By: Andrew Wing
Cry Macho is a 2021 American neo-Western drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. Cry Macho is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash and was adapted from a book to the big screen by Nick Schenk. The plot follows a former rodeo star Mike Milo (Clint Eastwood) who is hired to reunite a young Rafael “Rafo” Polk (Eduardo Minett) in Mexico with his father Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam) in the United States.
There have been numerous attempts in the past to adapt the novel into a feature film with a variety of actors negotiations to star, none bigger than when Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast back in 2011 only for production to be canceled after a scandal. In 2020 though, it was announced Eastwood would create an adaptation with Albert S. Ruddy, Tim Moore, and Jessica Meier attached as producers. Production took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico with cinematographer Ben Davis (cinematographer for MCU films: Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel). During post-production, the score was composed by Mark Mancina (also scored big films such as Speed, Bad Boys, Training Day, and Moana).
Cry Macho was theatrically released in the United States on September 17, 2021, by Warner Bros. Pictures with a simultaneous release on the HBO Max streaming service for 31 days.
THE GOOD
There is no denying what the main attraction was when it came to this movie. It was the man, the myth, the legend, the 91-year-old Clint Eastwood. It is already remarkable that he is still acting at his age, but the fact that he is also producing and directing on top of that is unfathomable. He is undoubtedly one of the biggest movie stars of all-time and after seeing the last movie he directed, Richard Jewell in 2019 that I thoroughly enjoyed, I was not going to miss his follow up.
Unfortunately, there was a lot I didn’t like about the film and I will dive into that later in this review, but one thing I did like about the movie was Eastwood’s performance. It was nowhere near his best work that we got with his early films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Dirty Harry (1971) or even some of his more recent films such as Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Gran Torino (2008), but it is still an overall good performance in this movie because even despite his age, it is still Clint freaking Eastwood that is acting. But for real though, his performance in this was very down to earth and authentic and you could tell that this was certainly a passion project of his.
Other than that, the two best things about Cry Macho were the score and the scenery in my opinion. First with the score that was brought to us by Mark Mancina. When I first watched the trailer for this film, what stuck out to me most other than Eastwood’s name being attached was the amazingly moving score that was being played throughout the entire trailer. I am not even joking when I say that I was humming the score hours after initially watching the trailer. That one song was definitely the best, but the entire movie is full of some great music and I am not ashamed to admit that I was already a fan of Mancina’s work thanks to the 2016 Disney film Moana, and with this, my fandom for him has grown even more. Onto the scenery that was shot by cinematographer Ben Davis. The scenery throughout the whole movie is really breathtaking. The film takes place in Mexico for the most part, while production took place primarily in New Mexico and Davis just does a marvelous job at really providing essence to the story as a whole with some of his shots and I would be lying if I said that wasn’t my favorite part of the movie.
THE BAD
As I said in “The Good” portion, there was unfortunately a lot I didn’t like about this film. For starters, it is an incredibly slow movie. If you are going into this movie thinking that you are going to get another gunslinging Western featuring Eastwood in the lead role, you will be sorely mistaken. It also didn’t help that the film was poorly paced. There were some scenes that I wanted to see more of and also scenes that I wanted a lot less of if that makes sense. For example, it made me think of another Eastwood film from a couple years ago, The Mule. With that film, despite it also being really slow in some ways, I thought it was still very well-paced and that helped keep me engaged from start to finish when I watched it where this one did not.
I might as well continue comparing it to The Mule. I know that film got bashed by critics, but I really enjoyed it because of what was a very interesting story in my book. With Cry Macho, I just was not a fan of the screenplay. I already said that it was slow due to poor pacing, and because of a weak screenplay, I also found it to be a quite boring movie for lack of a better term. I thought going into it that there would be some intense action scenes with either Mexican police or border patrol because of the film’s premise dealing with getting the kid back into the United States, but there wasn’t any of that. Instead, there was way too much dialogue for my liking and I just felt that the film’s tone was all over the place.
Lastly, I really did not like a single performance from anyone else besides Eastwood. I’ve already mentioned that this was far from Eastwood’s best performance but I am not going to over-critique a 91-year old man’s acting. I just won’t. I will critique everyone else though. First with Eduardo Minett, the actor who played the boy “Rafo”, I just wasn’t buying what he was selling. I don’t know how many performances he has under his belt, but his inexperience stuck out like a sore thumb in some scenes, especially some of the more emotional ones. Also, it pained me how many times this darn kid said “macho” in the film, I was like dude we get it, that’s the name of the movie. I also did not like Dwight Yoakam’s performance in this. Maybe it is part because his character is kind of a piece of s**t, but he just didn’t bring enough emotion to his character. It felt at times like he was just reading off a teleprompter.
THE VERDICT
Despite some beautiful scenery and a profound score, Cry Macho gets bogged down with its poor pacing, weak screenplay, and some pretty forgettable performances from the supporting cast.
While Cry Macho did not leave the impact on me that I was hoping for, it is still a Clint Eastwood directed movie featuring you guessed it...Clint Eastwood. If there is one thing I took out of watching this movie, it is that Eastwoods proves that he still remains one of the prominent filmmakers we have working today and that is he will always bring the same charismatic screen presence to any role of his.
TED TAKES RATING - 5.5/10
Cry Macho is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max for 31 days. Check out the latest trailer below.