Posted on 12/15/2018 6:11:22 PM PST by rebuildus
Clint Eastwood's "The Mule" is Out (A Tale of Two Movie Reviews)
Ive always loved movies.
The first movies I remember were when my older sisterfor some reasonwould take me along when she went to the Drive In. She was probably baby sitting and wanted to get out of the house! Drive Ins were big in Southern California in the late 60s, early 70s.
The first movie I remember was Paint Your Wagon, but I remember nothing about it, except I didnt like it or understand it.
The second was Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. It was raw and masculine. I remember it and liked it.
From then on I used to sneak into the movie theater near my house. It had just become a multi-theater (six) complex, so I was in heaven!
At some point I started to watch the movies of Clint Eastwood. Again, raw and masculine. Liked them. Liked them a lot!
Ive liked a whole lot of Clint Eastwood movies. My favorite is Gran Torino. If you havent seen it, do yourself a favor and rent it. You wont regret it.
For a period, my favorite movie makers were Clint and Mel Gibson, but I cant remember a compelling Mel Gibson movie since Apocalypto . And Clint just kept making great movies. So now its just Clint.
So I just stumbled on an article that said Clint has released a new movie called The Mule. Its a true story about a politically incorrect white man in his 80s (Eastwood, whos returned for perhaps one last shot at acting) who is broke, alone, and facing the foreclosure of his business. Hes offered a job driving, which turns out to be as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel!
Heres the movies trailer.
While growing up I liked to read the newspaper (my family got three at one point, because my older brother was a delivery boy). I loved both the sports and entertainment pages.
My favorite movie reviews were Robert Hilburns in The Los Angeles Times. He was the main critic and movie editor at The Times from 1970 to 2005. Hed really get into these movies, and break them down in various ways.
I developed a habit of reading movie reviews.
Even to this day if I hear about a movie, I have a tendency to want to check out a review about it.
When I heard about Clint Eastwoods new movie, The Mule, I was interested. For one, Gran Torinos writer, Nick Schenk, also wrote The Mule. I love good movie writing, and dabbled in it myself for a time. I was also curious to see what reviewers would say about the new movie, given that Clint is a libertarian with conservative leanings, and everything is so political these days.
Sure enough, I found reviews about the movie written by liberals. But they were different. The first, by David Ehrlich of IndieWire, didnt hide his bias; yet he was able to put it aside and watch the movie, noting the depth of its message and its artistic merit. He ended up loving it.
The second review was by Leigh Monson of the blog Birth. Movies. Death. Looking at Leighs bio and photo, I honestly couldnt tell if Leigh was a woman or man. Leighs Twitter tagline says Queer. Trans. Enby I had to look this up. Per the Urban Dictionary, enby means non binary in other words, neither boy nor girl.
In any case, the title of Leighs review is The Mule Review: Clint Eastwoods Long Middle Finger, so I think we can surmise Leigh was going to have issues with the movie. Worse is the subtitle of the review: Whos excited for two hours of an old conservative dude telling you to go f*** yourself?
Okay Isnt that nice?
I have not yet seen the movie, but I saw enough in the trailer to make me realize that Clint Eastwood is touching on some powerful, emotional themes, not the least of which is regret for hurting his family while he pursued making movies and money. He deals with issues that transcend politicsissues that anyone should be able to relate to.
Its mind boggling that someone (like this reviewer) can have a heart so hard that they cant see the humanity of another person, even while their interest group (and other interest groups like it) demands that others see their humanity. I have no doubt that this non-binary reviewer harbors a deep hatred for masculinity, as embodied by Clint Eastwood.
The country singer, Toby Keith, was playing golf recently with Clint Eastwood. When he asked the eighty-eight year old man what keeps him going, Clint said, I just get up everyday and dont let the old man in. So Toby wrote a song with that title for the movie. If you watch this and it doesnt affect you, then maybe you too have what it takes to write a nasty review about the movie.
There are several other interesting stories regarding people close to Clint Eastwood related to this movie. One is that actress Sondra Locke, who was involved in a long relationship with him, which started after they appeared together in the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales, died just before the release of The Mule.
Another is that Clints daughter, Laurie Murray, was acknowledged for the first time as his daughter at the Los Angeles premiere of The Mule. Laurie was reportedly given up for adoption by her mother at birth, and only found out Clint was her father after a search for her biological parents as an adult.
