Who saw Cry Macho? Members' Comments (WARNING: SPOILERS ALLOWED!)

[bledstein]

The Mule wasn't very suspenseful at all for either the drug cartels or DEA after Eastwood. The pacing is surprisingly casual and it had laid back music. None of the music in the trailer was in the movie and certain scenes in the trailer were irrelevant. I do like the family aspect about how many regrets he has not being with his family. There were a few funny parts, but as a crime movie, the good guys and bad guys were blah. Not a bad choice, but his previous three as an actor were better. The best part was the last act, but not enough for me to recommend the movie.

[AKA23]

Thanks for answering this. I don't disagree with you about "The Mule." I've said on the board how I would have preferred a darker movie along the lines of "Breaking Bad" rather than the lighter movie Eastwood chose to make. I really like the score though!

"Cry Macho" didn't have any suspense though, so why did you feel that it was a better movie? I understand your feelings about "The Mule on its own, but I still don't understand why you prefer "Cry Macho" to it.

[bledstein]

Cry Macho wasn't strongly suspenseful either, but I thought the story was more interesting since it wasn't as repetitive. Also, it balanced drama, comedy and suspense pretty well. It does have similarities to The Gauntlet and A Perfect World, but the relationship with Mike and Rafo are interesting and well written. It was also paced better. Nothing amazing, though. I hope he ends his career on a high note with the possible project Last Ride West discussed online.

[batfunk2]

Cowboys hide to die ...

I'm coming out movies theatre, nice movie: D What is indeed fascinating is the incredible freedom and conviction of Eastwood, who gives us a film with a totally outdated and anachronistic subject ...: shock:
In the majestic intro (splendid photo and scope), Eastwood seems to gently mock his legendary status, revealing himself at the last minute. And Eastwood's limping gait, as in The Mule, makes my heart twinge. The film starts badly, with an arrival in Mexico and the meeting with an alcoholic milf on the return, who openly flirt with our nonagenarian. Ouch. We are far from the sympathetic portrait of the bosses of The Mule ...
It does not get better with the discovery of the kid to be recovered, an unbearable kid in his skin, straight out of acting school(big casting error, rare from Eastwood). And gradually, everything returns to order: in contact with Eastwood, the kid settles down and plays more naturally, the arrival in the village community brings a human warmth, always dear to Eastwood  (Bronco Billy , Every Which way but loose... )
Place of the community in human well-being, sense of mutual aid, simplicity of essential needs (love, friendship, family) nothing new under the sun, therefore, but it is always put forward with exemplary sincerity. We can note perhaps a sober and welcome comment, on religious identity today and this observation that as we get older, we do not know more.
Eastwood continues, without deviating, to take stock of his life, also evoking the ghosts of the past: a disturbing Dwight Yoakam dressed like Michael Cimino, the form of the road movie, the americana of  Honky Tonk man. When I left the room, Mike Milo reminded me of an appeaased William Munny, who after having mourned his wife, would have decided to enjoy life again ... at 91 years old: D

 Flawed and minor work but which enriches the popular and endearing part of the Eastwood filmography.

6.5 / 10

Ps:  Mancina's soundtrack is very good, sober, and perfectly suited to this Mexican road movie: wink:. I thought I also gave a nod from Eastwood to Arturo Sandoval, via a map of a building bearing his name ...

[Christopher]

Nice review, batfunk. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

[batfunk2]

You're welcome..i think that american critics are way too harsh whis the movie. It's a gentle movie with bad casting(Dwight Yoakam is barely average too) . Strangely, casting director is the same since four movies, so such an error is unexplainable... Eastwood will lose a lot of Money with this one  and it's partially justified, script is awkard too.

I love Eastwood acting but i really think he should retire from screen or, at least, adapt his character to  his advanced age.He's  a great grandfather, he has just to play a sarcastic, fun or beloved one.Punching a 35 years old Man, come on...  ;DThe offset beetween his character and his physical shape is too large now and i really fear to see him losing his acting on screen, it would be such an humiliation... Eastwood knows  his actor career is on the end, that's why we  saw him twice in a couple of  years, it's  a swan song... 

[Perry]

The character of Milo in the novel was at least 50 years younger so I really didn't understand why he did this movie now. I'm not going to totally vilify Eastwood for this movie because since Gran Torino with the exception of The Mule and American Sniper his movies have not been box office hits or mistakes and I personally haven't found any great desire to see most of those movies since GT. In many ways it's not even about being a bad movie or a mistake. It's more about there really isn't a audience anymore for Eastwood in any large degree. Hollywood and the degree of movies being produced has changed dramatically and not for the better. I do agree I hope he directs continually, but I felt he needed to give up acting even before Trouble With The Curve which was a mediocre movie and his character just seemed like a retread Walt Kowalski. In time if I ever see Cry Macho I'll have a different opinion...

