Explanation: This film review is a bit long, more than 6,000 words, with more than a dozen additions, deletions and changes. Friends who click on it are fate. If you want to watch it, you can read it below, don't force it.
In addition, the text between the first and second dividing line is my personal emotional catharsis, and the text after the second dividing line is my personal reflection and shallow analysis of the film.
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Finally finished watching "Mystic River", and now my mood is very complicated. It took me three days to watch this movie, three days, and it took me three days to finish watching a movie with more than two hours. The reason is very simple, that is, I stopped watching, I couldn't bear to watch it. Too depressed, too uncomfortable, too suffocating. I was interrupted no less than ten times as I watched, I was running away from my own guesses and anticipations, I pressed the pause button, as if this would prevent Dave from going to tragedy, and the intense grief drove me to do this, myself Can't believe it. Yet Dave was dead. The strong get stronger, and the weak get weaker. There is no if in this world.
Never has a movie took me so long to watch, and never has a movie made me feel so bad. Every episode made my heart cry out, "Help, I'm suffocating." Dave's sentence "I wasn't ready" made me collapse on the chair. After the gunshots, I suddenly felt that the sunlight was so dazzling. The murderer fell under the law, innocent people died tragically, no corpses were found, and the water was still calm. Look at me...really...the kind, you know the ending, but you can only watch the powerlessness and suffocation of them all sinking into the water.
Watching this after watching The Shawshank Redemption is a total hit...Tim Robbins's acting is amazing and I cry over Dave's tragic fate in the movie. There are several shots, it's a close-up of Dave, the struggle in his eyes, his unease, his helplessness, his depression, he's trying to get out of the quagmire, but no one looks at him, listens to his confession, and no one believes him.
I believe that most of the people who watched this film were angry and blamed for Jimmy, Jimmy's wife and Dave's wife and even Sean, especially Dave's wife, she is really not a likable person The character - emotionally I dislike her, and rationally I can understand her fears and unease, but we all know that what she said to Jimmy was the direct cause of her husband's death. In other words, her distrust made her one of the promoters of her husband's tragic death, and also pushed her future into a miserable situation. She was pitiful and hateful. Diverge your thoughts, Michael may be the next Dave again... After watching the movie, I couldn't control my thoughts. Thinking of these made my heart feel a little uncomfortable. These inferences and even prophecies gave me another weight. Hammer - I'd had enough of a meltdown after watching the movie.
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1
I understand that this is a "downward" movie. It gives people a sense of downward and falling. Everyone inevitably slides into the abyss, and it can't be pulled, can't change, and it makes people collapse. But I know that it is not accurate enough to attribute all this to "what kind of wife to marry". The focus of this film is not on "whether a wife is good or not", it is about "the communication and communication between family members and each other". trust" proposition. "What kind of wife to marry" is not the source of the tragedy. The emotional loss has caused many people to point their anger at Dave's wife. It is difficult for me to avoid accusing her after reading it myself. But if the source points to "how to marry a wife", it would be too rude. Obviously, the source of the tragedy is not there. It's there too. "The result of marrying a different wife" and "The result of marrying a different husband" are both reflected in this film. Marriage is only one aspect of this film. The film is oriented towards society, and it discusses the family. . The broad meaning of family can more highly summarize the issues reflected in the film.
In the 1980s, the crime rate in the American community aroused widespread concern in the society. This film is based on the background of the times. At that time, people had a sense of distrust and vigilance against the police. This sense of distrust and vigilance reflects this. The questioning and questioning of Jimmy and Sean by the two men sitting on the porch after Jimmy preferred to find the killer himself and punish him privately, and earlier, decades ago, after Dave got into the car. Against the backdrop of such a high crime rate and public distrust of social security mechanisms, Dave suffered misfortune.
2
In addition to this macro background, the different personalities of the three children are also an important reason for the differentiation of the tragedy.
