Eastwood's new film "The Mule": The Lament of the Old Man

Stills from the movie "Mule" (IC photo/photo)

If Nick's report is more like a cat-and-mouse game between drug enforcement and drug trafficking, then Eastwood uses the shell of the drug theme to tell the family story of a less popular old man, reflecting the conflict between family and career, the helpless death of the old generation and its estrangement and differences with the younger generation.

Five years ago, in the Newsroom of The New York Times, journalist Sam Dolnick tweeted without a clue. He was seduced by an account that featured police law enforcement anecdotes, tweeting that an 89-year-old man in Indiana had pleaded guilty in Detroit that Tuesday, where he had transported more than 1,400 pounds of cocaine as a drug carrier.

Downick jumped up, his head full of capital exclamation points. He felt like a dirty miner, finally waiting for the gold.

The old man, Leo Sharp, was a World War II veteran who grew lilies. He was a "drug mule" who served the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, the world's most powerful drug trafficking organization, driving pickup trucks to transport "goods" from the Mexican border to Detroit. A seizure of 12 kilograms of drugs at a time is a major case, while Sharp can transport more than 200 kilograms a month.

"He's an urban legend." The U.S. drug agent handling the case said. After Sharp's arrest, ten dens of the drug cartel were terminated, and the price of cocaine on the streets of Detroit rose by 43 percent.

Downick spent months writing about Sharpe's story, "The 90-Year-Old Drug Mule of a Sinaloa Drug Cartel," published in The New York Times in 2014.

At the time, Dowk didn't expect the story to be made into a movie a few years later. Clint Eastwood, the "evergreen" of the American film industry, is both a director and a sharp actor. The film "Mule" was released in the United States at the end of 2018 and was also introduced to China in August 2019.

<h3>What was going on in his head when he started transporting the poison? </h3>

Downick interviewed Sharp's acquaintances, customers, lawyers, and Drug Enforcement Agency agents as much as possible, but he failed to interview Sharp himself or answer the core question of the story: Why did he do it? The first time he hit the road in a pickup truck full of drugs, what was going on in his head?

"The news can only bring you here." Dowk wrote in a journalist's note. Some questions are never answered, even by Sharp himself.

The film fills in the gaps that journalism can't reach with fiction. If Nick's report is more like a cat-and-mouse game between drug enforcement and drug trafficking, then Eastwood uses the shell of the drug theme to tell the family story of a less popular old man, reflecting the conflict between family and career, the helpless death of the old generation and its estrangement and differences with the younger generation.

In a true story, it's hard to figure out when and why Sharp started selling drugs. One possibility, Dowk's report points out, is that his lily business, like other industries, has plummeted due to the onslaught of the internet. He earned $1,000 for 1 kilogram of heroin, and he made at least $1 million the year before his arrest alone.

The film character was renamed Stone, and he was in a completely different context.

Stone had put his work at the forefront of his family all his life, forgotten countless wedding anniversaries, and had not even attended his daughter's wedding. For this reason his wife separated from him, and her daughter did not speak to him for twelve years. The flower business later went out of business due to the impact of the Internet, and he dismissed his hired workers, lost his home, and dragged a truckload of belongings to his granddaughter's engagement ceremony. He promised to pay for his granddaughter's wedding, but once again reneged on his promise and broke up with his family. He needs opportunities to make up for a lot of life's shortcomings.

It was at this time that Stone was introduced to a job that "just drove and made money." With this income, he can not only save his financial difficulties, but also repair the family relationship that is on the verge of breaking down. He shipped only twelve times, and the third time he confirmed that he was shipping drugs. Sharp probably started being a "mule" when she planted lilies, and lasted for about a decade.

This illegal job solved Stone's immediate needs, but was neither ethical nor sustainable. "His life is improving on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is collapsing." Eastwood said in an interview, "One day he'll have to bear the consequences and admit he didn't do it right." ”

But the atmosphere of the story is not serious and tense. What would it be like for an old man in his eighties to become a drug dealer? Sharp provided some inspiration for the film. On the day of his arrest, he suddenly drove off the highway. The trailing DRUG Enforcement Bureau agent thought it was exposed, and after a moment of nervousness, it turned out that the old man had just gone to the hamburger shop to order fries and orange milkshakes.

"We don't know what happened to him on his journey." Eastwood said, "The vignettes along the way should be fun. ”

In the movie, Stone changes his route from time to time, stopping for a local meal or stopping by to visit old friends. Outside the car is a constantly changing landscape, the car is always playing cheerful and playful old songs, the old man with sunglasses, humming hoarsely, dry mouth chewing snacks.