The third story is that Clints asked another daughter, actress Alison Eastwood, to come out of retirement to appear with him in The Mule, and she did!
And hows the movie doing? Not bad at all, earning $6 Million on Friday. Thats his second biggest opening day ever (Gran Torino earned 9.6 Million in 2009).
Clint Eastwood is far from a perfect man. Including Laurie, he has had eight children by six different women. In fact, all eight were at The Mule premiere.
In fact, one thing that is giving his recent movies extra depth is his increasing willingness to reveal his personal failures through his characters.
And despite these failures, Clint still exudes the aura of a mans man. He is fiercely independent, hard working, and has always refused to march to the beat of someone elses drum.
To me, hes the most interesting film maker we have left. He is an American treasure. And we may have seen his last movieat least as an actor.
But perhaps the most important trait Clint Eastwood carries is his masculinity, and refusal to back away from it, even in this rabidly anti-white man age we find ourselves in.
If America and the West are to be saved, it will be because masculinity refused to die. Long live Clint Eastwood! And long live masculinity!
I welcome your comments.
Patrick Rooney is the Founder of PRRooney.com (Freedom. Rediscovered
). He is also the author of GREEK PHYSIQUE: The Simple, Satisfying Way to Sculpt Your Body, Even if Youre Old, Weak, or Broken Down. To reach Patrick, email him at info@prrooney.com
The Mule.Originally he had 2 more mules but he gave them to a nun named Sarah.
She wasn't a real nun.
I’ve not found Eastwood to ever to promote a lie/ever
Incredibly narrow-minded post. Because he plays a mule doesn’t mean that the movie glorifies drugs.
Clint Eastwood is far from a perfect man. Including Laurie, he has had eight children by six different women. In fact, all eight were at The Mule premiere.
________________
As an estate attorney wrote: Money is compelling to heirs. A lot of good behavior depends on the size of the swag
Good one!
Patrick Rooney loves to talk about himself.
The movie? Not so much.
______________
You noticed too.
I have seen this style of writing and cannot tell you how poor it is, a movie review by Proust! LOL
And fwiw my narrow mind was only asking if the movie glorifies drugs.....and a lot of you reacted surprisingly strong....as if you took it personally
I happen to like Eastwood......
I even liked him when he played a jewel thief who redeems himself
All I wanted was a movie critique from Freepers.......not insults
Yes, his prose reads like that of a middle school girl.
I’m pretty sure the movie is simply about a broken man willing to do just about anything to make ends meet and the nightmare that his life becomes when he actually does it. The key word there relative to your concerns is nightmare.
Not being a wise guy, but hopefully you didn’t cheat yourself out of seeing Gran Torino because it involved street gangs. It certainly does not glorify them and if you didn’t see it I strongly suggest that you rent a DVD or somehow find a way to see it.
I will give that a shot next time, sparklite2. Thanks for taking the time to explain.
That’s funny, and probably true, outofsalt
You are very kind......Thank you!
Thank you, octex!
As an estate attorney wrote: Money is compelling to heirs. A lot of good behavior depends on the size of the swag
Great point, Chickensoup. Hadn't considered that!
Actually, you've been watching him all along. He was in Paint Your Wagon too.
Man... you're right, Vince. That's embarrassing! You know, I never did like musicals. Maybe that was the turn-off!
Clint Eastwood is far from a perfect man. Including Laurie, he has had eight children by six different women. In fact, all eight were at The Mule premiere.
“How does that make for a good movie when our country is fighting massive drug use and deadly Fentanyl”
It doesn’t
Bad guy is the good guy. This started with th popular but lousy Harry Potter series
This is ‘guy helps out the abused south of the border drug lord’ a very popular theme in politics.
Kind of erases the impact of that making fun of Obama photo
It’s how the left reacts to independent thinkers. I get the same type response from the college kids if I dare argue back that joy behar is not someone who cares about society, that she is irresponsible with her comedy
You’re quite welcome.fwiw, at times I’ve been guilty of the same thing other freepers are as far as being insulting rather than constructive in their posts. 5 minutes after the post is made you think to yourself, did I really have to say that like that? Probably just some psychological thing that makes someone feel better about themselves by knocking someone else. Us crazy humans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.