These days, multiple Oscar winner Clint Eastwood is doing a lot more directing and not much acting. The last time Clint Eastwood starred in a film was all the way back in 2012 in Trouble with the Curve. That changes later this year, though, when Clint Eastwood steps in front of the camera for his next directorial effort, The Mule, where he stars as a man in his eighties who becomes a drug mule for a Mexican cartel. The first trailer for the film has been released and it teases an emotional performance from Clint Eastwood in what looks to be a super tense film. Check out the trailer for The Mule below.
Interestingly, there is another film out right now called The Old Man & the Gun, starring Robert Redford, that is also about an old man committing crimes, and it looks absolutely nothing like what we see here from Clint Eastwood's The Mule. That film looks like a charming romp while The Mule looks like a dark nail-biter. The trailer here is incredibly tense with a slow boil feel that ratchets up the tension with each successive scene, from the sweaty-palmed nervousness of the interaction with the cop to the dangerous dealings with the cartel to the alarm at seeing Bradley Cooper's FBI agent literally right behind Clint Eastwood's drug mule.
The danger is palpable for Clint Eastwood's Earl Stone as he finds himself in way over his head, eluding the authorities and dealing with very dangerous people. This doesn't look to be a situation where Clint Eastwood's character is a cold 80-year-old badass either. Based on the trailer and the narration, this looks to be an emotional performance for the actor as a character with real regret and sadness in his life as he stares down the barrel towards the end of it. It's those moments that deal with his family that makes this film especially interesting and should add emotional weight to the criminal elements.
As you can tell from the trailer, Clint Eastwood's World War II vet and horticulturist doesn't know what exactly he's driving, at least not at first. He becomes a drug mule for a Mexican cartel and he winds up being pretty good at it, which puts him on the radar of Bradley Cooper's FBI agent Colin Bates. Like Walter White before him, Earl Stone looks to be doing the wrong things for the right reasons and before he knows it, he may find himself on the wrong side of the law and the cartel, putting him in terrible danger with no good way out.
Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort reunites the actor-director with his Gran Torino writer Nick Schenk, who also wrote The Mule. Clint Eastwood seems to have a preference for using true stories for his films in recent years, and that is the case again here. The Mule is inspired by the true story of 90-year-old Leo Sharp, who became a drug mule for the Sinaloa cartel. His story was told in a New York Times story which you can read ahead of seeing the movie adaptation.
This movie looks like a compelling crime drama and something a little bit different than what we've seen from Clint Eastwood's films of late. It is also exciting to see him back in front of the camera in a role that seems ideal for him. The Mule stars Clint Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga, Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña and Laurence Fishburne, and it hits theaters on December 14. For all of the movies you can look forward to the rest of this year, check out our release schedule.
