Clint Eastwood’s The Mule is the quintessential ‘what an old dude thinks a real old dude would do in a tense situation’ movie.
The 88-year-old director decided after tackling topics such as the crotchety coach to a female boxer on the up-and-up in Million Dollar Baby, and a crotchety war veteran that doesn’t want to help people but does anyways in Gran Torino, he would try his hand at portraying, you guessed it, a crotchety man trying to earn some extra money for his family.
After a failed life as a botanist, Earl Stone (Eastwood), finds himself broke and unable to financially support his granddaughter with her wedding. Earl is approached by a Mexican cartel member who offers him jobs transporting don’t-ask-what-it-is product across a few states to a drop-off point. What ensues is, of course, him asking what it is, finding out it’s drugs, beginning to morally question why he’s being a mule and if he should continue. Along the way he crosses paths with Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent, Bradley Cooper, who is making it blatantly obvious he wants to look younger than he is (fear not, Mr. Cooper, you’ll always be the steamy 20-something in every mother’s imaginations).
I won’t spoil the ending, but it ended in a very thought provoking, pleasant, old guy way. After consulting the best movie critics I know, all four sets of grandparents, who weirdly enough have all seen it. They say they thoroughly enjoyed it, especially making note of Eastwood’s acting. This made me realize there may be more to Eastwood’s films than I initially thought.
Upon further review of the film, I noticed all the lines were delivered in clear, loud voices with no cross-sound to interfere.
Perfect for old people ears.
I then saw that the events of the film took place very linearly, and with clear cuts from one scene to the next, making it easy to understand and follow.
Perfect for old people attention spans.
The final nail in the coffin (pun not intended) was the film ended with final and eternal happiness for Eastwood’s character (no he didn’t die, relax).
A perfect moral ending for troubled old people minds.
Has Eastwood, in his infinite cowboy wisdom, targeted an elderly, eager to be represented group with his movies? Maybe he isn’t slipping in his old age but getting sharper. Did Eastwood realize there’s a large pool of old, retired, bored folks that have nothing better to do than go to the movies? Because if he did, all he would have to do is look at the current roster of movies and see a alarmingly under-represented population that could be hooked with a heart-warming premise; a crafty, sharp-tongued elderly main character, and a little action, but not too much because Bob’s pacemaker in the third row can’t handle too much stress.
Overall I give Eastwood’s The Mule a good, bad, and ugly star, because I was a little unstimulated but I know for a fact the 60-year-old plus audience was held at the edge of their walkers for the entirety of the movie.