Mystic River: Question #1

Dave is the only innocent man of the movie. His innocence, then, also leads to the necessity of forgiveness of his crimes. No other character in the movie can be cleansed of their crimes. Jimmy, a violent, reactionary man, only murders to harm other people. It is true he murders Dave out of revenge for his daughter; however, his murder technically has no purpose. To murder Dave is to gain some sadistic form of closure. Sean is not worthy of forgiveness because he allows Jimmy to run rampant in Boston, causing chaos and death. He is an enabler of Jimmy’s negative, impulsive behavior, and can easily stop Jimmy from murdering Dave. Therefore, Dave is the only faultless man of the movie. Although he has blood on his hands, his ultimate goal is always to save people from living his past. Dave murders the pedophile because he wants to help and sees himself in the sexually assaulted boy. While Jimmy murders Just Ray and Dave out of pure hatred, Dave murders to save a sexual abuse victim. This makes Dave completely innocent. Many people would agree his crime is heroic — in fact, this is most likely the reason why the death of the pedophile is not reported in the first place. It is ironic how Dave is looked down upon and judged by Jimmy, a man whose crime is on the complete opposite spectrum of right and wrong. It is even more ironic that Jimmy is the man who takes on the role of God by determining Dave’s fate, with his false information. Dave is the only innocent man, and the only man who should receive forgiveness for his "bad"deeds, because all he has done is for the common good. He is the hero; Sean and Jimmy are villains.