Band-Aid?

So, I keep reading all these different takes on the meaning/significance of the bandage on Teddy’s forehead in Shutter Island. I’m curious to hear what you think it means… if anything.

“There’s something wrong with his head.” Seems pretty direct to me. Nothin wrong with that.

The delusions are a psychological “band-aid” on the trauma.

I always overlook the obvious, too many years of film studies perhaps. I noticed that the part in the film when the bandage comes off is after the storm when they have their clothes cleaned & they are given the orderly uniforms. This is the same moment in the film when everything descends into madness. It’s a simple yet really effective device.

Did Scorsese really have to hit us over the head so hard? Okay…not the band-aid reference, but really. Seemed to me there were far too many road signs in that film that pointed to the obvious.

Insanity isn’t very subtle to begin with..

-“There’s something wrong with his head.”-

Oh christ, McCain looks more grim than one of the ghosts in Shutter Island. To say something’s wrong with his head would be an understatement. I’m still waiting on his apology for vomiting Sarah Palin into American Politics.

-But Scorsese hasn’t exactly proved to be a master of the subtle like Kubrick. This may be one reason why Shutter Island wasn’t so great.

In her Q&A for the Creative Screenwriting podcast, Laeta Kalogridis says that the band-aid is a wound from Teddy’s fight with George Noyce.

Literally, that’s what it is, yeah.