BEFORE: OK, so it really wasn't No-Movie November, but it was pretty close - just four movies this month, and the breakdown is simple:
3 Movies watched on cable (saved to DVD): Champions, Free Birds, The Minus Man
1 Movies watched on cable (not saved): Cry Macho
4 Total
It's been quite a week already, but I'm going to fit this last one in because that will leave me with just 10 films to watch in December, and I'm going to be VERY busy for the first two weeks of the month, a few long shifts at the theater including TWO tent-watches that could run very late, and then, in the third week, my schedule's going to clear right up. Which works out great for me, I'm fairly sure I can get those last 10 movies watched in the next 25 days, and that third week's going to be doing all the heavy lifting there. The last two movies are Christmas movies, anyway, so they can wait until Week 4. I can watch just two movies next week and another two the week after and still get it all done in time.
It's still only Day 3 of a four-day holiday weekend, so I got the rest of the weeds cut down in the backyard, I got the air conditioner cover on and we've moved our furniture back into place after that electrical problem, so tomorrow will be just for resting up before going back to work for a solidly packed, very busy week.
Dwight Yoakam carries over from "The Minus Man". I can't use Clint Eastwood as a link any more, because I've seen just about every film he's been in over the years. As a result, this film's been taking up space on my DVR since May of 2022, and I really need to get rid of it.
THE PLOT: A one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder takes a job to bring a man's son home and away from his alcoholic mom. On their journey, the horseman finds redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
AFTER: Ugh, it's another disappointing movie tonight - you see what can happen when I let just the LINKING pick the movie? There are SO many better films I could be watching - well, OK, I don't know if they're any BETTER because I haven't seen them yet, but they're the movies that I really WANT to be watching now, like "Dune: Part Two" and "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga", and "Civil War' and "5-25-77" and "The Hunger Games; Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" and hell, I'd settle for "Dream Scenario" or "The Iron Claw" or the "Mean Girls" remake at this point. The film "Ambulance", I've been waiting a long time to see what that's about, why couldn't THAT pop up in my linking feed today? Even if it's not a great movie, it could be better than this. "Love in the Time of Cholera", that's also taking up space on my DVR, why couldn't I just watch that one?
Ugh again, let's get this over with. This could be the last film that Clint Eastwood ever appears in, because he's like 94 years old now and I don't think he can be properly insured to make another film. Like he had to throw ONE punch in this movie, and I can remember a time when that's all he'd do in a movie, punch out bad guys in back alleys as Dirty Harry, or maybe in a saloon in some spaghetti Western, and now he's down to like ONE punch per movie - and he probably needed to take a nap after doing it. Jesus, he looks like the Cryptkeeper in this movie, why not just retire and take comfort in the fact that people will be watching your classic movies until the end of time, there's no need to gild the lily at this point. Gene Hackman, Clint's co-star from "Unforgiven", retired, and I'm guessing that was the right move. Once you pass 80, really, people want to see some fresh faces in their movies, even in Westerns you never really saw an old gunslinger, because they either drew too slow and died or their hands were shaking too much to hold the gun. Give it a rest, Clint.
This film bombed, it didn't even make back half its budget, and I'm guessing that means that nobody under 30 (you know, the people who go stream movies) even knows who Clint Eastwood is. My boss keeps telling that story about how he is more popular in France, so he's the "Jerry Lewis" of animation and I have to break it to him that the college kids he's giving that lecture to have now idea who Jerry Lewis even was, let alone the fact that he was more popular in France. Time to update your reference points, I say.
Anyway, I can't dispute the fact that Eastwood is perfectly cast here, because his character is a former rodeo star who is very old, and had a career-ending injury which led to prescription drug abuse and/or alcoholism, and his family has all passed away, so he's just an old loner, and gets fired from his job training horses on a ranch because he's, well, just too old. Ageism can't get you fired, however if you're just too darn old to do your very physical job any more, well, there must be an out for some bosses, right? I'm only 56 and if I do 2 hours of yard work, then I need a nap and a hot shower, in some order. The time clock is running out for all of us, really, and if my legs keep hurting I'm going to have to seriously find another job where I'm not setting up tables and chairs and carrying things up and down the stairs. I'll hate to lose the gig, because the money's good, but I am the oldest one there, and I'm feeling it.
The movie, right, the movie. Ex-rodeo star Mike Milo gets contacted by his old boss, who wants him to drive down to Mexico and find his 15-year old son, and bring him back to Texas. After he finds the boy, he may need to convince the boy to live with his father instead of his mother, and then Mike might also have to deal with that mother, who might be crazy or abusive, at least if you believe the boy's father. Then getting the kid into the United States might be another problem, especially with the anti-immigrant political climate we've got now. Driving down to Mexico City, sure, no problem, but it's getting back that proves to be the problem.
First problem, the mother, who doesn't want to let the kid go - it turns out both parents want to treat the kid like a pawn because of the business dealings they have. Does either one even WANT to take care of the kid, or is this just a family squabble with the kid stuck in the middle? Second problem is the kid himself, who's taken up drinking and doing drugs and cockfights, and why would he want to go to Texas, where those things are illegal? The Mexico underground is basically his playground, but Mike is eventually able to convince the kid that his father cares about him, and that Texas is a pretty neat place if your dad owns a horse ranch.
Further problems develop when the mother's henchmen follow the pair in Mike's truck as they dodge both local cops and federal officials, and eventually those henchmen steal the truck, leaving Mike and Rafo to find another way to get north. After jacking an abandoned car, they hole up in a cantina and decide to wait until the police checkpoints cease, or they can find some other way around them. Also, their car needs repairs and they need to wait things out, so Mike finds work training horses at a nearby ranch, and also dispensing veterinary advice to the locals. He also starts a relationship with Marta, the owner of the cantina, and decides that there are probably worse places to be in the world. Meanwhile, Rafo's father is wondering why this four day road-trip is taking two weeks.
That's basically the whole film, it's a real sleeper and I'm not quite sure why it's set in the year 1979, but the book it's based on came out in 1975, and producers have been trying to make a movie out of this ever since then, so maybe that's why it's set back then? Really, if your screenplay has been on the back burner for almost 50 years, maybe there's a good reason for that - I mean, kudos for being persistent, but sometimes it's better to cut your losses. Clint Eastwood turned down this role in 1988, then at various times Robert Mitchum, Roy Scheider and Arnold Schwarzenegger were considered, and then at long last it circled back to Clint. I guess maybe this completes the "old man" trilogy that was started by "Gran Torino" and "The Mule"?
Really, this feels like it could have been a 10-minute short film, that's how simple the story is. That's how much NOTHING happens in the big, overblown middle of the film. Which means that the film is at LEAST one hour too long. Sure, it sells the point that Mike has stayed in Mexico much too long, but that point could have been made much more easily, and without wasting 105 minutes of my time.
Also starring Clint Eastwood (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven, Fernanda Urrejola, Horacio Garcia Rojas, Daniel V .Graulau, Amber Lynn Ashley, Brytnee Atkinson (last seen in "Only the Brave"), Alexandra Ruddy (last seen in "The Last Kiss"), Ivan Hernandez (last seen in "Vengeance"), Lincoln A. Castellanos, Marco Rodriguez (last seen in "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood"), Jorge-Luis Pallo (last seen in "Father Stu"), Ana Rey (last seen in "Please Stand By"), Rocko Reyes, Paul Lincoln Alayo (last seen in "The Mule").
RATING: 4 out of 10 wild horses (they're a metaphor for the kid, I guess)
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