“One of the things that Scorsese said right from the beginning was that I want silence, silence, as much silence as possible. Of course the instinct of the sound editors is always to put tons of sounds in–things echoing, footsteps echoing, dripping water, and all of those things. When I first went in to do the preliminary mix I said to them you have to be aware that he doesn’t want that. He wants silence, silence, as much as possible. Silence is much more powerful, which we learned on Raging Bull. Taking the sound away at times, at critical times, is much more powerful than pumping all kinds of sound in.”
—Thelma Schoonmaker discussing Shutter Island on the Film Programme
