Keywords: comparative film evaluation essay example,
Shutter Island Insomnia. Movies such as "Shutter Island" and "Insomnia" both screen features of neo-noir and traditional noir films which contain a great deal of stress and suspense. The detectives in both movies are determined to find clues and answers that uncover the truth. In their attempts to uncover the truth, both detectives experience hallucinations and flashbacks using their company traumatic history. Each mystery requires an investigator or detective who has the overwhelming desire to uncover the reality. There tend to be many distractions and misdirections that the detectives must get over in order to resolve the puzzle. The misdirections of the instances are frequently induced by false or inaccurate leads, but each detective examines every business lead they acquire and treat it as being potentially helpful in handling the truth. The "Shutter Island" and "Insomnia" films possess distinctive similarities and disparate elements in the characterizations, cultural issues and cinematic results.
Film-noir is a movie genre located in the 1940s and 1950s that generally feature characteristics of secret or crime dramas. The elements of film-noir contain black and white produced tales that involve violence, crime, femmes fatales and skeptical detectives who seek the truth of a puzzle. Neo-noir is classified as a sub-genre of crime and puzzle tales which heavily rely on the effect of film-noir videos. "The word neo-noir describes any film approaching after the basic noir period that contains noir topics and the noir sensibility" (Conard 2). Neo-noir films often share a similar resemblance to film-noir genres in regards to the plots, topics, characterization and cinematography.
"Shutter Island" is a internal thriller based in 1954 that gives the impression of the classic film-noir. Symbol Conard says in his book, The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, "You know a classic-noir when you view it, with its unconventional light, tilted camera angles, and its off-center picture compositions" (Connard 1). The detective in "Shutter Island" is Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), a national marshal who travels to the island along with his spouse, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), to investigate the get away of patient in the mental institution. As Teddy Daniels further investigates the unknown of the island, he loses control in grasping the true truth as his perceptions are blurred by hallucinations and conspiracy.
As the storyplot unfolds in "Shutter Island", the audience is taken on a internal trip through the cognitive operations of Teddy Daniel's head. It is apparent to the key personality and the film audiences that there is a top secret hiding in this particular mysterious island. The story provides a solid discernment of Teddy Daniel's head as his sense of reality and dream is blurred. Through the entire film, Teddy encounters delusions that are derived from his traumatic history as an American soldier fighting Nazis in World Battle II, and the fatality of his wife. The exploration of Teddy's mind provides real entertainment for the viewer as it is difficult to tell apart fantasy from reality while experiencing everything through Teddy's eye. The realism in the mystery of the patient that escaped the island is available on an imaginative express which is subjected by the reality through the end of the film.
The main persona in the "Insomnia" movie is Will Dormer (Al Pacino), a experienced LAPD detective whose exhaustion is intensified with exposure to the unfamiliar northern Alaskan landscape where there is constant daylight. Dormer and his partner, Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan), have the troubling details in the autopsy of an teenage woman that was murdered in Alaska. The autopsy disclosed that the lady was extremely beaten and her head of hair had been brushed as well as her claws clipped by the murderer after her loss of life. One of the most significant moments is when Dormer and his partner are looking into the girl's murder. They start a feet chase with a suspect after being shot at in the thick fog. Dormer perceives a silhouette of somebody who looks like they are simply aiming to capture so he fires a shot at the person without hesitation. He works toward the body and realizes that he has taken and killed his own partner because he couldn't see through the thick fog. This symbolizes the protagonist's clouded judgment and is the start of his sluggish descent into insanity.
Dormer deliberately sits to the police in what really occurred and explains that the girl's murderer possessed shot his partner because he's afraid of the results. Dormer is dishonest about shooting his spouse and goes through great lengths to hide his own tracks rather than having full give attention to the murder case he was designated. The primary think of the girl's murder is novelist Walter Finch (Robin Williams) who witnessed the accidental shooting of Dormer's partner. The well-being of Dormer declines further as he experiences extreme sleep deprivation, hallucinations and flashbacks of accidentally shooting his spouse.
