Mystic River

                    

  

Mystic River is a mysterious drama based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. it tells the story of three childhood friends Jimmy, Sean and Dave, reunited by the murder of Jimmy's daughter.Through out the film, an important underlying diegesis is constantly brought up and invokes many critical actions of the characters, that when Dave got into the strangers car as a boy, he was molested. Dave says he was thrown into the basement with a sleeping bag and finally escaped after four days. Later on he killed a child molester on his way home from the bar and he is overly protective of his own son. All his actions that made him the way he is can all be traced back to that one single event. Director Clint Eastwood produced the film with masterful mis en scene, one of the most evident and powerful being the parallel shots of Dave sitting in backseat of a car, driving to his end. The first shot is when Dave was forced into the car of two child molesters whom he thought were cops when he was just a boy, frightened and young, Dave does nothing to protest except look back at his friends as the car drives off. The paralleling shot is when Dave as a grown man sitting in the back of the car with Jimmy's friends to get a couple drinks, he looks back in the back seat of the car in suspicion. In both shots after Dave gets into the car, the person on the passenger seat turns around to look at him, the action is a tightly framed close up, giving the viewer a suspenseful and suffocating feel. This also parallels in that the car drives to his death, twice. It's mentioned many times by Dave himself that he died, that "whoever escaped from the basement then wasn't Dave." After the got in the car as a boy, he was stolen from his innocence and it planted something in him, he wasn't and he could never be himself again. After he got in the car with Jimmy's friends, he was taken to the river and killed by the hands of Jimmy and thrown into the river. Both times he dies, once spiritually and mentally, and once physically, when he died mentally, it ultimately led to his real death because Jimmy thought Dave was so messed up in the head that he killed Jimmy's daughter. No doubt Dave experience as a boy has planted a seed in him that eventually caused his downfall, everything he does wrong is thought to be linked with the trauma. 

             Many factors contribute to Mystic River being a great example of mise en scene, factors like color, focus and contrast. Color plays a major role in creating the dark, mysterious theme of the film, it sets the tone and increases suspense as the viewer watches.During the scene of Dave's final moments as he pleads to explain to Jimmy that he did not kill Jimmy's daughter Katie but rather a child molester, the setting was underlit and dark.  the scene is dim and dull with only black and white. The men's faces are mostly hidden by darkness of shadows and only the left side of their faces could be seen, the contrast in this is a direct reflections of the men themselves, with darkness and goodness. Dave's darkness had been planted inside him and theres nothing to change that, but he used his darkness to help other people from experiencing the same darkness he did. Jimmy however, his darkness was his past of killing people and dumping the bodies into the river, the goodness was Katie, when he fully lost and gave into complete darkness, his face entirely covered by the shadows, is when he stabbed Dave and killed him. He stood tall above Dave as Dave lied on the ground, its a low shot putting Jimmy higher than he already is, suggesting at the same time that Jimmy will not being losing his power, he will get away with this murder.  Contrast is also obvious at the parade as Celeste looks for Dave in the crowd of people and showing support for his son in the parade as well. Sean is seen reunited with his wife, happily together holding hands, and Jimmy's wife having a great time with her daughters. This scene emphasis's Celeste's feeling of lost and hopelessness, she is surrounded by people she didn't know, desperately searching for her husband, a close up shot of her being the only person in focus.