Clint Eastwood and westerns go together like burgers and fries. Eastwood has practically made a career out in the western genre either acting, directing, or both, and now he returns to his roots with Cry Macho. While this entry is not in the pantheon of Eastwood’s best efforts, it’s serviceable enough for his fans.
Based on the 1975 novel, Eastwood stars and directs as Mike Milo, a former rodeo star turned rancher in Texas who’s been asked by his former boss (Dwight Yoakam) to help retrieve his son Rafael (Eduardo Minett) from the hands of his selfish, rich mother (Fernanda Urrejola).
Mike reluctantly travels to Mexico and begins his journey and when he encounters Rafael, he learns that he’s pretty much on his own, scrapping a living on rooster fights with his pet rooster, Macho. This aspect of the film seems like a borderline parody of Eastwood’s own Every Which Way But Loose. Just substitute an orangutan for a rooster.
Mike and Rafeal encounter many trials and tribulations on their way back to America including avoiding Rafael’s mother’s henchmen trying to keep him from leaving the country, as well as the border patrol. There isn’t much tension in these scenes and they seem like stalling in order to keep the plot from advancing.
Eastwood does know this genre incredibly well and the technical elements are certainly in place such as the luscious cinematography by Ben Davis as the film strolls through Mexico and Marc Mancina’s score does have an authentic presence.
My biggest issue is that Eastwood seems too comfortable with the material to really expand it apart from the narrative conventions. Every time Mike and Rafael are about to experience any kind of jeopardy, it’s almost prescient on our part that we know they will get out of it only to land in another predicament.
Plus, it’s occasionally hard to take the philosophizing that exchanges between Mike and Rafael when there’s a rooster in between both seats as they’re driving down the highway.
Cry Macho is far from the top tier of Eastwood’s efforts as a filmmaker and this story might seem outdated except by its target audience, but Eastwood is also remaining in command of a movie that he has convictions about and he carries his cast and crew with him on his 91-year-old shoulders.
Grade: B
(Rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements.)
