Clint Eastwood is 91 years old, but he produces more films than directors a third his age. He still pumps out one a year, despite his senior age. During the pandemic, he was even filming. Cry Macho is the result, and it’s his 39th film in 50 years. It’s also the second time since The Mule in 2018 that he’s been seen driving around, with at least some time spent in Mexico. And, based on the trailer, it looks like it could blow Pete Davidson and John Mulaney’s minds, just like The Mule did not long ago.
In the commercial, the former Man with No Name dons a cowboy hat and plays a former rodeo star who has fallen on bad circumstances, similar to his horticulturist in The Mule. Desperate, he accepts a task from an old buddy (Dwight Yoakum) that entails retrieving and bringing his kid (Eduardo Minett) from Mexico. There appears to be a lot of hesitant bonding, weathered aphorisms, and even a rooster named Macho.
It also appears to be another opportunity for Eastwood to reflect on his long career. In 1991, Eastwood earned his first Best Picture Oscar for Unforgiven, a film in which he grappled with his violent screen persona. He looks to be doing it three decades later. Eastwood’s character informs his teenage charge, “I’ll tell you something: This macho thing is overrated.” “It’s just folks trying to act macho to prove they have grit. That’s pretty much all they get.”
There are also jokes, including a racy double entendre at the end of the trailer that we can’t post here. But what can you expect from a great actor and filmmaker who gave himself two threesomes in The Mule?
