I recently watched
Shutter Island for the first time and immediately noticed more than a few connections with
Batman which, in much the same way
Pink Floyd's Darkside of the Moon syncs up with
Wizard of Oz allowed me a glimpse at the kind of Bat flick I suspect someone like
Christopher Nolan would have liked to make if he was given complete free reign over DC's biggest cash cow.
The most obvious between the two is of course the institutions themselves, it doesn't take the worlds number one bat freak to connect Shutter Island and
Arkham Asylum but it is strange how
Scorsese's picture and the video game by
Rocksteady Studios (both of which where released in 2009 although Shutter Island didn't get a full release till 2010) look so similar from being set on an island, the interiors of some of the buildings and both even have hidden caves located on the sides of inaccessible cliffs. But what are the other similarities that make this the greatest bat flick never made (the following contains spoilers)...
Think of
Leonardo DiCaprio's character as
Bruce Wayne: A detective who comes to the island to solve a crime only to find that he is the number 1 nut case due to a traumatic incident in his past involving the deaths of his family.
He is accompanied by his side kick who is aware of his insanity but wants to help his college which makes
Mark Ruffalo Dick Grayson....
The Asylum is run by two doctors one of which favors the psychological approach which would make
Ben Kingsley, Hugo Strange...
While
Max Von Sydow plays a doctor more interested with drugs and lobotomy not unlike the
Scarecrow (
Dr. Jonathan Crane)
The hero is haunted by hallucinations of a woman played by
Michelle Williams which make him act out in a manner which can be violent or debilitating. In Shutter Island she's his wife but on Bat Island this makes her
Poison Ivy...
It also worth pointing out that in the film she wears a floral print dress and in a scene in which she is shown to have a hollowed out back,
IMDB noted this could be an intentional reference to the
Huldra (Skogsra) who are wood nymphs in Norwegian mythology that seduce men and eventually turn into trees...
DiCaprio's character also where's a floral tie given to him by his wife in the comics people under Poison Ivy's influence are shown draped in her vines signifying her control over them....
A couple of other bat rouges also make cameos...
Elias Koteas plays a patient who's face is divided in two not unlike
Harvey Dent....
There's a character played by both
Emily Mortimer &
Patricia Clarkson who is portrayed as a psychiatrist, a nurse and a psychotic killer very much like the Joker's main squeeze
Harley Quinn...
and speaking of the
Clown Prince of Crime deep in the most secure ward on Shutter Island in a place set aside for only the most terrible and dangerous of inmates there's a facially scared prisoner played by
Jackie Earle Haley who's first words to DiCaprio's character are 'That's pretty damn funny...' and who's disfigurement gives him an inhuman 'smile'.....
A central part of the plot is the cryptic 'riddles' which are more that worthy of
Edward Nigma....
It is also this riddle that reveals the anagram of our heroes
secret identity which he created to deal with his tortured past, on Shutter Island
Marshall Edward Daniels discovers he is actually
Andrew Laeddis while on Bat Island
Detective Ian Bateman (I am Batman) discovers he's
Bruce Wayne.
And just to keep the game going in Shutter Island the hero is drawn toward a light house almost like a bat signal...
and the doctors car, a red 1947 Buick Roadmaster has more than a passing resemblance to the first
Bat-mobile a red 1936 Cord (although some think it's probably based on a Graham Paige 'Sharknose')....
Coincidence, probably but I'm now going to go read the novel of Shutter Island and decide from there if Denis Lehane sits at his desk typing away wearing nothing more than a cape and cowl.
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