Stone even infected two drug dealers who were overseers. They set up a monitor in his car, and all along the way they could only hear the song, and unconsciously followed it. Stone took them on a detour to eat the best pork sandwiches in the Midwest, admonishing them, "Enjoy life, like me." ”

After all, the drivers are not real mules, but living people. Drug trafficking errands are less cold and vicious because of their human affection. As the New Yorker film review put it: "As a drug dealer, Stone is actually an independent practitioner in the group's work system... Enjoy a certain freedom that no one else has. ”

<h3>"Play a guy who's older than me"</h3>

Two key occasions decided that Stone and Sharp were fundamentally different.

Law enforcement footage of Sharp's arrest shows that when police asked him if he was carrying drugs, he replied no, falsely claiming that he had gone to visit an old comrade-in-arms. He refused to search the car: "Why don't you kill me and make me disappear directly from the earth?" Unlike Sharp's evasion and resistance, the scene of Stone's arrest in the film highlights the police's completion and his despair and obedience.

In court, the prosecution and defense debated whether Sharp was consciously involved in drug trafficking or whether he was being used in his old age. Stone quickly interrupted the lawyer's plea of innocence and sincerely admitted his guilt.

Essentially, Stone is still a hero. He has his own highlight moment in the last quarter of the film: on the one hand, the threat of the life of the drug dealer "if you arrive late again, you will be finished", and on the other hand, his wife is suffering from cancer and dying. He chose to accompany his wife.

Clint Eastwood is known for portraying heroic tough guys. His career began with the Western cowboy TV series Leather Whip. In the 1960s, he became an international superstar by playing a nameless cowboy in the dart trilogy directed by Sergio Leone.

In The Mule, Eastwood shows a disdain for "political correctness." Stone was often unguarded, preachy, with the warmth and kindness of an old gentleman, and inevitably with the racist tendencies of the old times, and could not change the colloquialisms such as "nigger" and "bean-eater" (note: beaner, a derogatory term for Mexicans, because Mexican food often has beans).

Eastwood was 88 years old when he made Mule in the summer of 2018. One producer suggested that he was the best person to play Stone. "Well, it might be a little fun to play a guy who's older than me." He laughed and recalled.

Stone hunched over and walked with his arms slightly open. Eastwood imitated his grandfather. He went to his grandfather's chicken farm as a child, and "he worked and walked like an old man."

<h3>"Maybe it's not just an opportunity to play his daughter</h3>."

Stone's daughter is being played by Eastwood's daughter Alison, one of Eastwood's many descendants. One Friday night, the producer called to say that the old man wanted her to play the role of his daughter. Alison was very surprised and later thought, "Maybe this is not only an opportunity to play his daughter, but also to spend some time with him." ”

"I never understood how you could spend so much time and money on planting flowers." In the play, the wife sighed to Stone.

"They're unique." Stone stared at the lilies on the table, "It's only one day, and you're at the end of your life." They deserve so much time and effort on my part. ”

"So is your family." The wife's response was full of helplessness.

Eastwood and Stone do have something in common, such as being unusually energetic. Stone drives through most of the United States alone, thousands of kilometers a week, while Eastwood has produced two films in 2018, a mule and a "15:17, Departure to Paris" based on a true terrorist attack.

Eastwood has always been known for being fast in filmmaking. Self-directing and self-acting is very energy-consuming, but "Mule" was filmed in a month. "He's a machine." Alison described it at the premiere of Mule in Los Angeles, "I think he had a robot chip in the back of his head." He is not human. ”

Since his 1971 directorial debut, The Mist, Eastwood has increasingly played the dual role of director and lead actor — such as the familiar Covered Bridge Dream — and sometimes as a producer. He has directed and starred in more than twenty films, and the only contemporary director who is similar is Woody Allen.

Eastwood's desire to control the film was very strong. In 1975, during the filming of "Western Law Enforcers", because of his different understanding of the film, he fired the screenwriter who was also a director and served as a director himself. This led to the Directors Guild of America issuing new rules that would allow any film crew, such as actors and producers, to fire directors and replace them. This provision is commonly known as the "Eastwood Rule".

Over the course of his sixty-year career, Eastwood has directed, starred in and produced more than sixty films and television productions, and he has won four Academy Awards for Best Picture or Best Director. Many of his peers have retired, but he is still active: "Is it because I am not physically good or because I am tired?" I'm often curious because I'm not tired of it. ”

Will Mule be Eastwood's last film? No, he started making new films in June 2019. "If the elderly maintain an open mind, they will also be interested in improving themselves and learning new knowledge." Eastwood said.

Southern Weekend reporter Cheng Han