[Perry]

         " I've said on the board how I would have preferred a darker movie along the lines of "Breaking Bad" rather than the lighter movie Eastwood chose to make.


100% agree........

[Macpherson]

Having seen Cry Macho twice, I'll use two quotes from critics to sum up my feelings..

"There's a languid, lackadaisical quality to Cry Macho that might be misconstrued as lack of depth, but therein lies it's deceptive charm. This is a filmmaker with nothing left to prove, a living legend reflecting on himself and his own mythology in ways that are rarely seen on screen. It's an elegiac western that feels like a reflective summation of an entire career. Minor Eastwood? No. This is the work of a major filmmaker refusing to go quietly into that good night."
Matthew Lucas -  From the Front Row

"And it's hard to look at Cry Macho and not see that kind of final film, one completely at peace with all the disappointment, regret and heartbreak that's come before and the short but wondrous amount of time that lies immediately ahead."
Glenn Heath - The Film Stage

[Hocine]

Hi everyone,

I have seen Cry Macho on November 9th in Paris, France. The screening was at 8 pm. The cinema theater was half full at the most.

First of all, I have to say that I really enjoyed Cry Macho. It is not among the best Clint Eastwood movies nor among the worst ones. I enjoyed Cry Macho more than Trouble with the Curve, for sure. I think that Cry Macho is a good piece companion to The Mule. On the other hand, I can understand the disappointment of many critics and film goers. If someone does not know Clint Eastwood films and wants to discover them, Cry Macho is probably not the right film to start with.

Cry Macho is an unpretentious B movie which follows Mike Milo: in my opinion, the presence of Clint Eastwood before the camera is really what justifies the existence of that movie. In one of the Warner Bros featurettes of that film, we can hear producer Albert S. Ruddy saying: I can sell Cry Macho in two words: Clint Eastwood. I think that he is right because Cry Macho is not a film whose simple story seems the most important thing. I mean that what I enjoyed the most is to see Clint in some happy moments of life and some other scenes which remind of other films: the best part is when Mike Milo and Rafo stopped at a little town in Mexico and met Marta. I also like that scene where Mike Milo and Rafo spend the night in a little chapel: Mike talked to Rafo about his tragic past. Cry Macho is a quiet film, with no real action sequence, no suspenseful scene, no violence, no twist.

For Clint, it is also an other opportunity to play with his screen persona. In the opening credits, the beautiful country and western song, To Find a New Home, is played and when Mike Milo gets out of his old truck, I can feel the weight of the years and how hard his life was. I like how Clint introduces his character: he does not need to show or say more than what we see in the opening credits, in order to make his character believable. Clint did that many times in other movies: for instance, in Blood Work, in its opening credits, some aerial shots follows a car and at the end of the opening credits, Clint gets out of that car. His cinematic legacy makes the characters that he plays instantly believable, especially if those characters are cowboys or cops.
Mike Milo is like an old Bronco Billy or an old Rowdy Yates. I think that I recognized some black and white photos from Rawhide, at the beginning of Cry Macho.
At the same time that we see those photos, a music is played and it sounds like the main theme of Space Cowboys, Espacio.

The relationship between Mike Milo and Rafo is enjoyable enough. Even if it is a far cry from Honkytonk Man and A Perfect World.

I was happy to see Clint on screen again, wearing cowboy hat and clothes.

[Macpherson]

Does anyone else view Cry Macho as the final part of
"The Redemption Trilogy," that began with Gran Torino and continued with The Mule...?
Same director.
Same writer.
Thematically linked....hard won wisdom, regrets, loss and a life at a turning point.
Tonally changing from darkness to light, from conflict and unfulfillment to sweetness and serenity.
From an urban edge to bucolic balm.
"All the disappointment, regret and heartbreak that's come before" (The Film Stage) culminating in peace and contentment.
Clint's filmography, mythology, history and screen persona explored and wrestled with in three acts....leading to a hard won, metaphorical riding off into the sunset....

