THE MULE
US, 2018, 116 minutes, Colour.
Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Andy Garcia, Dianne Wiest, Michael Peña, Laurence Fishburne, Clifton Collins Jr, Ignacio Serricchio, Taissa Farmiga, Alison Eastwood.
Directed by Clint Eastwood.
After what might have seemed a grand finale to his acting career in Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood also acted as a coach in Trouble with the Curve. However, with The Mule, he has added another grand finale. Of course, he continues directing – an extraordinary number of fine films over the last 20 years, the Iwo Jima films, the afterlife in Hereafter, race relationships and football in Invictus, the musical Jersey boys…
And, here he is in 2018, acting and directing as he turned 88.
The film opens and closes with beautiful shots of exotic flowers. Eastwood plays Earl Stone, a horticulturist who loves flowers – much more than his wife and daughter. In fact, he prefers to be with the flowers, going to conventions and winning prizes, drinking with his buddies, neglecting to go to his daughter’s wedding. She refuses to speak to him. His wife loved him but is exasperated. The two women are played by Alison Eastwood, Clint’s real-life daughter (raising curious questions in the audience about his relationship with her over the decades) and Dianne Wiest as his wife.
Just as Clint growled audibly at his granddaughter in Gran Torino using her mobile phone in church, he is upset here by the Internet which has deprived him of outlets for selling his flowers personally. He growls about people always on their phones but, in his new job, has to have a phone and learn to text – and even has a lesson or two.
So, what is an old guy a 90, Korean War veteran, deprived of his outlet with the flowers, to do to earn a dollar or two, even as the banks foreclose on his house? An enterprising young Latino chats to him at his granddaughter’s engagement party (he did go because he likes her). He is given a card, takes his battered old truck to a rendezvous with some very suspicious-looking types with guns and finds that all has to do is drive his truck to a hotel, leave the luggage that has been put in the back, return to the truck and find his payment. And, quite some payment it is, enabling him to pay for his granddaughter’s education as well as the refurbishment of an old club.
And the contents, drugs. He is a 90-year-old Mule, quite conscious of what he is doing, enjoying the drive, the stop offs, even flying down to the hacienda of the leader of the drug cartel (Andy Garcia). However, one of the underlings (Ignacio Sericchio) finds Earl’s lack of discipline irritating, becomes something of a chaperone, but comes to admire the old man who uses his wits to ward off a curious policeman when they stop at a diner.
So, how will it end?
The screenplay provides a look at the DEA in action, overall official played by Laurence Fishburne, two agents in the field, Bradley Cooper (would worked with Clint Eastwood in American Sniper) and Michael Peña. It is interesting to see the tactics they use, surveillance, listening into phones, car pursuits, helicopter pursuit…
One of the keys to the resolution of the film is that the granddaughter phones Earl to tell him that his wife is dying. He puts her off because he is on a trip but then decides to break free of the supervisors and spend time with his wife and attend her funeral.
The DEA narrows its surveillance, and…
The thing with the grand finale of The Mule is that it is not heroic, self-sacrificing, in the way that Gran Torino was, a dramatic, heroic and to a life. Here, Earl lives on, experiencing some reconciliation with his family, willing to answer for his actions, an old man experiencing some kind of redemption. So, if Clint does act in another film, it will be a postscript to his two career finales, Gran Torino hero, The Mule Everyman.
1. The title? The derogatory comments on mules and their stubbornness? The drug mules and their role in the dealers, the cartels? The true story?
2. The visuals of middle America, Illinois, homes, gardens, conventions? Markets? The variety of states travelled to through? The range of scenery? New Mexico and White Sands? The American roads?
3. The musical score, and the range of songs, Cool Water, I’ve been everywhere, man, On the road again…?
4. This film in Clint Eastwood’s career, his acting career, directing career, an old man, his adapting and directing in his late 80s?
5. The opening on flowers, the finale with flowers? The beauty, exotic, the range of flowers throughout the film, weddings, funerals?
6. Clint Eastwood as Earl Stone, his work, with the flowers, relationship with the workers, his saying he loved flowers? Going to the convention, winning the award, wanting to go to the bar? The comment about the Internet and sales online, the threat to the ordinary worker? 2005? His daughter and his ex-wife, wanting him to be at the wedding, his not going, their angers, his daughter not talking to him? His granddaughter?
7. 2017, the dominance of the Internet sales, the foreclosure on his house, his letting go workers? Going to his granddaughter’s engagement party? His daughter not talking? Mary and his relationship with her? Her being hurt in the past? The young Hispanic man, the discussions about driving, giving his card?
8. Earl taking him up, his old truck, his not having anywhere to go? Going to the contacts, the men with their guns, the drugs? His driving and the listing of all his trips? The phone, texting, the delivery, finding the money and the truck? The texting lesson? The difference in each drive? And the money, his paying for his granddaughter’s education, the renovation of the club and the celebration and its restoration?
9. The cartels, their role, drug dealing, from Mexico to the United States? The cartel chief, firing his gun, welcoming Earl, the party, the women, the dancing, the drugs? Earl enjoying himself? Women, his past with women? Julio, the underling, his anger at home, the boss, his being forced to be a chaperone, his associate, wanting Earl to obey the rules? The listening to Earl’s music? The stopovers, his freedom? The restaurant scene, their standing out amongst the white population, the police interrogation, Earl saving them by his story, the bribe of the fruit to the policeman?
10. The cartel boss, his being shot, the new head, strict rules and orders?
11. The presentation of the DEA, the agents, the man in charge and his expectations, pressure from Washington? The two new agents, the international success, the local and his family? The interrogations, the visiting the Filipino, the threats to him, the meetings with him, the information and their acting on it? The range of surveillance, knowing the details of what was happening, going into action? Phones, cars,
helicopters?
12. The irony of the agent and having the meal with Earl, discussions about anniversaries, regrets, bringing the thermos?
13. Granddaughter phoning, Mary and her being sick, at first his refusal, then going? The talk with Mary, 10 years of happiness in their early marriage, his moving away, her being hurt? The death? The funeral, the flowers, the reconciliation with his daughter? The possibility of gathering at Thanksgiving?
14. Pressure of the big drop, Earl taking it with him to the funeral? The cartel young men searching for him? The DEA, narrowing the information, the people, tracking it? The cartel wanting to kill Earl? The listening in, the helicopter, on the road, taking Earl?
15. The irony of the agent in the previous discussions with Earl? The trial, everybody there, his pleading guilty? The family response?
16. Prison, his sense of justice, his atonement, the possibilities of some redemption? At his working with the flowers? An ending not without hope?
