The introduction to the three main
characters (Sean, Jimmy, and Dave) in Mystic
River occur through an unfortunate event.
The abduction of Dave by two men claiming to be police officers sets the
series of events into action. Although
we have no explicit explanation of Dave’s time with the two men, it is implied
he received physical and mental trauma due to rape. The decision to leave the specific abuse out
of the movie hurts the impact of the abuse and the explanation for Dave’s
actions later in the movie.
The mugging is the second act of implicit
violence. When Dave returns home with
his injuries, he tells a story about being attacked and hurting another
man. Celeste does not find evidence of
this in the newspaper but sees Katie is dead.
By not showing the events, suspicion builds around Dave and his actions.
The lack of context to support the claims forms questions about innocence in
the minds of the characters and audience.
Dave is mentally unstable and does not see the harm in his little white lie
to his wife. Katie’s death impacts the
whole community and Celeste turns against Dave to tell Jimmy of her suspicions.
This missing information about the
attack ultimately is (literally) the death of Dave. The movie teaches about being honest and not
jumping to conclusions. The logical conclusion
was that Dave kills Katie for revenge because of the information omitted but this
conclusion is dangerous. He kills a child
molester because of the pain he endures. Once his innocence is shown the audience sees
the power of the whole story and connects the missing information. Dave loses his life because the whole story
is not known and Jimmy jumped to conclusions.
I agree that the implicit violence involving Dave's kidnapping holds an impact in the movie. The event is the beginning of the chain of events that follow. I believe the lack of information about Dave's mugging leads the audience suspicion and assumption that he is the killer. Due to Dave's past incident, "Dave is mentally unstable and does not see the harm in his little white lie to his wife." Everyone predicts that Dave is the criminal because we are left without knowing what truly happened to him, plus his wife also assumes he was the one who killed Katie. Poor Dave, he is accused for murder when he was just trying to save a boy from a pedophile. :(
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree with your analysis of implied information rather than explicitly heard information. I believe modern people behave in the same way the characters in Mystic River behave. No one believes anything today. In the era of internet and instant photo-sharing, if a picture does not exist of the event, it did not happen. Conversely, Dave, Jimmy, and Sean all know each other from the time when the ability to share information quickly did not exist. Ergo, Jimmy should have believed Dave when he says he did not kill Katie. The boys are from a time where a person's word meant more than it does today. In your analysis you fully explain that "Dave loses his life because the whole story is not known...". Subsequently, if the characters listened to each other more, and drew upon their trust from friendships past, then perhaps Dave would be alive.
ReplyDelete