Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Superior acting, writing and direction are on impressive display in the Oscar-winning Mystic River, Clint Eastwood's 24th directorial outing and one of the finest films of 2003. Sharply adapted by LA Confidential Oscar-winner Brian Helgeland from the novel by Dennis Lehane, this chilling mystery revolves around three boyhood friends in working-class Boston--played as adults by Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon. They're drawn together by a crime from the past and a murder (of the Penn character's 19-year-old daughter) in the present. These dual tragedies arouse a vicious cycle of suspicion, guilt and repressed anxieties, primed to explode with devastating and unpredictable results. Eastwood is perfectly in tune with this brooding material, giving his flawless cast (including Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden and Laurence Fishburne) ample opportunity to plumb the depths of a resonant human tragedy, leading to an ambiguous ending that qualifies Mystic River for contemporary classic status. --Jeff Shannon
Special Features
- Mystic River: From Page to Screen
- Theatrical trailer
DVD Technical Information:
- Running Time: 137 mins
- Region Code: 2
- Aspect Ratio: 2.40 Wide Screen
- Soundtrack: Dolby Digital 5.1: English
- Subtitles: Arabic, Danish, English, English for the hearing impaired, Finnish, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
As time goes by I find superficial plots and shallow characters increasingly boring. Luckily, every now and then a really good film comes along, and Mystic River was one of these. The plot was hardly overly complex; all sub plots were essential to the major theme. No pseudo psychology marred the story, only a desparate and real human search for meaning. I found the character development to be realistic, if sometimes surprising. People are not linear and always predictable across changing contexts in real life, so why should they be so in fiction? All in all, I found the film engaging, exciting, and thoroughly satisfying. I shall watch it again and recommend it to my friends.
21 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Haunting drama about judgement, redemption and rejuvenation. While ostensibly a murder mystery the true wealth of mystic river lies in the human mystery surrounding the three main characters.
The film explores the limits to the value of friendship and the unimaginable cruelty of childhood abuse. Robbins' character has been tormented his entire life because of an incident of childhood abuse, as a result of this, another crime committed by Robbins and his wife's lack of trust - he is falsely accused of killing old friend Penn's daughter. He is betrayed by his wife to Penn, who is some kind of respected hoodlum in the community, his wife evidently trusts Penn more than her own husband. This is the moral of the film, Robbins was never able to form the same level of trust and understanding with his wife as the others were because of his childhood trauma and as a result his wife misjudges him and betrays him. In contrast to this, Penn's wife congratulates him when he tells her of his terrible crime, telling him he did what he did to protect his familly, her trust and loyalty is never in doubt.
The ending of the film is powerful stuff, we see the two survivors with their wives - playing happy famillies. Despite the reality of Penn's crimes he is able to exonerate himself of murder, forgive himself easily. Robbins himself was never able to forgive himself for the terrible shame of being a victim of abuse, doubly so because he is male. There was never any peace for him - unlike Penn he has no sin to bury - because the unique cruelty of being a victim of abuse means feeling the full-guilt and shame without having sinned. When you compare the injuries done to Robbins (as a child) and Penn and their respective recoveries from those injuries you conclude that there are worse crimes than murder.
The film explores the limits to the value of friendship and the unimaginable cruelty of childhood abuse. Robbins' character has been tormented his entire life because of an incident of childhood abuse, as a result of this, another crime committed by Robbins and his wife's lack of trust - he is falsely accused of killing old friend Penn's daughter. He is betrayed by his wife to Penn, who is some kind of respected hoodlum in the community, his wife evidently trusts Penn more than her own husband. This is the moral of the film, Robbins was never able to form the same level of trust and understanding with his wife as the others were because of his childhood trauma and as a result his wife misjudges him and betrays him. In contrast to this, Penn's wife congratulates him when he tells her of his terrible crime, telling him he did what he did to protect his familly, her trust and loyalty is never in doubt.
