There’s no denying that Clint Eastwood is a great filmmaker, not only as an actor, but also as a film director. He has done some of the most iconic roles in film history and has directed some of the greatest films, but at what point is a once-great filmmaker past their prime. After watching Cry Macho, I can officially say that Clint Eastwood is past his prime and should retire. Now with that said I am not saying that Cry Macho is a terrible movie, but Clint Eastwood looks too old and tired to carry this movie as the star. And this movie seems like it should have been made about 30 or 40 years ago when it was first optioned and starting to be developed for a film. And the harshest thing that I can say about Cry Macho is it feels like every other Clint Eastwood movie I’ve ever seen instead of being a seminal film with the perfect message about redemption. In fact, Clint Eastwood already made that movie 30 years ago and it’s called Unforgiven. The story is a good one, there’s a lot to like about the story and the film, but I feel like the biggest tragedy is if Clint Eastwood is going to be the star, he should have been the star three decades ago when it would have been more poignant. That’s not to say that Clint Eastwood hasn’t surprised us over the last 15 years. Gran Torino is a fantastic film, and I very much enjoyed The Mule, but that should have been his last film. Now, Clint Eastwood reminds me of the fighter who doesn’t know when to quit. At least Robert Redford knew when it was time to retire as an actor and picked the perfect project, an aging bank robber still finding a spring in his step when he robbed a bank and became the oldest bank robber in America. That was a great film for somebody like Robert Redford to go out on.

Let’s talk about this film. Cry Macho is the story of a broken-down ex-rodeo star and horse trainer who is hired by a former employer to basically kidnap his son in Mexico and bring him back to America. The story very much resonates what I would hope for with Clint Eastwood as a filmmaker because it’s about a man trying to put things right at the end of his life and do one last thing great thing before he meets his maker. And that one great thing is to rescue a boy whose life is ahead of him and to save him from the degradation of a mother who doesn’t really care about him while stopping him from entering a life of crime.  The main character and the young boy have to escape corrupt Mexican henchmen and police officers who are trying to find them before they can get to the border. And of course, with this kind of story, you find an old man who has one last shot at love and finding some peace. Not exactly an original story, but we keep seeing this kind of story because it works every time.

The thing about Clint Eastwood is he made some really great iconic films in the late sixties and seventies especially westerns. One of the most underrated films he did was The Outlaw Josey Wales, Jesse James type character with nothing to lose and trying to bring some sense of justice the world around him while helping those less fortunate in the aftermath of the Civil War. Clint Eastwood was perfect and you can say that he’s kept doing those kinds of characters through films like Heartbreak Ridge all the way up to Unforgiven, which was at a perfect time in his life and his career.  Cry Macho should have been among those kinds of films. Clint Eastwood is 91 years old and not really that believable as someone who’s tough enough to rescue a boy and save him from the bad guys. There are some Sweet moments in the film and some familiarity with Clint Eastwood because we’ve seen these performances before, but it doesn’t quite feel the same since in truth he has passed his prime. What makes the film worth watching is not Clint Eastwood, but the rest of the cast, which carries the film and it’s almost like Clint Eastwood is being propped up the cast. The best moments of the film are when he is offering some kind of fatherly advice to the young boy. But there’s no surprise to it because again we’ve seen this performance before and the last time he did it, I felt like it was more heartfelt when he was giving advice about being a good husband and father to Bradley Cooper’s DEA character agent who just arrested him in The Mule.

What truly works in the film is the cinematography. Also, it has a nice sense of pacing for the most part. Although, at the beginning of the third act when they’re hiding out, it seems to drag out for 15 to 20 minutes longer than it should. Dwight Yoakam does a good job as the father who hires Clint Eastwood’s character to get his boy and Fernanda Urrejola who plays the mother also does a fantastic job as this despicable seductress who doesn’t really care about the young boy, only using him as leverage to keep the riches that she got from her ex-husband. Plus, there’s a lot of great funny scenes with the rooster and other animals. I wish that I could say that the scenes of them breaking horses had more emotional weight to them, but it’s not really believable seeing a 91 Year Old Clint Eastwood being able to break a horse. But the final scenes are probably the best. The only time I really felt emotion for Clint Eastwood’s character is at the very end when he gets the boy to the border, and waves goodbye. Then of course his final scene when he goes back to the small Mexican town where they were hiding out and after having fixed the jukebox in a little Mexican cantina earlier in the film, has a dance with his new love interest. Both are two lost souls who happen to find each other and it makes for some great scenes. But the sad truth is none of this is enough to make this the kind of iconic Clint Eastwood movie we should get, the kind of iconic films that we have seen with Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino. At least in those films, Clint Eastwood played an aging character that was believable and had an emotional connection to. And you knew that Clint Eastwood wasn’t past his prime when he did these movies. As much as I like the story, I almost feel like Clint Eastwood should have just stayed in the director’s chair and had a younger actor, who was still old enough to make the character of ex-rodeo star believable. There’s plenty of older actors out there that could have done a better job in that role and would have made us feel something more for the film. Like honestly, I could have seen Tom Selleck or Harrison Ford play this role perfectly. But Clint Eastwood even though he has passed his prime as an actor, can still direct a good film and that alone makes Cry Macho worth watching!