He recovered momentarily using the role-playing, but he regressed right away and restarted the whole delusion all over again.
I think I figured out the plot to the movie about 10 minutes in.
He was crazy. He knew he was crazy. He chose remain crazy instead of confronting reality.
He didn't regress at the end. Is it better to live as a monster or die as a good man. He wanted a lobotomy.
I thought it was like Total Recall, except 11ty billion times more credible. At the end you don't really know whether he was a patient or a marshal. It sure looks like he was a patient, but that's exactly what it would look like if he were a marshal and the bad guys won.
It is plausible to argue the "he really is a U.S. Marshall and they've brainwashed him at the end" theory. It all works. No other patients ever acknowledge Chuck as being the doctor that works there. Now, obviously that could have been part of their coaching, being told to play along, but there's no evidence that Chuck had ever been to Shutter Island before the beginning of the movie.
I don't think that's what happened. I think, as I stated earlier, that he was a patient, they finally got him to snap out of his fantasy, but he chose to get lobotomized rather than live with it. But I don't dismiss the alternative theory because there isn't anything concrete to disprove it with.
I don't see how you can come away from that movie thinking he was actually a marshall, whereas total recall definitely leaves you guessing at the end.
There are a few subtle hints. For example, the woman who killed her husband with an axe acknowledges Chuck as the doc. When asked by Leo if the Dr ever hurt her or any others she quickly makes a ghastly face as if taken aback/embarrassed by the question and glances over at Chuck. She then says he'd never do that and that he's actually a pretty good guy, and attractive too, she glances at him again. When she glances the second time, the camera cuts to Chuck and he gives a bit of a nervous smile/laugh.
I'm going to have to watch the movie again, for sure.
It seems like, while not revolutionary in terms of the story, it was certainly a finely-crafted movie with expert attention to detail. I think a few replays will show quite a few more underlying bits and pieces that one would miss the first time around.
But he was... before he went mad?
Please, you know what I meant.
One other thing - what was with the bandage over his eye the whole movie?
Yep. Really, there's just no reason his "character", that of the marshal, would just get up from the stairs and walk toward the head doctor, a security guard, and a few orderlies, not say a word, and just walk forward with them.
He knew what was going to happen. He knew he wasn't going to leave, at least... he may have had a chance to leave the facility if he thoroughly admitted to his actions and behavior, and that would mean returning to the real world with the knowledge he killed his wife in reaction to knowing his wife killed their kids. That would be hard to live with day to day. I personally could accept the murder as pure justice, but it'd would still be hard to live with day to day.
He knew after a lobotomy, he would be a zombie, likely not remember a damn thing, and also likely no longer have a single care in the world.
That was his preference, to kill his inner self.
Last 5 minutes of movie:
"My name is Andrew Laidis, and I murdered my wife in the spring of '52".
next morning w/ the doc (or his sidekick):
"How are you doing this morning?"
"Good and you?"
"can't complain"
Lights cigarette.
"So what's our next move?"
"You tell me"
"Gotta get off this rock Chuck, get back to the mainland, whatever is happening here is bad".
*Doc shakes head.*
"Don't worry partner, they're not going to catch us"
"That's right, we're too smart for them"
"Yea, we are aren't we?"
"This place makes me wonder, which would be worse, to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?"
...
Movie ends.
He regressed in the sense that he chose to "die as a good man", which is his delusion that he did not kill his wife (he subconsciously understood that he would be lobotomized and "die"). He didn't want to live on mentally stable - as a monster.
So yes, by regress, I mean he went back to his delusion of being a good marshal.
But he knew he was now acting out a character he made, to reach the end of being lobotomized, versus actually being that character.
He knew that night, and then the next morning he regressed:
No he did not. He was pretending to have regressed so that they would go on with the lobotomy. His line about dying a hero rather than living as a monster implies this fact. He's saying he'd rather die pretending to be the marshal he was, than live knowing what happened to his family. He was not delusion when he was taken away.
He was crazy. He knew he was crazy. He chose remain crazy instead of confronting reality.
The intent of the movie makers were clear.
He knew that night, and then the next morning he regressed:
"So what's our next move?"
"You tell me"
"Gotta get off this rock Chuck, get back to the mainland, whatever is happening here is bad".
*Doc shakes head.*
"Don't worry partner, they're not going to catch us"
"That's right, we're too smart for them"
"Yea, we are aren't we?"
Chuck is his fantasy sidekick Marshal if you recall.
Yes it was, and you've got it wrong. He did give himself away, to his personal shrink, you can even see the confusion evident on the Doc's face. I assume it was a way of saying "Yes, you're progression roleplay treatment worked, and thank you, but I have to put myself out of this misery." To use your logic, why would his, in character, just decide to get up and walk away with the orderlies that arrive to escort him? He wouldn't. He came to peace with his decision and carried on.