Film Review: "The Mule" (2018).

"Inspired by a true story." This is The Mule. This crime film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Nick Schenk, based on The New York Times article The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-Year-Old Drug Mule by Sam Dolnick. Broke, alone and facing foreclosure on his business, 90-year-old horticulturist Earl Stone takes a job as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. His immediate success leads to easy money and a larger shipment that soon draws the attention of hard-charging DEA agent Colin Bates. When Earl's past mistakes start to weigh heavily on his conscience, he must decide whether to right those wrongs before law enforcement and cartel thugs catch up to him.

In 2011, DEA Special Agent Jeff Moore was interviewed by The New York Times journalist Sam Dolnick in regards to the investigation and arrest of 87-year-old Leo Sharp, the world's oldest and most prolific drug mule for the Sinaloa Cartel. The story was ultimately published as an article entitled The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-Year-Old Drug Mule. In 2014, Imperative Entertainment bought the film rights to the article, and hired Ruben Fleischer to produce and direct. In February 2015, Nick Schenk was hired to adapt the article into a screenplay. In January 2018, it was revealed that the film would be titled The Mule, and that Clint Eastwood would ultimately direct the film instead, as well as produce and star, for Warner Bros. Pictures and Imperative. This marks the eighth time Eastwood directed two features in a single year, with The 15:17 to Paris (2018), as well as Eastwood's first acting role since Trouble with the Curve (2012). By early June, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy García, Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga, and Clifton Collins Jr. rounded out the cast. Around the same time, principal photography began. Locations included Atlanta, Rome, and Augusta, Georgia, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. The production marks the first time where Tom Stern did not serve as Eastwood's cinematographer. Instead that duty went to Yves Bélanger.

The film stars Eastwood, Cooper, Fishburne, Peña, Wiest, García, Eastwood, Farmiga, and Collins Jr. The cast gave terrific performances, especially that of Mr. Eastwood himself. This is a film that is impossible to imagine without the actor in the lead role. The notion of a 88-year-old action hero may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Eastwood brings it off, even if his toughness is as much verbal as physical. Even at 88, Eastwood can make 'For what it's worth, I'm sorry for everything' sound as if he means it.

Though a minor entry in Eastwood's body of work, The Mule is nevertheless a humorous, touching, and intriguing old-school parable. The film is about an innocent, desperate man's tragic downfall It's about America's war on drugs is growing, and how it's spreading more and, ultimately, corrupting its innocence. That's the commercial hook of this film. As it is a meditation on the war on drugs wrapped in the disguise of a movie with an old but tough Clint Eastwood and his old pick-up truck.

Simon says The Mule receives:

Also, see my review for The 15:17 to Paris.