In the initial story, the suspense novel, it was wholly intended that Daniels is crazy. I think it was Scorseze's creative input that made the film what it was. In the film, both possibilities are equally possible. Again, this is not the original intent of the story, but an artistic change in the film.
He's crazy:
(Dr. Cawley explains that patients were submerged in water until unconscious OR DROWNED)
This is an attempt of Cawley's to jar Laeddis' memory of his wife's crime
(The "real" Rachel Solando)
This is a further projection as a part of his paranoid insanity
(Dead Chuck off of the cliff)
Yet another projection
("is it better to live as a monster or die a good man?"
Andrew Laeddis, now sane, telling his doctor that he is allowing himself to be neutralized to forget the horror of his actions.
There are many more, but here are just a few scenarios that are circumstantial to the interpretation.
He's not crazy:
(Dr. Cawley explains that patients were submerged in water until unconscious OR DROWNED)
This is an attempt of Cawley's to seed a portion of this false reality that they are going to impress upon Daniels
(The "real" Rachel Solando)
This can be a real discovery which is why she mentions aspects of the case that aren't later addressed, like his cigarettes, she also is very logical. It is important to realize that though the procedures she claims that the doctors are trying to perform aren't suggested to have succeeded, so they really aren't too far fetched. She also mentions factual aspects of the case not later addressed, like the ice pick shown at the end of the film.
(Dead Chuck off of the cliff)
Another aspect of the forced insanity, Chuck Aul was always Dr. Sheehan and placing a fake dead body and removing the character is an attempt to make Daniels think he's hallucinating.
("is it better to live as a monster or die a good man?"
This is Teddy Daniels' surrender to the tact of the hospital, admitting defeat. But it is also a stab at Dr. Sheehan saying, "yeah, you guys are going to kill me, but you have to live with yourself as a monster." He is then ushered toward the lighthouse that is supposedly empty.
There are many more two-sided hints, it really spices up the film to seek them out for yourself. But there are also undeniable clues that show that the original intent is his insanity. Clues like his projection of Laeddis being fantastic and overly-dramatic, he has two different colored eyes and his face is divided by a scar, this is a physical picture of the divided nature of his psyche. Also, the anagrams in the names are too concrete to be coincidence.
So what we have is the struggle between a writer who intended a story about an insane man in denial, and a director who intends to force an unsolvable, parallel mystery.
Next time you watch the film, consider these two realities:
Andrew Laeddis killed his wife because she drowned their three children, he then was sent to a mental health facility. Taking advantage of an impending storm, the head psychologist, Dr. Cawley, and Laeddis' main primary, Dr. Sheehan decide to stage a roll play outlining Laeddis' false reality to prove to him that there is no fact in his suspicions. Laeddis pretends to relapse into insanity to escape living with the regret of his real past.
Federal marshal Edward Daniels' pursuit of the man responsible for his wife's death has led him to stumble upon a government-funded hospital who are secretly experimenting upon their patients to build controllable soldiers (not necessarily successfully). His investigation has caught the attention of the hospital who have staged a fake prisoner-escape to get him on the island where they can make it seem as if he's gone crazy. This is a tactic they have used in the past on prying eyes like Dr. Rachel Solondo. Dr. Cowley, with the help of a fellow doctor in disguise as a federal marshal, then successfully quiet the snooping marshal and take them to their lab in a lighthouse.
(In neither case is the escape real or is Chuck a real marshal)
No comments:
Post a Comment