Blog Post 1-Mystic River: 3/7/16

Joseph Ucci

Blog Post 1: Mystic River

            The entire plotline of Mystic River revolves around the childhood incident that turned the lives of Jimmy, Sean, and especially Dave. Dave repeatedly sees cues that trigger his recall of these haunting memories. When he is telling his son bedtime stories, he alters the story to reflect what had happened to him when he was a child. Dave tries to repress his thoughts of the violent act but ends up experiencing cognitive dissonance in which his thoughts clash and cause him to act in ways to reduce his discomfort. Dave even hides his childhood confrontation from his wife, Celeste, because he is so uncomfortable with the subject. Not until, he breaks down to plead innocent and confused of Katie’s murder does he reveal what happened. The abduction of Dave also affects Jimmy because after Katie is murdered, Jimmy can’t help but think that if he were taken instead, Katie could have never been born, therefore never murdered. Sean’s guilt from Dave’s abduction is reflected in his homicide investigation regarding Katie’s murder. Sean feels that he owns Dave for not helping him as a child so he tries to make him seem like the innocent, good-guy in the case. The characters never reveal exactly what happened to Dave when he got kidnapped by the two men and thrown in the cellar for four days, but viewers can easily infer. Eastwood’s choice of leaving out the details to the kidnapping allows the viewers to really think what could have happened that made Dave so scarred for life. Could Dave have been sexually abused, physically abused, emotionally abused, or maybe even a mixture of all three? It is constantly expressed throughout the movie of the everlasting effects that follow each man regarding the event.