"It's a madhouse- a madhouse!!!"

Rating: 10/10 (26 February 2010)

Not unlike Richard Matheson's 7 STEPS TO MIDNIGHT (itself a cross, of sorts, between SHUTTER ISLAND and THE BOURNE IDENTITY), SHUTTER ISLAND keeps one guessing. We've seen these kinds of questions dealt with throughout the history of Hollywood (and beyond), from THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and BEDLAM to (sorta) CARNIVAL OF SOULS (and, hence, David Lynch's MULHOLLAND DR.) and JACOB's LADDER to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and TITICUT FOLLIES (the latter a documentary) to Scorcese's own BOXCAR BERTHA, TAXI DRIVER, and RAGING BULL. An uncle of mine fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War Two and it had a lasting effect on him- as it no doubt had on any man who fought there (or anywhere else during that war) (or any other, for that matter). Both Martin Scorcese's brilliant direction and Leonardo DiCaprio's performance make SHUTTER ISLAND an important movie. See it.