Eastwood makes the conscious effort to omit graphic violence from Mystic River not to save the viewer’s eyes from such images, but rather to instill even worse images into their minds. Everyone’s nightmare is based on unique personal fears, but many of these fears overlap, such as being kidnapped, held hostage, raped, chased, etc. - Dave’s childhood tragedy. Eastwood implies each of these using shadows, sounds, and other artistic effects, all becoming unified in the fearful eyes of young Dave. Such pure fear in his eyes can only be reciprocated into the audience by them realizing their own nightmares. As such, each person relates their own personal nightmare to Dave’s experiences, and each person feels the same amount of fear and horror that Dave does - no more, no less. This creates a standard among the viewers, where all are likely to be equally mortified, instead of the horror-film lovers not even cringing at the unfolding events.
This equivalent understanding of the horrors Dave went through is even more important to the duration of the movie rather than the depraved instant when it happens. Dave’s phased-out character can only be explained by such traumatic childhood experiences, and it lends more than enough motive for him to exact revenge upon Jimmy (who had led to his being put in that circumstance). When this suspenseful subtlety is broken by the flashback of the true recount of the events, it serves to re-instill pity for Dave tenfold, since he is then quickly led into the lion’s den. The audience re-feels the pity of Dave’s past, multiplied by the fact that he is truly innocent - now put at the end of a gun barrel and shot (off camera). And each viewer feels the same magnitude of pity, because they all felt the same magnitude of horror at the beginning.
It was was a great choice to leave the violence off camera as you said when people use there imagination it's usually must worse. Everyone wanted to know what exactly Happened to Dave and even when he told his wife he didn't fully tell the story.
ReplyDeleteEastwood's decision not to show the violence, but rather imply it did make the horror more relatable as a viewer. He also seemed to use the "shadows, sound, and other artistic effects" to constitute the feelings of fear one feels as a child. It represents that fear of the dark, or the monster under the bed that years later one finds out is not real. Unfortunately for Dave, that monster never left.
ReplyDeleteI also think this shows the harsh reality of the world. For our imagination to be even worse than what the movie was implying. I also think they carried the story about Dave well through his adulthood and his odd character and how something about him just always seemed off.
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