Clint Eastwood spent decades of his long and decorated career portraying the living embodiment of machismo with characters like Harold “Dirty Harry” Francis Callahan from the Dirty Harry film series, and Blondie (the Man with No Name) from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But in the twilight era of his career, he has become a lot more reflective with his delivery.
The 2021 Clint Eastwood drama Cry Macho is currently on Netflix.
If you were to fire up Netflix and watch 2021’s Cry Macho, you’d see exactly what we mean as you witness a more subdued Clint Eastwood take on the role of a tough but thoughtful mentor with a heart of gold, rather than the gruff badass that you’ve become accustomed to in decades past.
Cry Macho is a film adaptation of the 1975 N. Richard Nash’s novel of the same name. Though many attempts were made in the past to adapt the novel into a feature film -one of which included Arnold Schwarzenegger- Clint Eastwood took the helm as director and producer in 2020 and also took on the lead role of Mike Milo.
The film centers on Clint Eastwood’s Mike Milo, a retired rodeo star tasked with tracking down and kidnapping his former boss’ teenage son, Rafo, who resides in Mexico City with his Mother, Leta. Rafo, who has gravitated toward a life of crime, participates in cockfights with his rooster, Macho. After Mike witnesses Rafo’s participation in a cockfight that gets raided by the police, he explains that he needs to bring him back to Texas to live with his father.
From this point forward, we’re presented with a problematic road trip back to Texas in which Mike and Rafo butt heads but start seeing eye to eye as they get to know each other better. Mike, who was forced into retirement after sustaining a back injury, explains that physical toughness is fleeting and there’s more to life than just putting up a macho front. Clint Eastwood, who was 91 years old at the time Cry Macho was filmed, speaks to Rafo through Mike Milo and explains that being macho is more about finding peace in life and making your own decisions.
Author N. Richard Nash originally wanted Cry Macho to be a screenplay back in the 1970s. But after receiving a number of rejections from 20th Century Fox, he reworked the story into a novel, which was very well received at the time of its publication in 1975. Ironically enough, upon the novel’s success, Nash reworked his pitch and eventually sold the original screenplay to a studio without changing a single word.
Clint Eastwood wasn’t the first choice for Cry Macho; decades earlier, Roy Schneider was offered the role, followed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 1988, producer Albert S. Ruddy approached Clint Eastwood to star in the film adaptation of the novel, but he declined. Roy Schneider was offered the lead role, but after some time filming in Mexico, this version of the film was never fully realized and scrapped before it was completed.
Fast forward to 2003, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered the role but had to take a break after being elected into office as the governor of California. It looked like Cry Macho was finally going to be slated for a 2011 production under Brad Furman’s direction, but Schwarzenegger’s highly publicized divorce from Maria Shriver resulted in the film adaptation being scrapped once again.
Everything came full circle when Clint Eastwood was offered the lead role once again, but this time with the additional responsibilities as director and producer. Development hell aside, it seems as if this role was waiting for the right place and time to be seen to completion with Clint Eastwood as its star.
Clint Eastwood worked alongside Nick Schenk, who contributed to Nash’s screenplay, as well as two previous films with Eastwood (Gran Torino and The Mule). Nash, who passed away in 2000, is credited with writing a majority of the screenplay.
Development hell aside, it seems as if this role was waiting for the right place and time to be seen to completion with Clint Eastwood as its star.
Cry Macho was released during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and had a hybrid release between theaters and on Max. Given that this Clint Eastwood movie appealed to a demographic aged 65 or older, it was watched by over 1.6 million households in the US. This level of home viewership was largely attributed to the fact that older viewers were still reluctant to take a trip to movie theaters at the time of its release in 2021.
On the critical front, this Clint Eastwood film garnered a 57 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. Though the film received a healthy amount of criticism for being somewhat uneventful, it received an equal amount of praise for Clint Eastwood’s thoughtful performance and the stunning cinematography throughout the second and third acts.
Though it took decades to materialize, Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho finally became the film that it was supposed to be and is a solid contribution to his already extensive filmography. Eastwood may not be blasting off rounds in every frame, but Cry Macho proves that he still has the uncanny ability to assault the audience with powerful life lessons and wisdom that only comes with age.
