On Clint Eastwood
Eastwood is now 91. It is impressive anyone reaches that age at all, but he has remained productive. He is publicizing a new movie he stars in called Cry Macho. From a The Wall Street Journal review:
“As the director and star of Cry Macho, in theaters and on HBO Max, Clint Eastwood sends himself on a picaresque journey through rural Mexico in 1979. He plays Mike Milo, a washed-up rodeo star who accepts a job from his former boss: Go to Mexico City, rescue the man’s supposedly wild-spirited young son from the clutches of his abusive mother, and bring him back to Texas. Milo is a cowboy of many parts—a horseman (it’s great to see Mr. Eastwood back in the saddle at age 91); a horse whisperer; a woman whisperer (more about that in a bit); an adequate conversationalist in sign language; and a grizzled Dr. Dolittle who ministers as best he can to sick animals. Confronted by a terminally decrepit dog, Milo tells its owner, ‘I don’t know how to cure old.’ Yet the film, for all its endearing oddities, suggests that old doesn’t need to be cured, only worked through with as much grace and equanimity as possible.”
Eastwood was a major entertainment icon in my youth, best known for his “Dirty” Harry series of movies about a police officer with flint-like confidence and no remorse. Good police officers should be confident; bad ones or irresponsible vigilantes should be punished fiercely. One of the “Dirty” Harry movies, Magnum Force, dealt with this issue.