#MYSTIC RIVER MOVIE#

But as the fact of Katie’s murder spreads, she slowly comes Hand damaged and his clothes smeared with blood, Celeste does not question him. When he returns from a night of drinking in the early hours of the morning, his

#MYSTIC RIVER MOVIE#

To life once more by uniting these three men and their fates.Īs the movie progresses, what dawns on us as it does on Boyle’s wife is that Boyle has committed Of its significance, he floats from one odd job to another. Himself has never recovered from the episode that so dominates his life that, despite his conscious denial

Still haunted by their failure to stick by Boyle when the two men demanded that he enter their car. The earlier crime still exerts its influence over the lives of all three men. Himself drawn into the web of this murder as if by a magnet. Harden), is the cousin of Markum’s second wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney). Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins), who was abductedĪnd repeatedly sodomized as a boy, still lives in the neighborhood and his wife, Celeste (Marcia Gay Of his former friendship with Markum, he remains tied to it. Sean Devine (Kevin Bacon) is one of the two policemen called to investigate the case and, because Through the horrific murder of Katie Markum (Emmy Rossum), the beautiful daughter of Jimmy Markum (Sean Together on the streets of East Buckingham, they are brought together, as if by some ordained power, Still, it is useful to call this fate.Īlthough the film’s three protagonists had grown apart since their days as fast friends playing The outcome of an individual’s intentions. That takes account of the role of circumstances and the actions of other human beings in determining That many people presume to be adequate for reflecting on their lives has to give way to a broader perspective Rather, it requires an acknowledgment that the everyday sense of control Although the Greeks called thisįate, recognition that our lives fit into patterns that are beyond our conscious control does not need

Men as determined by factors over which they seem to have no control. What Eastwood has accomplished in the film is the presentation of the lives of three Boston working-class Yet this film depicts the lives of three apparently ordinary men in just such Remarkable about the film is its ability to render this tale about three working-class Irish men in Eastīuckingham, a poor neighborhood in Boston, in terms that Aristotle argued apply more readily to the lives Rape of a young boy by two pedophiles has on him and his two friends some twenty-five years later. The film, based upon the book by Dennis Lehane, explores the impact that the abduction and The occasion for these reflections is the recent appearance of a genuine film tragedy: Clint Eastwood’s Mystic Many theorists a more suitable form than the delicate emotional structure of classical tragedy. Given film’s imperative to reach as wide an audience as possible, melodrama has seemed to

Of the form suggest that this broad audience explains the stylized and exaggerated nature of its emotional The late nineteenth century, as art became disseminated to a wider audience than ever before. That popular art form became widespread during This has to do with film’s relation to melodrama. Just the mention of MarcelĬarné’s 1945 masterpiece Children of Paradise or Vittorio de Sica’s 1948Īustere, neo-realist film The Bicycle Thief makes it clear that tragedy has been presented onĪnd yet I still have a sense that film is not a natural venue for tragedy. While there are many film comedies, varying in form from slapstick to romance, there are farįewer examples of successful film tragedies. SUBSCRIBE NOW Films Mystic River Our movie maestro Thomas Wartenberg says that Clint Eastwood’s recent film Mystic River is a tragedy – but in the good sense of the word.Īlthough tragedy is one of the classical genres of drama, it does not translate easily onto the silver

Mystic river