Along with Ridley Scott and Woody Allen director Clint Eastwood is one of Hollywood longest serving directors and turning 92 years old in May 2022 he is also the oldest working mainstream director in Hollywood too. Having gone behind the camera to direct in 1971 he has helmed 45 films and the new millennium has seen him turn out roughly a film every year. It’s quite some achievement that has men of a similar age taking a sharp intake of breath normally because they’re having their last rites.
An American icon Eastwood’s last film as actor was thought to be 2008’s Gran Torino which would have been a fitting end but since then he has taken the lead in three more films which he has also directed and the release of the Cry Macho DVD is the latest.
| Set in 1979, Mike Milo (Clint Eastwood), a one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder, takes a job from an ex-boss (Dwight Yoakam) to bring the man’s young son (Eduardo Minett) home from Mexico. Forced to take the backroads on their way to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman finds unexpected connections and his own sense of redemption (read our review HERE).
As an actor Eastwood’s recent films have seen him as curmudgeonly males not prepared to take what the world throws at them and Cry Macho certainly has him starting off like that but there’s a lot of heart to this as his character connects with the boy he’s sent to return and Milo slowly embraces a new found happiness in life from an unexpected source. This was a script that had been kicking around for years with Eastwood aware of it decades ago whilst he was making Unforgiven but realising that he was too young for the role. In his nineties he’s perhaps too old now but he’s still ideal casting even if there is a scene where his character might end up in bed with a nubile woman which, if it had been consummated, would be like watching the contents of hoover bag being emptied.
Shot in New Mexico standing in for Mexico its warmly photographed during the pandemic which saw strict conditions enforced for cast and crew though the behind the scenes featurette shows all the crew masked up except Clint. The Cry Macho DVD is basic with only a behind the scenes featurette and like any Clint Eastwood film a director’s commentary would be great but whether at his age he has any interest in doing such a thing is doubtful now which is a real disappointment.
Whilst Cry Macho is not Eastwood’s best film anything he directs and stars in is always worth a look and this is no different in an age where he refuses to kowtow to the boom-bang of blockbusters about superheroes and this is one for an older audience appreciative of a character study and an endorsement that you never know what good life changing experience might be around the corner.
Watch the trailer HERE
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