[batfunk2]

Totally and you forgot to mention that it is the same actor, Clint Eastwood. I think that the most autobiographical movie is The Mule but this trilogy is  Eastwood's reflection on his own life, accomplissements and misses:what do i want now ? What did i do wrong ?! How could i correct my errors ?
And the trigger of all his questions is his near future death, he wants to be at peace with himself, which seems logical with his way of life.:he was his own Master all th? way...Maybe he prepares us  too to his end: hey guys, I'm  not an hero anymore, I'm old now, i Will retire soon to live my Last days  with my loved ones, thanks for your support... It was a hell of a ride !

Even if Cry Macho is far from perfect, i really believe it was his last appearance as actor, the ending was unambiguous

[SamanMoradkhani]

Damn guys. I'm not even prepared to think about that. I'm checking internet everyday to see if he is going to shoot another picture. He has to be eternal.

[batfunk2]

So do I. But don't worry, as director, he's far from be over. Don't forget that portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira  finished his Last feature at 104 years old and his Last short movies at 106,the year of his death...
Eastwood is still a young guy

[batfunk2]

I Just watched Cry Macho grosses in France, 2nd best entrance this week for a new movie,not bad... but 5  times less than the first one, a french movies with a popular french actress.And critics were mixed to positive here, not like in U. S.

[The Schofield Kid]

I saw this film last Monday. It was the first time I'd been to a cinema since February 2020. Funnily enough, the last film I saw in a cinema was Richard Jewell.

Unfortunately it's the first time I've walked out of a theater after an Eastwood film totally disappointed. I had low expectations going in after reading the reviews here on the board. I usually avoid doing that so I don't get my hopes up but since it took three months to be released here, I did this time.

This film wasn't bad but it just never got going. Nothing really happens. Totally unmemorable.

2/5.

[Christopher]

This film wasn't bad but it just never got going. Nothing really happens. Totally unmemorable.

I think that's a fair assessment of it. It just never really takes off.

[Gant]

At Last 😊
I do think I?m going to be in the minority here but I enjoyed Cry Macho..
There?s an obvious affection here for Mexico and Mexicans, country folk v Tycoons and I wonder if there?s a quiet political statement to be read into this ?
Macho is a very small and gentle film ( what other kind could we really expect from our man at the grand age of 90 )
A film that suggests that maybe the tougher than tough guys Eastwood has often portrayed in the past had it wrong all along as Eastwood shows Rafa  there?s more to life than toughness.. there?s something very touching, seeing an Eastwood character in such a reflective mood..
It is very different from The Mule which I also enjoyed, there?s very little tension or drama but there are some lovely little scenes to cherish.. Eastwood talking to the pig for one and Clint is still a charismatic screen presence and I think Eastwood and Minett  share a wonderful screen chemistry..

I think Cry Macho and The Mule will both stand the test of time and be looked back on favourably in years to come as integral to Eastwoods body of work..

[The Schofield Kid]

Eastwood talking to the pig for one

Wait, what?

Where and when was this scene? I thought I nearly dozed off a couple of times but maybe I did actually fall asleep during this film.

[Hocine]

At Last 😊
I do think I?m going to be in the minority here but I enjoyed Cry Macho..
There?s an obvious affection here for Mexico and Mexicans, country folk v Tycoons and I wonder if there?s a quiet political statement to be read into this ?
Macho is a very small and gentle film ( what other kind could we really expect from our man at the grand age of 90 )
A film that suggests that maybe the tougher than tough guys Eastwood has often portrayed in the past had it wrong all along as Eastwood shows Rafa  there?s more to life than toughness.. there?s something very touching, seeing an Eastwood character in such a reflective mood..
It is very different from The Mule which I also enjoyed, there?s very little tension or drama but there are some lovely little scenes to cherish.. Eastwood talking to the pig for one and Clint is still a charismatic screen presence and I think Eastwood and Minett  share a wonderful screen chemistry..

I think Cry Macho and The Mule will both stand the test of time and be looked back on favourably in years to come as integral to Eastwoods body of work..

I agree with you, Gant.
Cry Macho is probably not among the best Clint Eastwood films but it is still charming and enjoyable. Anyway, this is not the bad film that so many film critics and film goers seemed to depict.
What makes it charming and enjoyable is also its own limitation: simplicity.
Indeed, Cry Macho is a small picture which will not gain a lot of new Clint fans.
However, I have always liked how Clint plays with his screen persona. From Play Misty for Me to Cry Macho, Clint managed to deconstruct and redefine his own screen image with a rare independence and a rare freedom in Hollywood.
In my opinion, that is why some minor films like Cry Macho have their importance in Clint filmography.