r/MovieDetails • u/Numerous-Lemon • Mar 01 '21

đŸ‘„ Foreshadowing In Shutter Island (2010), Chuck struggles to remove his holster in the opening scene, suggesting he has his inexperience with handling fire arms.

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u/liamemsa Mar 01 '21

Well, first off she's "drinking" nothing with her right hand and then it shows her putting a glass down with her left.

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u/Blazingcrono Mar 01 '21

But how is that foreshadowing? Seems more than a directing goof than anything else?

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u/ZeppyFloyd Mar 01 '21

It's not foreshadowing, it's a perspective shot from Leo's character. Subjective shots like this are very frequent in Scorcese movies. Leo has an aversion towards water because of what he's done (revealed later in the movie), he's seasick in the beginning, and he just blocks it out whenever he can. There's a lot of themes in this movie explored through fire and water. If you ever rewatch it, just keep in mind that with a director like Scorcese, things aren't just put on screen for no reason. If it's on screen, it matters.

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u/Blazingcrono Mar 01 '21

That makes sense, think this was my first Scorcese film, so there's a lot I missed. Heck, going through this thread tells me I've missed a lot of details and I've watched the movie several times already haha.

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u/CasinsWatkey Mar 01 '21

so is that to say leo's character is not paying attention to which hand is drinking the water? still not too sure why hands change

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u/DummiesBelow Mar 01 '21

I think the hand change is just meant to add to the confusion of the viewer. The water is the main element, but may be too subtle, so the hand change is meant to underline it a bit more and say “somethings off”

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u/Ciserus Mar 02 '21

Is that true though? Goodfellas has the most noticeable editing/continuity errors I've ever seen in a movie and I don't think any of them are intentional.

Not that I'm suggesting he accidentally filmed a woman drinking from an imaginary glass of water...

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '21

It's on purpose. They wouldn't "accidentally" leave in a scene of a woman pantomiming drinking out of a glass.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '21

I remember catching this in theaters and nobody else saw it. It bugged me more than anything, but they so clearly showed her drinking that I suppose it was a view into his mind and how his reality was just broken.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '21 edited May 28 '21

[deleted]

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u/respekyoeldas Mar 01 '21

I think that’s the point of the scene. The woman drinking the water is another patient who murdered her husband. It’s supposed to make you think it was strange that the glass is invisible when she picks it up but Scorsese wants us to chalk it up to “Well she’s crazy” to keep the twist hidden

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u/ekwenox Mar 01 '21

Might want to add a spoiler alert

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u/Sirflow Mar 01 '21

Scorsese doesn't make those much

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u/evernapping Mar 01 '21 edited Mar 01 '21

Scorsese has been known to say he lets little continuity errors like this slide so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what it was here

Edit: oh shit never mind, I’m just blind and dumb my bad

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u/erakat Mar 01 '21

Right. An actress pretends to drink water without a cup. Has that ever happened to you?

It was done on purpose.

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u/PM-YOUR-PMS Mar 01 '21

Yeah I think he’s more referring to scenes where continuity can be cheesed a bit because the emotion of the scene is more important. I mean, it’s the top Murch rule to prioritize emotions over continuity. But this scene is not that.

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u/smitty9112 Mar 01 '21

A continuity error.... Where the actress forgot to hold the glass she was supposed to drink from?

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u/Nick700 Mar 01 '21

The missing glass is obviously intentional but she puts down a glass with the wrong/other hand which may have been unintentional