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At 91, Clint Eastwood has one more surprise up her sleeve
Clint Eastwood's "Cry Macho" hit theaters in the United States and on HBO MAX this weekend.
The veteran filmmaker uses what may be his last appearance to ponder and summarize, and teach us what is important and what is not important in life.
The result is beautiful and even a little surprising
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Clint Eastwood
Avner Shavit
Sunday, 19 September 2021, 00:14 Updated: 10:09
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Trailer for the movie "Cry Macho" (Warner Media)
(Photo: Shai Librovsky)
As befits someone who has been with us for 91 years, Clint Eastwood's projects sometimes need time to mature. The script for “Unforgivable,” for example, went around for about two decades until the director and actor decided it was the right moment for him to do it. "Cry Macho," which went on the world air last weekend, is an even more complex case.
The film is based on the book of the same name by N. Richard Nash, which was published in the mid-1970s. His plot deals with a Texan man, a retired rodeo rider, who crosses the border into Mexico to kidnap a child and return him to his father's possession. This plot base, as well as the novel's poetic and cinematic name, literally invite translation to the screen - and indeed, the rights to it were acquired within a decade.
Many names have already been linked to the project, and Roy Schaider and Arnold Schwarzenegger were already about to star in it, but it didn’t help for various and odd reasons.
Eastwood himself was tried for interest in the film back in 1988 - but then, at 58, the boy felt he was too young for the role.
Only now, shortly after celebrating ninety springs, did he feel it was the right time.
Eastwood directed and also stars in the film - only the third time he has made this combination in the last 13 years.
The previous two times were the masterful "Gran Torino" and the excellent "Mule", and as in both of these cases, this time too he works with the screenwriter Nick Schenck.
More on Walla!
The Unforgettable: Nine Stations in Clint Eastwood's Life
To the full article
The Rooster Theater.
Clint Eastwood in "Cry Macho" (Photo: HBO MAX)
The veteran filmmaker works at a pace of about one film every two years, and sometimes puts out puzzling projects under his hands, but the connection with Shank does him good. "Cry Macho" is revealed from Eastwood's better films in the last decade, although it remains on a fairly low profile - among other things, it is currently unclear when or if it will be released in Israel.
In the United States, "Cry Macho" aired on theaters and at the same time on HBO MAX (not available in Israel, but I took advantage of my stay in America to watch it that way). This is in line with Warner Studios' decision to stick with this distribution model over the next year to deal with the Corona, making the film Eastwood's first product to receive parallel distribution in streaming. This is how it is - when you have lived 91 years, your career has witnessed all the changes in the industry.
The time it took for the project to mature gives its signals in other ways besides streaming distribution.
The scene, the border between the United States and Mexico, has more political baggage as it once did.
In the Israeli context, the story of the adult kidnapping a child and transferring him from one territory to another, is now given chilling topical validity, although here the circumstances are less tragic.
And there is, of course, Eastwood himself.
One can understand why he has been waiting with "Cry Macho" for so many years, for what might be his last appearance on screen.
This is a perfect role for such a requiem, as it is all built on contemplation and conclusion.
Good chicken.
From "Cry Macho" (Photo: HBO MAX)
The title of the film turns out to be a duo and even an ambiguous one. The boy raises a rooster and calls him "macho", "strong" in Spanish, because of his physical strength. But the macho also refers to the rodeo rider, who was once the strongest bone block in Texas, and of course Eastwood, perhaps the most prominent macho icon in contemporary Hollywood.
From the height of his age, Eastwood here takes the myth of machoism with both hands, and breaks it down into pieces. The rodeo rider, it turns out, retired due to injury and was left with nothing. He also never had a grandson, and the journey with the boy is for him a first and one-time opportunity to hang out with someone who stands as a mirror to himself in his youth, to look back with rebuke, and to teach him and us what is important and what is not important in life.
Masculine manners of various kinds, as it will be revealed to us in time, no longer make an impression on him. Accordingly, he also leaves the main act of heroism of the film to the fly next to it, and so it is also revealed that a rooster that croaks in the first act, beats in the third act.
It's actually Eastwood's first Western since "The Unforgivable," and also one of his most contemplative films since that classic.
In addition, one is asked to compare "Cry Macho" to the beautiful "Rider" of Chloe Zhao, who also presented a requiem for the dream of rodeo riders.
"Cry Macho" is less good than these two.
The production values are low and the supporting actors are not good.
Eastwood's boomerang also repeatedly raises its face, for example when it comes to the representation of Mexicans and women, who, among other things, are quick to throw themselves at its feet.
It's not the exercise, it's the age.
From "Cry Macho" (Photo: HBO MAX)
Still, "Cry Macho" is a beautiful and touching film that has value.
Also because of the way Eastwood deals with machoism, and also for two other reasons.
As a director, the veteran filmmaker is well aware of how to propel the plot from one climactic moment to another, with simplicity, thrift and precise timing that never lingers even one extra second.
As a player, Eastwood has an unparalleled charisma, and is unlikely to have a replacement in the future.
His career is a lesson: how can one demonstrate extraordinary power, even without raising one's voice.
In "Cry Macho", the actor is even more humble and restrained than ever, and also does not hesitate to turn the stage to someone else at the most significant junction of the film.
Younger and stupider than him pushing with elbows, but Eastwood knows that ego and devines will lead you nowhere.
And so, at the age of 91 and in what may be his last cinematic performance, he puts everything aside and with the nobility of soul that is characteristic of him, allows the rooster to steal his show.
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