Why Martin Scorsese Still Regrets Making Shutter Island

Martin Scorsese says he wishes he had skipped making 'Shutter Island' and gone straight to 'Silence'. That is not a small thing to hear from a guy whose movies practically rewired the medium. Here is how he got there, what he meant by it, and why it makes sense once you look under the hood.

The regret, straight from Scorsese

"Winning the Oscar for The Departed encouraged me to make another picture with Shutter Island. It turned out I should have gone on probably to do Silence."

That is Scorsese in a GQ interview, basically saying the post-'Departed' momentum nudged him into a big, commercial thriller instead of jumping into the passion project that had been calling him for years. He also pointed to 'Shutter Island' as "the last studio film" he wanted to make in the traditional sense, the kind with a big corporate machine and all the guardrails that come with it.

What went wrong (and what had been going wrong)

Scorsese has been open for a long time about hating the way certain studios try to make movies—budget tug-of-war, calendar pressure, notes stacked on notes. Coverage around this period ties some of that frustration to Harvey Weinstein-era meddling. To be clear, Weinstein was notorious for that kind of interference on other Scorsese projects (think 'The Aviator'), and you can hear how bruising that was in Scorsese's own words.

"The last two weeks of editing and mixing 'The Aviator,' I said if this is the way you have to make films then I am not going to do it anymore. It is like being in a bunker and you are firing out in all directions. You begin to realize you are not speaking the same language anymore, so you cannot make pictures anymore."

By the time he finished 'Shutter Island' in 2010, he had basically decided: never again like this. Not that he stopped making big movies—he absolutely did—but the experience pushed him to seek different kinds of partners and setups where he could breathe.

The movie he wishes he made instead

'Silence' finally arrived in 2016 with Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson, adapted from Shusaku Endo's novel about two Jesuit priests who head to 17th-century Japan searching for their mentor and colliding with faith, doubt, and persecution. It is a film he had been chasing for decades, and it looks and feels like it—meditative, severe, all in on the spiritual and the human. Rodrigo Prieto shot it, and you can feel the patience in every frame.

So, what does that say about 'Shutter Island'?

'Shutter Island' is a very effective genre piece—moody, grim, and constantly messing with your head. It is set in 1954 on a storm-battered rock in Boston Harbor, mostly inside Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Leonardo DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, partnered with Mark Ruffalo's Chuck Aule, poking into the disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solando while Ben Kingsley's Dr. John Cawley looks on with that perfect poker face. It is based on Dennis Lehane's novel, and the movie leans into themes Scorsese has danced with before—trauma, identity, guilt—but it does it through a tight, plot-first mystery rather than the messy, character-forward energy of 'Goodfellas' or 'Taxi Driver'.

The craft is there: claustrophobic images, a suffocating sense of isolation, cutting that keeps you off balance. The music—curated under Robbie Robertson's watch—amps the dread. The dialogue is more functional than quotable, by design. Some critics and even fans call it one of his most purely "Hollywood" thrillers: gripping and beautifully built, but not overflowing with that unfiltered Scorsese spark. I like the movie just fine; I also get why he does not see himself in it the way he does in his more personal work.

Quick timeline

• 2007: Scorsese wins Best Director for 'The Departed' and feels the push to follow with a big commercial play.
• 2010: He releases 'Shutter Island' and realizes the full studio grind is not how he wants to work anymore.
• 2013: He still makes a massive movie with 'The Wolf of Wall Street' but under circumstances that better fit how he wants to operate.
• 2016: He finally makes 'Silence'—the one he wishes he had done right after 'The Departed'.

Where to watch

'Shutter Island' is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime and Apple TV in the U.S.