Jimmy, as a child, can be seen to be a "King of Children", "leader", domineering, thorny, and when he grew up, he embarked on a bloody and violent road and became a man full of ill-will, for the sake of his daughter Jinpen. Washing his hands, his daughter died because of his butcher's knife, and he once again raised the butcher's knife against innocents for her daughter's sake. Jimmy's wife Annabeth said to Jimmy at the end, take the kids to the parade outside, Katie knows they'll like it, no doubt she's comforting her husband, and it seems that the results are not bad . But I want to ask: Would Katie be "happy" if she knew? Her father killed an innocent man by mistake and ruined a family because of revenge for her. I can see from the movie that Katie and Jimmy have very different personalities, despite their father-daughter relationship. Katie knew exactly what kind of person her father was: she told her boyfriend at the beginning, and she had no doubt that her father would kill her boyfriend if she was really with her boyfriend. together. For this reason, to a large extent, the young couple decided to elope, and the elopement led to another tragedy, and a tragedy led to a tragedy. In addition, Jimmy takes revenge on the murderer he believes to be "Dave", and the dialogue between him and Dave by the Mystic River is worth exploring: he almost seduced and forced Dave to confess his guilt, and then he killed Dave with peace of mind and outrageous anger . He is a person who can easily get out of control. He is extremely, extremely angry, and extremely impulsive. There is a saying in Christianity that there are "seven deadly sins". Seeing him, I have a deeper understanding of "anger" being counted among the seven deadly sins.
As for Sean, he is trying to play a neutral person. He has justice, but he is also pulled by emotions. He is the concrete representative of law and justice in the film, but in the face of morality and morality, he does not seem to be firm and upright enough. . He followed Jimmy when he was a child, and when he grew up, he had doubts about Dave, but he still tried to search for evidence, stood on the side of reason, and questioned and opposed the behavior of his colleagues to interrogate and detain Dave. He is not too extreme in one aspect, so his life is less extreme than Jimmy and Dave. In contrast, his personality is relatively healthy - of course, this does not mean that his psychology is healthy , he also has a lot of psychological problems, but fortunately, he has the opportunity to turn back and make corrections. His non-extremism made him face his wife's silence, he chose to apologize and retreat, and his non-extremism brought him a lot from his wife. After all, his family still stood by his side. This is Sean's luck. And this is the norm for many of us.
As for Dave, he's a poor man who can't hold himself back into the abyss. Single-parent family, sexual assault as a child, no regular job at age 30, poor communication with his wife, unstable mental state, lack of trust and security, psychological barriers that cannot be overcome, and a cowardly personality. All led to Dave's death. There are countless nodes he can choose to confess, and there are countless moments to avoid his own death, but he does not grasp it. He felt that he was "a child who escaped from the wolves" and wanted to run into his own forest. He said that he was a "living dead" who was hurt and "sucked blood". He felt that he had become a "vampire", A "living dead", he was devastated and died decades ago, at the age of eight. But does he really want to die? It was painful when he was alive, but after all, he didn't want to die. He was afraid of death. In the face of Jimmy's killing intent, he confessed everything in panic, but no one believed him, and he had nowhere to run. He told Jimmy, "I'm going to communicate with Celeste when I go back," and he said, "I wasn't ready." Of course he realized something at that time, it was a tactful begging for mercy, he mustered up the courage to confess to his family for redemption and relief, but he wasn't as lucky as Sean, he couldn't say anything more, he died. I saw the cowardice and torment in his heart, and he really wanted to be saved, because it was difficult for him to save himself - the trauma of his childhood had completely destroyed and shattered the psychological defense mechanism that he had not yet established, and it was difficult for him to be strong. However, as cowardly as he is, he also tries to get out of trouble on his own, the craziest attempt is undoubtedly killing a pedophile, and his motive is to try to save himself, whether he is now or when he is younger. But unfortunately, he didn't succeed. He killed a sinful person and didn't get rid of his sin. He was even more uneasy. His actions even brought suspicion and murder for himself. He still couldn't escape that terrible nightmare. Failed to escape that forest, failed to be redeemed. The nick on the cement board is like a dire foreshadowing that "Dave" is only half written and his life is half way there. Perhaps from then on, he would not have the rest of his life to speak of. This is a very cruel story. While I was watching the movie, I wanted to help Dave, but the audience is always the audience. We are all spectators of others and cannot interfere in other people's lives.
