Macho MAN
Clint Eastwood directs, stars in newest film with craggy elegance
In a career filled with them, the solid “Cry Macho” (in theaters and on HBO Max Friday) might be Clint Eastwood’s most straightforward movie yet.
It might be anyone’s most straightforward movie yet. It doesn’t hurtle along, because the movie isn’t telling that kind of story. But it ambles forward in a straight line, even as its characters are forced into roundabout directions. Oh, and Macho is a rooster.
The simplicity isn’t necessarily a criticism. Eastwood is known for a lean filmmaking style that trims away the fat – a limited number of takes, a rapid pace. To be fair, Eastwood is 91 years old, so he probably doesn’t want to take a lot
of time with anything. But he’s always been a fast worker.
Eastwood both stars and directs the film
Eastwood directs and stars as Mike Milo, a former champion rodeo cowboy who fell on hard times after a back injury and family tragedy. We meet him in 1979, when his boss, Howard (Dwight Yoakam), is firing him.
A year later, Howard shows up at Mike’s house wanting to hire him for an unusual job: go to Mexico City and bring back Howard’s 12-year-old son Rafo (Eduardo Minett), in the care of Howard’s ex-wife (Fernanda Urrejola). If that sounds a lot like kidnapping, Mike thinks so, too.
But Howard explains it in such a way, and preys on Mike’s guilt enough, that Mike makes the journey. Crossing the border back and forth isn’t a problem during the time depicted – it’s a gate with a guard.
Finding Rafo’s mother isn’t difficult,
either. She’s wealthy, lives in a mansion and is well-protected by guards. Rafo, on the other hand, isn’t around. He’s a monster, a terrible kid, she says. Find him, take him, he’s yours. Rafo frequents cockfights, she says, which is where Mike finds him.
Mike explains why he’s there and that he wants to take Rafo to Texas to live with the boy’s father. Surprisingly enough, Rafo agrees to it – he’d like to go live on a big ranch with a lot of horses. All of this happens quickly.
The trick is getting there. Rafo’s mother may not be quite as disinterested in Rafo’s fate as she lets on. And Howard may not be as forthcoming with his motives, either. This causes complications that force Mike and Rafo to stray from their intended path, eventually holing up for a while in a small town. Marta (Natalia Traven), who owns a café, takes a liking to Mike and helps the two out.
Most of the town does, when word gets around that Mike is an expert at breaking horses, and good with animals generally. He’s not a veterinarian, he explains, he just seems to have the touch. Though when one woman shows up with her ancient dog, Mike whispers to Rafo, “I don’t know how to cure old.”
Eastwood directs with a craggy elegance
Really? During the movie, Eastwood dances, kisses, punches a man and rides horses. He’s onto something, it seems. But it’s not the only time a line will do double duty as dialogue and as commentary on the filmmaker.
It’s no surprise that Mike and Rafo grow close – when Mike says, “You’re kind of growing on me, kid,” it’s not exactly a plot twist. Part of the point of a film like this, based on N. Richard Nash’s 1975 novel (based on his own screenplay) and kicking around Hollywood ever since, is to teach a lesson. Here Rafo, who named his fighting rooster Macho, is the pupil.
You used to be macho, Rafo says to Mike with derision. No longer. Mike’s disdain is immediate and thorough.
“This macho thing is overrated,” he says.
Eastwood has earned a line like that. The simplicity of his films is inviting, their morality more complex. There is a craggy kind of elegance to “Cry Macho.” You know what you’re getting for the most part. This does not include a lot of surprises. It does include comfort in the familiar. Eastwood has earned that, too.