Eastwood outdoes himself in this film. He weaves many complicated story lines together into this masterpiece. With the use of flashbacks and low key lighting he sets the mood for the sadness that progressively builds as the story unfolds. The plot is centered around three childhood friends, Jimmy Sean and Dave, who have grown apart in recent years due to one traumatic event in their past when Dave was abducted by pedophiles. Now their lives once again are intertwined as the the circumstances of the death of Jimmy's daughter lead them to look to each other in search of answers.
Both Jimmy and Sean play classic Eastwood characters in that they will do what ever it takes to fix things. Jimmy who was a main man in the Savage Brothers gang and since cleaned up his life reverts back to his old ways in order to solve his daughter's murder. Much like Eastwood's character in Unforgiven reverts back to his old ways at the end for one last killing. And the character of Sean is a cop who does what must be done to bring to the surface the real truth about the events. Though Eastwood would usually be playing one of the more bad ass roles in his movies he is far to old to play these characters so he only directs this movie.
Another trend that i have noticed in Eastwood's movies are characters who come from broken families. In Million Dollar Baby the the main character grows up without a father. In Grand Turino the Asian kid also has no father to look after him. And in this movie we find that the dead girl's boyfriend grows up without a father. All these characters who play pivotal roles in the plot come from broken pasts.
Once again the ending of the movie leaves me depressed andwondering why we picked Eastwood as our director. But then again the movie was well made and sends a powerful message and that can't be overlooked so it wasn't bad. I'm going to watch some happy movies before I watch another Eastwood movie that's for sure.
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The idea of the broken families appears again and again in Eastwood movies as well as a broken down down main character. The endings in his movies are all have something in common. They usually have a traumatic event overshadow the underlying good and moral of the story. In Mystic River, the death of Dave overshadows the event where they finally find the murderer. Because of this it's hard to feel good after watching his movies. Overall, I thought Mystic River was a good movie and Clint does outdo himself in it. On a different note, I was a little disappointed that he didn't act in this movie. He always does a great job when he acts.
i agree with peter in every sense of this blog the lighting how it gives an eerie feeling to many situations and how childhood friends seperated and back together is a brilliant theme. The idea of the broken family is a key point about how the families all are fractured in one way or another creating a feeling of disgust for the viewer. I disagree with grady in the sense that clint eastwood should not act in this movie cause there is not one role he could fit in it was key that he was not present in the movie with the all star cast it already had.
I don't know what grady was talking about Eastwood being in this movie, i think he would be too old for any of the main characters. Though he is a good acter he can't pretend to be thirty years younger. it just can't be done grady! On another note the main characters of eastwood's movies tend to always be semi religous. in both Million Dollar Baby and Grand Torino Eastwood's character is a man who doesn't completely feel at home in the church but still finds himself going there at times, and Sean Penn's character in Mystic River makes a big deal about his daughter's first communion, he has a large tatoo of a cross on his back and he refers to the river as where he goes to wash away his sins.
Okay... Really guys? I was just saying I would like to see a movie with Clint in it. He didn't have any possible role in this one. I thought it was interesting how you mentioned that religion plays a big role in his films. Many characters seek guidance through the church. Another stand out trait that they have is, as Peter mentioned before, they like to fix things. When they see a problem they don't run away, they face it head on. In Gran Torino he took initiative and took out the gang by himself. Characters like that has show up in all the movies we watched, as well as characters with broken families and histories. These characters and their development through the story is essential to his movies and Mystic River is no exception.
first of all grady the role odf the church in this film is miniscule it is only present in the first communion scene otherwise irrelevant to the plot. Secondly grady they dont like to fix things they act rashly which makes everything worse sean penns charecter ends up killing a childhood friend and shows no remorse where is religion evident there what problem is being fixed by him murdering a friend and showing absolutly no remorse. One more thing i would like to bring to the table is the twisted plot of the film it is family turning on each other in ne place and a family covering up felonies and its a very twisted feeling of being unable to trust anyone.
this film does go into the theme that crime causes even the best of friends and families to fall apart. Eastwood shows that crime comes between Sean who becomes a cop and Jimmy who becomes a leader of a gang. it also comes between Dave and his wife when she believes that he killed Jimmy's daughter and those thoughts end up being why Dave gets killed at the end. Though none of the terrible things that the main characters do are investigated they still feel the consequences of their actions.
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