3
From Dave's tragic situation and the crimes committed by the little mute, we can see the huge destructive power caused by childhood psychological trauma to ourselves, others and society. The two of them have one thing in common, that is, they both have an unsound mind. The family of origin, their life is missing the role of the father, in short, "father lost". Dave's special upbringing, and the character he showed as a child, is one of the reasons why he was chosen by criminals and persecuted for it. The reason why Little Mute chose to kill was also a crime caused by his excessive obsession with his brother because of the absence of his father when he was growing up. It's just that the former leads to being victimized and oppressed, while the latter leads to harm or even murder. There is a term called "fatherless education". Children who grow up under "fatherless education" tend to be more sensitive in their hearts and more extreme in character. Many writers and literary masters also grew up under such circumstances. "Fatherless education" made their hearts sensitive and emotionally intense. They often had a strong perception of the world and achieved extraordinary achievements in the field of literature and art. Such qualities can be found in many literary works and in the life experiences of literary masters. The Miao boy "Shao" in another work "Classic Car" directed by Dongmu was laughed at as "mother" and "cowardly" because he acted too cautiously and timidly. It was caused by the absence of the role of "father", and the old white man played by Dongmu in "Classic Car" made up for this lack and gave the boy a belated "father-style teaching by words and deeds", which changed the boy's character. , and even saved his life.
But unfortunately, Dave's tragedy may have continued to his son Michael. I really hope the tragedy can be interrupted in Dave's generation, but from the ending of the film, I don't have much hope for it . Dave's wife Celeste is a weak woman, and Dave's influence on her son is also obvious. It can be seen that his son is a little introverted and cowardly. At the end, he sat on the float with a dazed expression, as if looking for his father. The figure of - but unfortunately, his father can't come back. And Dave's influence on Michael's childhood is indelible and difficult to change, so there is a high probability that changes and hopes should be pinned on Michael's acquired education and future family. After all, Michael's childhood is not exactly the same as Dave's childhood. Social security is better than before. Michael is unlikely to have gone down the same path as his father, Dale, had it not been for the great destruction of children's minds from the outside. But what about children other than Michael? What about Jimmy's two daughters and "Justice Ray"'s son, Dumb? A bomb was buried between them, and at some point it would explode, once again blowing up the three families to pieces. I sincerely hope that the tragedy will never happen again, but can it really happen? I have no idea. I can only hope for this.
4
In addition to the fatherless education, the story of Mystic River reminds me of Greek mythology and ancient Greek tragedy. In fact, Mystic River gives me a very similar feeling to ancient Greek tragedies. Their core and discussion propositions revolve around two words: destiny. "Oedipus the King" tells us what "tragedy of fate" is, but the tragedy of fate does not hinder the brilliance and nobility of human nature, and the more tragic the fate, the more prominent the human spirit is - because fate is often irreversible and unavoidable, But people will still try their best to fight against fate. Under such struggles and paradoxes, many works that discuss "destiny" have more tension and contradictions, and also allow the author to have more space for discussion when designing stories. Apparently, Mystic River is also a story about "fate", and it has a taste of ancient Greek tragedy - the spirit of its characters is drained.
Here is the concept of "tragedy". The highest form of dramatic art is tragedy. The Western theory of tragedy can generally be traced back to Aristotle's book "On Poetry". Aristotle defined tragedy in this way: "The imitation of a serious, complete, and weighty act, mediated by artistically modified language, distributed throughout the play, described by action rather than language, evoked by Pity and fear and purify those emotions." This definition is still used today. The role of tragedy is to purify theory. The point of contention is whether it is emotional catharsis or intellectual clarification. Tragedy is mainly composed of plot, characters, words, ideas, wonders and songs. How did the tragedy progress? Bringing good people (or people of great stature) to the bottom, and the tragic behavior must be at least partly their fault. Note that it is a fault, not a vice. The plot of a tragedy must have these three elements: one is a turning point, that is, an accident or force majeure, and the other is awakening. The third is to have scenes where the characters suffer.
