Plenty of great actors have moseyed on in and out of the swingin’ saloon doors of the Western genre. Clint Eastwood, however, has lived it.
He was the leading star of the spaghetti western subgenre, the Oscar-winning director of bleak subversions of the cowboy mythos, and now he’s riding out into the horizon with Cry Macho, another poignant tale of the fading West. Fans can witness Clint’s latest voyage on November 4, when the film is slated to arrive in Australian cinemas.
Based on a novel of the same name by N Richard Nash, Cry Macho sees Eastwood as a faded rodeo star, physically and mentally broken from years of hard work. While travelling from Mexico to Texas, he’s accompanied by his ex-boss’s layabout son (Eduardo Minett), and a misbehaving rooster called Macho.
As with his last film The Mule, Eastwood seems to be self-consciously casting himself in an elegiac cowboy funeral of sorts. He’s always been a pretty weathered guy, but here he makes us relish the ravages of time, narrating in a brittle voice, “I used to be a lot of things. But I’m not now. And I’ll tell ya something, this macho thing is overrated.”
Whether you’ll flock to see Cry Macho in cinemas this November or not, you’ve gotta still feel some level of deep respect for Eastwood, who could’ve retired and vegged out in his beloved getaway town of Carmel at least 30 years ago. At age 91, though, he’s still directing and acting, one of Hollywood’s most dependable filmmakers and the last living vestige of the great era of studio Westerns.
Eastwood has had a fascinating history with the original source novel, attempting to bring it to the screen as early as 1988. But after scheduling conflicts and a failed attempt to cast everyone from Roy Scheider to Arnold Schwarzeneggar, he’s finally coming around to the role (intended for a 38-year-old!!!) in 2021.
Those who consider themselves pretty macho might still let out a manly tear or two at the sombre Western elegy Cry Macho, once it giddies on up into cinemas.
