel and his partner Chuck head to Ashecliffe hospital meant for the criminally insane built on Shutter Island. Chuck Aule is a role played by Mark Ruffalo as a strong, level-headed and not pretentious about what he sees. Teddy is convinced that his wife’s murder suspect is still in the facility. The two officers find themselves trapped on the island due to the adverse weather condition. To add to their misery is the prison chief Dr. Cawley played by Ben Kingsley. As the main psychiatrist, Dr. Cawley explains some of his profuse therapies he administers to the psychotic murders under his care.
As the investigations continue, without the help of neither the staff nor patients Daniel decides to break into ward C. There he meets a patient George (Jackie Earle Haley) who warns him that the facility is being used to perform doubtful tests on its patients. He also warns Daniels that everyone is playing in a game including Aule designed for him. In the course of the film, Dr. Cawley explains to him that ‘Daniels’ is indeed Laeddis the arsonist who killed his wife and, Dr. Sheehan posing as Aule was part of the test. By the end of the film, we simply realize that Daniels is a psychiatric patient Laeddis who the doctors are trying to rehabilitate.
The Green Mile
With Frank Darabont as director "The Green Mile" is an enthralling drama movie based on a 1996 novel by Stephen King of the same title. The film based on flashbacks features Tom Hanks taking the role of Paul Edgecomb as a death row corrections officer. With Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey a giant black man unlike the character he portrays he is convicted of rape and murder charges of two young girls. Paul narrates to his elderly friend Elaine (Eve Brent) of his life back in 1935 as an officer at cellblock called the Green Mile. The name they believed explained that the prisoners that were heading for execution were walking the ‘last mile’. With the area characterized by a faded lime green floor, it gave the name a reasonable meaning.
The movie begins with Paul watching a movie an old movie ‘Top Hat’ that gives him disturbing memories. Seeing him with tears Elaine gets concerned, and that is when Paul narrates the story of what happened at Cold Mountain penitentiary when he was a corrections officer there. At the facility, John performed a number of supernatural acts including healing Paul’s urinary tract problem. At the same time, a new guard Percy Wetmore played by Doug Hutchison who with pride of being connected to influential people, he is a sadistic character and despised by most people with whom he works with at the facility.
It is around this period that a new inmate William "Wild Bill" Wharton played by Sam Rockwell is brought to the facility. When John grabs Wharton’s hand is when he realizes that he (Wharton) is the true murderer of the two girls that he is accused of killing. When Paul interrogates John who claims that he punished the bad men, he then takes Paul’s hand to show him what happened. Finally, John is executed on the electric chair. At 108 years, Paul believes that his long life is punishment from God for letting John die.
Findings
The first similarity is that Daniels and John both killed in their minds they saw this as saving the world o dangerous criminals. Daniels killed his wife who murdered their children and John killed Wharton who was responsible for the murder and rape of two young girls. Both films revolve around correctional facilities located far away with dangerous criminals involved in a number of murders. The directors of both movies come with an interesting twist that that changes the whole story as portrayed in the beginning and ending. In Shutter Island, it starts with the Daniels as an investigator set to find the man responsible for his wife’s death only to find he is the one. In the Green mile, Paul works as a correctional officer guarding inmates on death row believed to have committed violent crimes such as murder. In the end, he is the one feeling guilty for the death of John who he believes was innocent and did not do anything to save him. Another similarity is guilt and hurt that the two lead characters ‘Daniels’ and ‘Paul’ portray in the two films.
The Green Mile brings in an interesting twist with the supernatural elements in a real world situation. On the other hand, Shutter Island revolves around criminally insane characters that require psychiatric rehabilitation. For Shutter Island criminals are seen to be psychotic and with proper treatment, they can be rehabilitated to accept their past and change. In Green Mile, the criminals are subjected to punishment and death for their criminal activities. In Green Mile, the story revolves around flashback that the main character Paul has, of which he narrates to a third party while in Shutter Island, the whole story runs in real time.
Conclusion
Shutter Island is an entertaining film although it requires a lot of attention for one to understand the plot. Though the film is quite long, it is worth watching even as the whole story comes clearly to one’s mind when he finally finishes watching. Since, most of the scenes are best understood when one nears the end of the film. The performance is exceptional with director Martin managing to keep the suspense the role of Daniels perfectly executed by Leonardo. The ambiguity in the film is also, what makes the whole story captivating. In my own opinion, the idea of having two storylines perfectly executed in one film played at the same time is a perfect piece of art worth watching.
Even with three hours run time, The Green Mile is still a thoughtful, interesting movie with an interesting plot to watch. The director Darabont does a fascinating job in fitting the characters perfectly to their roles. However, his focus on the characters is rather time wasting instead of focusing more on the plot of the film. He rather spends too much time on unnecessary scenes such as Edgecomb’s bladder problem rather than the main story of the film. Another hitch comes when almost one hour into the movie it is quite clear on what to expect in the rest of the movie. With a few upsetting scenes such as the one with the electric chair gives the audience its share of tears. With a few touches of spooky and supernatural events, this drama-filled film is worth earning an attentive audience.
New and innovative tactics that are applied to traditional correctional models
There had been a number correctional models dating back into when the first available material in (4500BC) of criminal justice were written. Rehabilitation, fines, death sentence by various means and torture are some of the correctional models still practiced to this day. Some of the new and innovative tactics include therapy and medication as opposed to torturing as in Shutter Island. Instead of the traditional version of correctional models that included torture where the criminal underwent pain suffering in order to confess. Here with therapy and medication the suspect is made to accept his actions and finally confess. By subjecting a criminally insane person into a third party position such as an investigator (role played by Daniels), he is able to reconnect and finally remember the events that took place. In Green Mile although the criminals were still subjected to execution by the electric chair, there h...