Allow me to quote Qian Zhongshu's theory here as an addition: "...according to Dr. LA Li De (whose clear discussion of tragedy in Aesthetic Studies has benefited me a lot), tragedy has There are two main types: the first type focuses on character building. The second type is that fate itself can attract attention. Shakespeare belongs to the first type, and Greek tragedy belongs to the second type." From the article "Tragedy in Ancient Chinese Drama" . Interested friends can read this article.
5
Dave kills a pedophile, we say he is a murderer, after all he has no right to judge a person, to decide a person's life or death - this is indisputable, in fact Dave used that child, that child Prostitutes committed crimes. On the other hand, this is a "conversation" he had with himself. He turned around and let his childhood self escape. Obviously, he was trying to save himself. He wanted to live, not only physically, but also spiritually. experience. Sadly, the way he struggled was too extreme, the voice of struggle was always too low, and in the end, his struggle was inevitably crushed and crushed by the gears of fate - I felt a great sense of futility and powerlessness when watching the movie. Part of it comes from here. He was a murderer, but the audience felt sorry for his tragic fate, and more morally sympathetic to him - which is amazing, because I see some audiences scold Jimmy after watching the movie Deserving the loss of their daughter, their impression of Jimmy was more negative, despite the tragedy that happened to him too - the loss of his daughter. Dave's tragic death and Katie's tragic death are both tragic and worthy of sympathy, but because of the different personalities of Dave and Jimmy, the contrast between the fates of the two of them is too strong, causing some people to disagree with this. The two tragic deaths made very different assessments. This is also very... wonderful and worth pondering. Maybe that's part of the charm of this movie. It's a downright, intense tragedy, and a very good story.
6
The family of origin is often an important cause of many tragedies and tragedies, but it should not be overly magnified. The influence of the acquired environment is equally important and can even change a person's life. But it is a pity that Dave's ending not only reflects the misfortune of his original family, but also reflects that in the acquired environment, Dave also failed to be rescued, guided and helped. Therefore, Tim Robbins's acceptance speech is also worth thinking about, he mentioned in his acceptance speech: "...In addition, I also want to say that in this film I played a Victims of abuse and violence, if you are unfortunate enough to have a similar experience, I want to tell you, don't feel ashamed and helpless, seek help and get counseling services, sometimes this is the most powerful way you can stop the abuse.… "This passage has a strong humanistic concern and is a wake-up call and appeal.
7
I was so impressed with Tim Robbins' performance that he deservedly deserved an Oscar for his performance in this film. Frankly speaking, I myself think he played a little better than Sean Penn. Of course, both of them are recognized as first-class actors. I am very happy to see the two of them acting in the same excellent film. But for me personally, I'm more emotionally inclined towards the role of Dave. One is because Dave is a more complex and challenging person, I will never forget the scene where he was in the house with his wife, he tried to get his wife to confess, but he couldn't, he used a lot of metaphors , speaking out of place, but his wife did not understand and was terrified of his agitation. No one understands his pain, nowhere to express his despair. I can't forget his tearful eyes. The second is that his struggle and sinking are more obscure, more hopeless, more helpless, and more gripping. His tragic fate is too shocking, and his emotional outbursts are not as crazy as Jimmy's, that kind of hysteria, he is gradually The sinking in the distortion gives me the feeling that the fire has not been ignited, but it has been doused by water. He made me cry so much that I couldn't cry, and made my suffocation layer upon layer in my heart, so it seemed more painful and unforgettable.
8
It's a very good movie that gave me a lot to think about and an unforgettable experience. Although I probably wouldn't want to watch it a second time - because it's too frustrating, too oppressive, too suffocating, too heavy, it takes a lot of courage to watch it a second time.
But I still recommend friends who haven't seen it to watch it again, because this movie is worth it.
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