Get in the car! We're going to watch 200 movies I've never seen before!
Mystic River
2003
Clint Eastwood
I'm trying to get to the point where my very first reaction to seeing the credits scroll is a question. For too long, I've been content with saying something trite like, "That was good," or, depending on the quality of the film, maybe something like, "Holy shit" or "That was fucking awesome." Ya know, an assessment of my overall impression of the film. Which is fine, but that's not really why I'm trying to watch movies these days. If I wanted to watch something I knew for sure was going to be good, then I wouldn't be exploring 200 films I've never seen before. I want something more than good. I want to think critically. I want to use my brain. I want to understand a movie on a deeper level that "was this good or was this not good." The thinking is that if I force myself to ask a question instead of just giving my opinion, then that will open up new paths of thinking, and eventually lead to wider appreciation for both the film I just watched and all good films out there.
So, my question, after the director Clint Eastwood's name pops up on the screen, was: "Wait, why the fuck was it called Mystic River?" Now, maybe I'm not at the point where I am immediately able to come up with an answer to my own question (maybe by the time we make it to movie #200). I tried, but it sounded something like "maybe... the river... it's, like, always flowing... it takes away... I don't know..." and so on. Pam was looking at me like I'm crazy because the name of the river that runs through north of Boston really is the Mystic River, and I somehow spent my entire life up to this point not knowing that (this also made me chase Van Morrison down the rabbit hole with "Into the Mystic," but there's no indication that he's singing about the river in that one). And there's the plot point in Mystic River that involves the actual river (that I won't spoil for you now, even though, c'mon, don't read this shit if you are planning on watching the movie!), and so on.
But that can't be it! Named after a plot point? That would be beneath this fine piece of art, right? I refuse to believe it. And so I went searching—the internet is usually good for this kind of thing. I found out that the author of the novel this is based on (also called Mystic River) didn't really have an answer to the question when asked. I like that choice—a good author knows that his voice shouldn't interfere after the book is already published. The book should speak for itself. Likewise, the movie gives no easy answers.
Or maybe it does, I don't know. There was the one line that Jimmy says before he [redacted] when he's like "We bury our sins here, Dave. We wash them clean." He's talking about the river. Obviously Jimmy's not talking literally (I don't even know what "literally burying my sins" would look like), he's speaking metaphorically. The river holds secrets. And that's where the tension in the movie springs from, those secrets. Here we have three old friends who grew up together, and who shared a very traumatic experience in their youth. They grew apart, but another traumatic incident brings them all back together decades later.
You can cut that tension with a fucking knife, whenever two or all three of the main characters are together in one room. Because Jimmy and Sean and Dave don't know each other anymore, and they don't trust each other, and it all goes to shit because of times long pull and because a trauma that never went away.
Note that the details of the trauma are never explicitly stated. They are hinted at, but what Dave went through is only shown in brief flashes, and never spoken aloud by Dave himself. But the traumatic event, even all these years later, still hangs over all these characters and threatens to fall at any moment. The question is posed multiple times by Jimmy to Sean: "What if you or I had gotten in that car?" It's impossible to know where life would be with different paths taken, but it's a question that everyone asks of themselves at one point or another.
So I think that maybe the title Mystic River speaks to this idea as well. I'm looking at the map now... okay, it looks like Mystic River flows into Boston Harbor, combining with the Chelsea and the Charles, as opposed to forking and splitting apart at any point, so maybe that weakens my theory. But, fine, think about rivers in general, and how they split apart and reconvene and along their lengths present many different paths. But if you're traveling with the river, you can only take one path. Once you decide, you are stuck with your decision, because a river only flows one way. And one might wonder—like our characters in Mystic River—what it would have looked like if you had chosen a different path.
I believe I'm going to stick with this, even if it doesn't make 100% complete sense. This is my chosen answer to the question that popped into my mind as the credits rolled down the screen. Why is this film called Mystic River? Because the river is a symbol, a metaphor for how our lives fracture and spread out over the course of our time on this earth, and the permanence of the paths we choose (or the path that chooses us).
Or it could just be because there are scenes that take place on the banks of the Mystic River, I don't fucking know.
So, my question, after the director Clint Eastwood's name pops up on the screen, was: "Wait, why the fuck was it called Mystic River?" Now, maybe I'm not at the point where I am immediately able to come up with an answer to my own question (maybe by the time we make it to movie #200). I tried, but it sounded something like "maybe... the river... it's, like, always flowing... it takes away... I don't know..." and so on. Pam was looking at me like I'm crazy because the name of the river that runs through north of Boston really is the Mystic River, and I somehow spent my entire life up to this point not knowing that (this also made me chase Van Morrison down the rabbit hole with "Into the Mystic," but there's no indication that he's singing about the river in that one). And there's the plot point in Mystic River that involves the actual river (that I won't spoil for you now, even though, c'mon, don't read this shit if you are planning on watching the movie!), and so on.
But that can't be it! Named after a plot point? That would be beneath this fine piece of art, right? I refuse to believe it. And so I went searching—the internet is usually good for this kind of thing. I found out that the author of the novel this is based on (also called Mystic River) didn't really have an answer to the question when asked. I like that choice—a good author knows that his voice shouldn't interfere after the book is already published. The book should speak for itself. Likewise, the movie gives no easy answers.
Or maybe it does, I don't know. There was the one line that Jimmy says before he [redacted] when he's like "We bury our sins here, Dave. We wash them clean." He's talking about the river. Obviously Jimmy's not talking literally (I don't even know what "literally burying my sins" would look like), he's speaking metaphorically. The river holds secrets. And that's where the tension in the movie springs from, those secrets. Here we have three old friends who grew up together, and who shared a very traumatic experience in their youth. They grew apart, but another traumatic incident brings them all back together decades later.
You can cut that tension with a fucking knife, whenever two or all three of the main characters are together in one room. Because Jimmy and Sean and Dave don't know each other anymore, and they don't trust each other, and it all goes to shit because of times long pull and because a trauma that never went away.
Note that the details of the trauma are never explicitly stated. They are hinted at, but what Dave went through is only shown in brief flashes, and never spoken aloud by Dave himself. But the traumatic event, even all these years later, still hangs over all these characters and threatens to fall at any moment. The question is posed multiple times by Jimmy to Sean: "What if you or I had gotten in that car?" It's impossible to know where life would be with different paths taken, but it's a question that everyone asks of themselves at one point or another.
So I think that maybe the title Mystic River speaks to this idea as well. I'm looking at the map now... okay, it looks like Mystic River flows into Boston Harbor, combining with the Chelsea and the Charles, as opposed to forking and splitting apart at any point, so maybe that weakens my theory. But, fine, think about rivers in general, and how they split apart and reconvene and along their lengths present many different paths. But if you're traveling with the river, you can only take one path. Once you decide, you are stuck with your decision, because a river only flows one way. And one might wonder—like our characters in Mystic River—what it would have looked like if you had chosen a different path.
I believe I'm going to stick with this, even if it doesn't make 100% complete sense. This is my chosen answer to the question that popped into my mind as the credits rolled down the screen. Why is this film called Mystic River? Because the river is a symbol, a metaphor for how our lives fracture and spread out over the course of our time on this earth, and the permanence of the paths we choose (or the path that chooses us).
Or it could just be because there are scenes that take place on the banks of the Mystic River, I don't fucking know.
GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5
NEXT TIME: Holy shit, it took me nine months, but we're finally past all the films that start with the letter M. And now, on to our first N film, National Treasure.
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