Teddy is a U.S. Marshall who goes to mental hospital on Shutter Island.

Rating: 10/10 (15 November 2010)

I started watching Shutter Island with a slight twinge of anticipation as I am not a fan of horror movies. However, when the credits started rolling I was not speechless because I was scared. I was speechless because of Teddy's (DiCaprio's) last line. Is it better to live as a monster or die as a good man? This movie leaves you thinking. Is Teddy right in living in a fantasy world where he can be whoever he wants? Or is it wrong to live without facing the truth? Most people might argue that it is not healthy to live in a state of constant delusion where reality is whatever you conjure up in your own mind yet to some extent we do this everyday. We think truth (whatever is real; reality)can be decided on an individual basis. Martin Scorsese presents viewers with a character who decides for himself what his world looks like. Teddy lives in his own world. In reality, Teddy's wife kills their children and he kills her. Teddy feels guilty for not getting her help and then for killing her. But in his own "reality," his wife died when another man set their apartment building on fire and they never had children. Teddy believes he is a U.S. Marshall helping to investigate a disappearance at a mental facility. In his mind he is doing good. Does the fact that Teddy thought he was a good man indeed make him a good man? I would say no. Teddy is making one very wrong assumption. He assumes, like most people today, that the only opinion that matters is his own. He creates his own reality so he would rather die a hero in his own mind then live as a "monster." No matter what Teddy thought in his mind, in his own reality, he could not change the truth or real reality. Just because Teddy thought he was a good person did not change his actions or their consequences. No matter what we think about truth or reality, we cannot change what really is. You can make up your own truth all you want but in the end, unless you have Truth (what really is), you are no better than Teddy dying as a delusional, crazy "monster." I highly recommend this movie for anyone really but especially if you are of the mindset that you determine what is true for you because you need to see firsthand the ramifications of your thinking and what happens when you live without knowing what really is.