Mystic River: Comparing the Book and Film

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Mystic River is a crime novel went straight to the bestseller lists on 2001 written by Dennis Lehane. The reproducing film Mystic River by Clint Eastwood also won countless Awards. As Lehane points out in his interview with Linda Richards: “ 50 percent of the reviews has said this is not simply a crime novel.” Which obviously pleased him. The psyches and nature of human are the most fascinating parts in his novel. In the story Dave Boyle was abducted as a child and being molested. He lives under struggle and shadow for his entire life. When his childhood friends Jimmy’s daughter being murdered, he became the prime suspect. But who really is the murderer? Dennis Lehane makes this cliffhang the cadenza in his story. Dave Boyle is no doubt the central character in Mystic River. Dennis Lehane gives Dave Boyle a really complex life story and an unpredictable personality, but Clint Eastwood simplifies this character, which also simplifies the plot, making the movie less complete.
Most viewers of Mystic River have great sympathy for Dave Boyle, but most readers don’t feel the same way. Why is that? The key point is Dave’s pedophilia is not explained clearly in the film. Dave is abducted and molested as a child. In the movie we know that he is affected by his childhood nightmare, “Henry and George” haunt him all the time according to his script. But we do not know how him is being affected by the terrible event, his words“ Its like Vampire, once it’s in you, it stays” are unmotivated. It is hard to figure out what does “It” implies. In the book it is not the same, it is much more clear, the “it” implies pedophilia. As Whitey mentioned in the previous Light: “ ‘No one gets off. First-time offenders, fuck you, you get life on the island. ...

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...’t maybe he wants to find out the murderer and kill him? If people think he is the murderer is he going to be grievance? The emotion is just unpredictable and fascinating. But in the movie, Dave act like he is afraid of Jim and he is guilty when he sees him cry. This action strongly suggested he is the murderer. When we know that he is not the murderer of Katie, this scene seems gratuitous. Is he just afraid that Jim might suspect him?
David Denby pointed out that Tim Robbins’s Dave has remarkable flights of feeling, but he’s a vague and tentative man. But still Tim Robbins didn’t explain this character well, Dave Boyle is a much more complicated character in the original story. Also because Dave is a potential devil of child molester in the book, Jim’s killing action seems less villainous than in the movie. As Annabeth said in the film, he is not poor, just weak.

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