The characterizations of the protagonists in "Shutter Island" and "Insomnia" have analogous characteristics as they attempt to uncover the truth in each puzzle. The protagonists in both videos are persistent investigators who are shedding their grasp on reality credited to traumatic activities. Dormer and Teddy show mixed feelings including stress, guilt and worry. The protagonists in both movies are manipulated psychologically by the antagonists who drive them to do stuff that they normally wouldn't do. Dormer and Teddy's stories and troubles from the past have a significant affect on their attempts of resolving the mysteries.
Although there are many similarities in both movies, the cultural and social issues in each film are very different. "Shutter Island" was set in 1954 and bargains birth of psychiatry tests and the traumatic situations of World Battle II. The picture where in fact the camera pans on the American soldiers as they perform an execution of Nazi soldiers in the "Liberation of Dachau" conveys the barbaric characteristics of World Conflict II. Teddy experience many flashbacks of these occasions and the guilt begins wearing on his sanity.
The interpersonal issues in "Insomnia" deal with murder in a community and corruption within the authorities power. The murder has a drastic impact on the isolated Alaskan town where everyone understands one another. While investigating the murder, many of the officers are confronted with the difficult decisions of lying, framing suspects by planting information or clearing their own titles by destroying facts. Dormer's guilt of shooting his spouse delivers him into severe sleep deprivation where he seems increasingly delusional as the film continues on.
Cinematic effects such as camera photos, lighting and audio design are used in both videos to mention the pure thoughts of the characters in the films. "The best thing about Insomnia is that despite director Christopher Nolan's gentle place for moody-blues obfuscation, he gets the good sense to keep his superstar in almost every shot, " said Peter Rainer, a New York Magazine copy writer, on the film critic website, rottentomatoes. com (Rotten Tomatoes website). "Insomnia" made an attempt to zoom in on the protagonist's thoughts and sometimes showed the point of view images expressing the sleep deprivations and hallucinations from the sight of the main character. There was high contrast lamps used in arranging the ambiance in the Insomnia film. Despite the fact that a lot of this movie was shot outdoors in the regular daylight setting of Alaska, low-key lamps such as heavy fog and silhouettes were used to symbolize the amount of clarity in Dormer's mind as he remains to reduce sleep. The sound design found in Insomnia was used to build pressure and suspense in the film.
The cinematic results and setting found in "Shutter Island"enhance the symbolism and designs in the film. Similar to the "Insomnia" film's camera photos, "Shutter Island" also uses the zoom-in camera effect to display the feelings and thoughts of Teddy. When Teddy is experiencing hallucinations of the past, the camera photos and lighting adobe flash to point that he's dreaming or discovering flashbacks. Film critic, Lisa Kennedy, from rottentomatoes. com state governments, "What's real? What is delusion? What's montrous? What is decent? Shutter Island might not shatter the center but these are gnawing successes for a movie about madness and paranoia" (Rotten Tomatoes website). Flame was used as a key lamps to symbolize Teddy's insanity in the film. Hearth is the mark of Teddy's creativeness, while water can be used to symbolize the real reality of his recent. The sound design of "Shutter Island" correlates with the strong instrumental music to portray the suspense as found in many film-noir genres. ParralaxView. org clarifies noir sound design on the website, "The sound of noir-plaintive sax solos, blue cocktail piano, the wail of the distant trumpet through dark, moist alleyways, hot Latin beats oozing such as a neon glow from the half-shuttered home windows of forbidden nightspots" (Parralax View website).
The "Shutter Island" and "Insomnia" films display similarities and dissimilarities in the characterizations, cultural issues and cinematic results. The protagonists in both films are identified to find signs and answers that uncover the truth. Both detectives experience hallucinations and flashbacks of their traumatic history in their attempts to investigate the truth. There tend to be many diversions that the detectives must conquer in order to resolve the enigma. The ethnical and interpersonal issues in each film were contrasting even though there are numerous similarities in both movies. Cinematography was successfully utilized in each film with camera shots, lighting and sound design to display the pure emotions of the people in the videos.
