Post #1: Mystic River

     The traumatic experience that Dave survived affected every character's actions in the movie.What happened to Dave developed the whole story line, but he is the only truly innocent person. It is mentioned in the movie that Dave was gone when he returned home from being held by the perpetrators. He was a new person all together, and his old, familiar self was left in the back of the car. Right from the beginning, he is considered the victim. When the movie skips to present day, Dave still seems traumatized by what happened years ago. Jimmy and Sean are affected in a different way. From little kids, to full grown adults, they remain the witnesses to horrid actions. They watched as Dave was driven away in a pedophile's car, and did nothing about it. They stood in a parade as adults, knowing Dave was killed unjustly, and still remained impassive. Their innocence is nonexistent. Celeste seemed to be a victim, with a pitiful "woe-is-me" attitude, but she is not as innocent as she appeared. How quickly she turned on her husband shows a huge fault of her own. She acts as another obstacle that is in Dave's way to true happiness. Not being able to escape his doomed fate, Dave takes all the punches. First, he is killed on the inside, then he is physically murdered by Jimmy. Although it is revealed that Dave murdered a man, it is said that that man was an on-record pedophile that the cops were searching for already. This has no effect on his innocence because it wasn't Dave who killed that man, it was his physical form. Dave hasn't existed since he was taken away as a young child. This preserves his innocence in a way that the other characters lack.