Hasitha Fernando revisits Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River at 20…
Ever since Clint Eastwood crafted the brutally beautiful revisionist western Unforgiven back in 1992, audiences were pining for something similar by the maestro. Flashforward to a decade later and the veteran Hollywood actor gave us an equally devastating, bleak-as-hell crime drama called Mystic River.
Bolstered by exceptional performances from the likes of Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney, the movie became a critically lauded, bonafide box-office hit. As the brooding chiller celebrates its 20th, we take the opportunity to look back at the goings on behind-the-scene and what went down during the making of this modern-day classic.
Eastwood deferred his salary during the making of the film
Yep, that’s right. Despite being a Hollywood icon and possessing enough clout in the industry, the veteran actor had to defer his salary during the making of Mystic River. Much like, when the uber-talented performer had to work minimum wage whilst working on his directorial debut Play Misty for Me back in 1971, Eastwood had to forego what was owed to him so that the studio would let him make the movie. He reflected back on this incident during an interview saying, “It’s ironic that 33 years later, from my first film, where I deferred my salary on, I’m back doing the same thing.”
Sean Penn & Tim Robbins were always first choice for their respective roles
The trifecta of Sean Penn, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon all play an integral role as childhood friends leading disparate adult lives in this gritty crime drama set in Boston. With the exception of Bacon, both Penn and Robbins were Eastwood’s first choice for their respective roles of hardened ex-convict Jimmy Marcum and disturbed blue-collar stiff Dave Boyle. Michael Keaton was originally cast as the perpetually conflicted Det. Sean Divine, the role later embodied by Bacon. The actor even did several script readings with the principal cast, researched his role with the Massachusetts State Police Department and even lived in Boston for a few weeks, however, a month before principal photography was to kick-off Keaton parted ways with the project citing creative differences. A week later Kevin Bacon nabbed the role.
The screenplay was penned by L.A. Confidential’s Brian Helgeland
L.A. Confidential made waves when it opened in cinemas back in 1997. Many critics praised the neo-noir classic and embraced it as one of the year’s best efforts. Since then, its debut writer Brian Helgeland has had a tremendous career contributing to some exemplary critically lauded affairs like Man on Fire, Green Zone and Legend. After successfully collaborating with Eastwood on 2002’s mystery thriller Blood Work, the filmmaker brought on Helgeland to craft the screenplay for his next project Mystic River, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name. This partnership reaped dividends for Helgeland once again, with the gifted creative receiving nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, BAFTAS and Golden Globes the following year.
The movie was shot entirely in Boston
Studios are notorious for meddling with productions and even with Eastwood’s involvement, Mystic River wasn’t immune to such dastardly influence. Denis Lehane’s bleak crime-drama is set in Boston but studio execs over at Warner Bros. wanted Eastwood to shoot the film in Toronto, Ontario to save money. But Eastwood being who he is, refused to have his movie be shot anywhere else other than where the story takes place in the book. And so, Mystic River ended up being shot entirely in the gritty streets of South and East Boston.
Eastwood’s minimalistic directing style drew praise
From the start of his career as a filmmaker Eastwood has been famous for his minimalist shooting style, which often lead to his efforts being wrapped up ahead of schedule and within budget. For example, when he was shooting Play Misty for Me, the guy finished his shoot four or five days ahead of schedule, and nearly $ 50,000 less than the original budget. Talk about being economical. Eastwood is also famous for his one-take method, opting to use the very first take that he does with his actors. Eastwood reflected on his process during a behind-the-scenes tête-à-tête, “I love it when it’s one take. I love a scene when, right away, you see it and it appears there and go, ‘That’s it.'”
Kevin Chapman was the designated‘”bullshit detector” for Boston accents & mannerisms
Kevin Chapman played a small yet memorable role as Jimmy Markham’s brother-in-law Val Savage. The Boston born actor had only a couple of years of acting experience under his belt, but that didn’t intimidate him at all, when working with the Hollywood A-listers. He even went the extra mile in coaching and mentoring the cast with their Boston accents and adapting local mannerisms, during their rehearsals. “He would be the police as far as our accents. He was deputized to strike us if we sounded inauthentic” revealed Robbins during an interview.
Eastwood got his first composer credit for Mystic River
Eastwood has always been something of an audiophile, harboring a strong passion for jazz and country music. So, in addition to his mainstream career as an actor, director and producer, the veteran artist is also an accomplished pianist and a music composer. Because of this Eastwood has, in the past, contributed to the score of his movies like in Unforgiven where he crafted the emotional ‘Claudia’s Theme’ and frequent collaborator Lennie Niehaus composed the rest of the music. But it was Niehaus who always received sole credit for his musical contributions to Eastwood’s films. This, however, changed with Mystic River, where Eastwood ended up getting his very first ‘music composed by’ credit for his 24th directorial effort.
Mystic River was a commercial and critical success when it debuted
When Eastwood commenced filming on Mystic River, the Hollywood legend deferred on his salary to get his project bankrolled due to studio budgetary constraints and their lack of faith regarding the film’s probable box-office performance. However, in an ironical twist of fate this brooding crime thriller ended up grossing $ 156.6 million worldwide at the conclusion of its theatrical run, on a production budget of $ 30 million. The film was also praised unanimously by critics and audiences alike, who saw this as a glorious return to form by the maestro since making the dark revisionist western Unforgiven, a decade prior.
A significant feat was achieved during Oscar Season
Unsurprisingly, come awards season Mystic River was blessed with a total of six Academy Award nominations and walked away with two much deserved wins in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories, for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins respectively. The last instance where both aforementioned categories was won by a single film was for Ben-Hur back in 1959. Since then, the only other movie that have achieved this near impossible feat have been 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
