Mystic River
A psychological thriller, but actually a kind of realistic vampire horror. The "vampire" here is Dave Boyle, a victim of sexual molestation, who cannot shake his traumatic experience and remains one of the "living dead," even though years have passed since he was abducted by a pedophile. Dave is accused of kidnapping and killing the daughter of his friend, small-time mobster, Jimmy. Another friend, detective Devine, handles the investigation and does not believe Dave, with his terrible experiences, is the perp. In many prior films (High Plains Drifter, Tightrope, dir. Richard Tuggle), Eastwood looked into the darkness of men's souls, but only in Mystic River does he fully face the evil permeating the world, forever marking our existence. In this difficult and pessimistic film that touches on numerous social pathologies (pedophilia, growth in violence and crime, individual helplessness in the face of pervasive evil) Eastwood strikes a spark of hope: revealing even the most shrouded secret is liberating.
awards
Academy Awards 2004 - Best Actor in a Leading Role: Sean Penn, Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Tim Robbins; Golden Globe - Best Perfromance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Sean Penn, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Tim Robbins; AFI Awards 2004 - The Best Movie of the Year; Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2003 - Best Film; Cannes IFF 2003 - Golden Coach for Clint Eastwood; Cesar Awards - Best Foreign Film; National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA 2004 - Best Director
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood (b. 1930, San Francisco) is a living Hollywood legend. Steven Spielberg called him maybe the last real man in American film. He abandoned sports and military careers in favor of television, making his debut in the Rawhide TV series. From there, he ventured to Italy where, inspired by Sergio Leone, he created the man with no name for the Spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy. After getting back stateside, he portrayed another now iconic character, inspector Harry Callahan, aka Dirty Harry. On the set of that film, he replaced the director, Don Siegel, in several scenes. The same year, he debuted as a director in his own right with the thriller Play Misty for Me, produced by his own Malpaso studio established in 1967. Up until Bird, Eastwood's directorial efforts (mainly Westerns and action movies) were primarily a successful reworking of genre schematics. Starting with the Charlie Parker biopic, Eastwood's seasoned work takes on qualities of realistic psychological cinema with a moralist streak. Winner of two Oscars for directing, the Irvin Thalberg prize and an honorary Golden Palm (2002).
Selected filmography
1971 Zagraj dla mnie, Misty / Play Misty for Me
1980 Bronco Billy
1992 Bez przebaczenia / Unforgiven
2000 Kosmiczni kowboje / Space Cowboys
2003 Rzeka tajemnic / Mystic River
2006 Sztandar chwały / Flags of Our Fathers
2006 Listy z Iwo Jimy / Letters from Iwo Jima
2014 Jersey Boys