The ending of the film is powerful stuff, we see the two survivors with their wives - playing happy famillies. Despite the reality of Penn's crimes he is able to exonerate himself of murder, forgive himself easily. Robbins himself was never able to forgive himself for the terrible shame of being a victim of abuse, doubly so because he is male. There was never any peace for him - unlike Penn he has no sin to bury - because the unique cruelty of being a victim of abuse means feeling the full-guilt and shame without having sinned. When you compare the injuries done to Robbins (as a child) and Penn and their respective recoveries from those injuries you conclude that there are worse crimes than murder.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
As a general rule I like to read the book before watching the movie. However, every once in a while it happens to me that while watching a film I think that I would like to read the novel too. This was the case with "The Shipping News", and it was also the case with "Mystic River". When I watched this production, I was constantly thinking that the story was so perfect, that the book must be great. I hope I get a chance to confirm this suspicion soon.
Anyway, going back to the movie, the story evolves around the lives of three childhood friends that went through a traumatic experience when one of them, Dave, was bullied into a car by two adults posing as police officers. He was abused for days until he could finally escape, but something broke inside him, and all three friends where affected as a result.
Now, Jimmy (Sean Penn) owns a convenience store and is still involved with some dangerous men from his days as a delinquent, Sean (Kevin Bacon) is a police officer who was abandoned by his wife six months ago and Dave (Tim Robbins) is a married man that lives a quiet life but still has ghosts from his past that visit him. These three men have not really been in contact with each other over the last few years, even though they live in the same city.
When Jimmy's oldest daughter is murdered, Sean is the detective in charge of the investigation. Also, Dave was in the bar Jimmy's daughter went to the night of her death, and he later came home to his wife bearing a knife wound and alleging that he was mugged by a man that he had to kill. Once the path of the three friends converges, we find ourselves in the middle of a craftily constructed story, which has all the elements that make a great mystery.
Besides the script being incredibly good, it allows the actors to show their best aptitudes by having very powerful scenes and a lot of interesting exchanges. If you have seen this movie it should come as no surprise that both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Oscars for their performances in the Lead Actor and Supporting Actor respectively. I really found no drawbacks in this film, but understand that some people may find the story somewhat disturbing. I still think that it is worth seeing by anyone that is not extremely sensitive to murder and violence.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mystic River dvd
I read the book Mystic River, not knowing that it had been made into a film. When I found out I thought that the best place to go to get it was Amazon. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mrs. S. Dyson
Brilliant
I absolutely love this movie!! I originally read the book and was unsure whether to try the film, as most disappoint for me. Read more
Published 7 months ago by London Girl
The river of sins...
Mystic River [Blu-ray][Region Free]
All movie languages - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English / DD 5.1 English, German, Castillian Spanish, French, Italian, Hungarian. Read more
All movie languages - DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English / DD 5.1 English, German, Castillian Spanish, French, Italian, Hungarian. Read more
Published 9 months ago by RJ0521
How did it go wrong?
Possible spoilers below...
I watched this film with high hopes for a masterpiece from such a high profile cast but was disappointed for several reasons. Read more
I watched this film with high hopes for a masterpiece from such a high profile cast but was disappointed for several reasons. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr Shh.
Gripping and compulsive
Clint Eastwood yet again proves he is great behind the camera, as he helms this film based on the book of the same name by the author of shutter island, Dennis LeHane. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sam
Excellence
This seller is always reliable with good product information and delivery service. I have never been disappointed with my many purchases.
Published 11 months ago by D. G. Lloyd
Murder Mystery.
Mystic River has an average murder mystery plot but is a great viewing thanks to a good cast, gripping scenes and is well filmed. Read more
Published 11 months ago by j.r
From book to film
I have been reading the book, then realised the film was out, so i decided to view the film it is a very good film in my opinion. Read more
Published 12 months ago by P. Murphy
Reasonable interest in this so-so police / whodunnit story with...
A long, in-depth review because the film is a multi Oscar winner, so I felt that warranted a deep inspection. Read more
Published 12 months ago by G. Connolly
Greatly overrated with inaudible mumbling dialogue
A definite Miss.... the actors mumbled the unintelligible dialogue in typical hollywood fashion. Save your money and watch paint dry instead. Misselling in my opinion.
Published 13 months ago by D. Tate
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
