As the plot unfolds in the second half of the movie, we witness an abundance of gory, on-screen violence: The fist fight between the Harris brothers and the murder of Dave Boyle are some examples. However, the first half of the movie contains three separate but violent incidents never truly depicted on-screen.
When young Dave Boyle is taken away near the start of the movie (an event which takes place in flashback format), we as the viewer never see exactly how he is abused. All we know is he is away for several days and mistreated by his captors. The extent to which Dave is harmed is up to the viewer's interpretation. Was he taunted? Hit? Tortured? The stylistic choice not to show the entire event allows the viewer to ponder just what happened to Dave. All we know is the events which occurred in that cellar changed the course of his life forever.
Similarly, the specific details of Katie Markum's murder are not shown on screen when the viewer first learns of her demise. In fact, only the smear of blood and the (rather unscathed, to the naked eye) corpse are shown. Again, we are left to ponder as to the true extent of the carnage.
Dave Boyle's return home on the same night as Katie's murder is the final instance of selective portrayal. Yes, he comes home bloodied and frantic--yet we never see his actual act of violence. This allows the viewer to make his or her own assumptions as to whom exactly Dave killed. Whether to believe his story about the mugger or to suspect him of Katie's murder is the viewer's decision, based only on circumstantial evidence.
By choosing not to explicitly display these acts of violence, Eastwood offers an air of mystery to his film. He allows the viewer to make his or her own assumptions based on vague, minuscule hints, so when the conclusion is revealed, the reader is surprised, yes, but he or she also has the
sense of closure achieved only by a great ending to a classic Greek tragedy.
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