Dave's Days of Despair

            In Eastwood’s Mystic River, there are many incidences of violence that are implied rather than seen. The best example of this is the four days Dave spent with the two men that took him away. Dave was shown in a basement with a sleeping bag. The men walked in and Dave said, “Please not again.” The only other part of the abduction that was shown was Dave running through the woods trying to find his way home. It was clear that he was physically and emotionally lost. Eastwood does not show any violence but certain actions are implied and then left to the audience’s interpretation. This incident is the main event that the entire movie is based on. Jimmy and Sean are left with a feeling of guilt their entire lives, imagining how their lives would have been different if they were the ones taken away rather than Dave. The audience gained an understanding that what happened to Dave was something so awful that it should not be seen. 

            Dave was never the same after he was taken away. This is shown with his relationships with his wife, Jimmy, and Sean. Eastwood also depicts the ending of “Dave” when the concrete slab is shown and Dave’s name is unfinished. Whatever happened to Dave when he was taken cause him to kill a male pedophile on his way home from a bar one night. He had so much hatred for what the man was doing that something inside of him pushed him to his breaking point. Dave’s wife, Celeste, had not known what had happened to Dave until he finally told her. He told her that he did not know what had happened to “Dave” but that he would never be the same “Dave” that he was before he was abducted.