Review: Shutter Island Blu-ray

STUDIO: Paramount | DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese | CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer
RELEASE DATE: 6/8/2010 | PRICE: DVD $19.99, Blu-ray $29.99
BONUSES: two featurettes on Blu-ray
SPECS: R | 138 min. | Thriller | 2.35:1 | DTS-HD audio

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Martin Scorsese’s thriller Shutter Island is one of those movies that keeps paying in multiple viewings, and with the Blu-ray version, fans won’t be disappointed.

The picture looks great, not so much in its sharpness, as Scorsese kept the image somewhat soft for atmosphere, but in the color saturation. Scorsese used color well in the film, pumping it up in the flashback scenes and emphasizing certain colors, such as red blood and blue eyes, to bring them to the attention of the audience. With Blu-ray, the use of color is even more effective, with the reds, blues and yellows jumping off the screen.

The sound is equally high in quality. The clang of metal prison cell doors is all the more creepy with the DTS-HD.

The movie, which grossed a tidy $127.6 million at the box office, stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) as a U.S. Marshall trying to investigate the case of a missing patient at an institute for the criminally insane. During the investigation, he tries to come to terms with the earlier death of his wife (Michelle Williams of Brokeback Mountain) and works with a new partner (Mark Ruffalo of The Kids Are Alright). Ben Kingsley (Prince of Persia), Max Von Sydow (The Exorcist), Emily Mortimer (City Island) and Patricia Clarkson (Phoebe in Wonderland) round out the cast.

Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island has a nice twist at the end, and once audiences are in the know, they’ll see more in the movie in subsequent viewings. In the “Inside the Lighthouse” featurette on the Blu-ray, Scorsese talks about this, saying he felt as though he was directing three movies instead of just one because of the way the story and characters unfold.

The featurette also explores the psychology of the characters and, as well as Scorsese, includes interviews with stars DiCaprio, Williams, Mortimer and others.

The Blu-ray also includes a making-of “Behind the Shutters” featurette, which, aside from a bit of ‘so and so’s a genius,’ is an interesting look at the film’s production. Fans of Lehane’s novel will be thrilled to see the best-selling author talking about his inspiration for the book and how he wrote it.

The DVD version of Shutter Island has no extras.

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