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Clint Eastwood will be 92 next May.

Now. To take a particular kind of stock of this fact. The Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira lived to be 106. And he completed his final film in 2015, the year he died. So when we are talking about Eastwood’s ostensibly late filmography, and we consider the speediness with which he completes his films—which some insist also yields slapdash results, the fake baby from 2014’s “ American Sniper ” standing as Exhibit A—we can consider that he may actually have another 14 or 15 movies in him yet. That’s worth noting when we’re talking, as we are now, of his “late” filmography.

Because even if Eastwood keeps up his filmmaking pace for another decade or more, “Cry Macho,” which he directed from a long kicking-around script by Nick Schenk and N. Richard Nash, and which began as a 1975 novel by Nash (and this movie adapts it very loosely, to say the least), will end up one of his more unusual films. Its title and trailer suggest a potentially blistering, and likely rueful, action thriller. The movie itself is something wholly other.

For its first 20 minutes or so, one may look through the fingers of a facepalm trying to figure out just what it is. Gorgeous vistas of Western sunrises and starkly beautiful desert plains alternate with story-establishing scenes in very awkwardly on-the-nose registers. Starting in 1979, the movie depicts Eastwood’s Mike Milo showing up at the horse ranch of Dwight Yoakam ’s Howard Polk well after the lunch hour. Howard tells Mike he’s late, and Mike says “for what?” Howard then lays into Mike with scrolls-worth of expository dialogue, evoking Mike the one-time rodeo star, mentioning the inevitable career-ending “accident,” and so on. “Before the pills ... before the booze,” Yoakam proclaims in decidedly declamatory tones, dropping the hammer with “You’re a loss to no one.” He fires Mike and then we cut to a year later, when, um, he re-hires Mike—asking him to go to Mexico and kidnap his now-teenage son, who lives with his hard-partying mother Leta in an abusive household. Mike takes the shady gig—he owes Howard still, for something.

Things remain awkward when Mike gets to Mexico and finds Leta in a mansion, attended by two bodyguards, and telling Mike he’s welcome to the kid—a gambler, drinker, and cockfighter named Rafa ( Eduardo Minett ), and not even 14 yet—if Mike can find him. The hotsy-totsy Irresponsible Mother even tries to lure Mike to her bed. Which is a bit of a stretch. One thing Eastwood’s continuing career on screen is teaching us is that there are discrete gradations of old. As written, Mike Milo ought to be a character in his late sixties to mid-seventies. As good as Eastwood may look, 90 or 91 is not late sixties to mid-seventies. In matters of personal intimacy, even if the spirit and the flesh are equally up to the task, the most game woman on earth is going to think twice about jumping the bones of a nonagenarian, lest she shatter them.

You’re probably wondering when this movie gets good enough to warrant my rating. To be perfectly frank, it does require some patience if not indulgence. Mike discovers Rafa; Rafa is indeed a cockfighter and he’s named his rooster “Macho.” They make it out of a police raid on a cockfight and hit the road, one of Leta’s bodyguards trailing them. Rafa is wide-eyed at the prospect of living on a Texas horse ranch—as Howard assured Mike, the kid is crazy about cowboys. As the two get to know each other, Mike expresses to Rafa his hard-bitten skepticism about over-valuing toughness—“macho” itself, as it was popularly called both north and south of the border in the period in which the film is set. This is all pleasing and a little predictable.

Where the film really blossoms is after the mid-section. After some narrow evasions of both bodyguards and cops, and some hasty car-switching, Mike and Rafa find themselves in a small Mexican town not too far from the border. They take shelter in a homey restaurant owned by a middle-aged woman named Marta ( Natalia Traven ) and later in a small shrine to the Virgin Mary on the outskirts of the town. The two come upon a horse ranch, where Mike offers his services in breaking the wild ones. He also teaches Rafa to ride, saying he won’t be much use in Texas if he doesn’t know how to ride.

Mike is good with animals, so soon the town locals start treating him as if he’s a vet. Mike and Rafa meet Marta’s grandchildren, one of whom is deaf; Mike can sign, and he makes an immediate, vital connection with the little girl.

These small events transpire in beautifully shot, unhurried scenes. This is Eastwood’s version of pastoral. Mike pieces his ruined life back together in a sense. He finds pleasure in being of service to a community. The professed agnostic takes Marta’s hand when she prays to begin a meal, and likes it. The simple sincerity about what’s worthwhile in life is the movie’s reason for being. Nothing more and nothing less.

Available in theaters and on HBO Max for 30 days starting Friday, September 17.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Cry Macho (2021)

Rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements.

125 minutes

Clint Eastwood as Mike Milo

Dwight Yoakam as Howard Polk

Eduardo Minett as Rafo

Natalia Traven as Marta

Fernanda Urrejola as Leta

Horacio García Rojas as Aurelio

Paul Alayo as Sergeant. Perez

Clint Eastwood

Writer (based on the novel by)

N. Richard Nash
Nick Schenk

Cinematographer

David S. Cox
Mark Mancina

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‘Cry Macho’ Review: The Good, the Bad and the Poultry

In his latest film, Clint Eastwood drives across Mexico with a troubled young man and a combative rooster.

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By A.O. Scott

Mike Milo is a former rodeo rider and horse trainer — an ornery old cuss with a complicated past and a soft spot for children and animals. He’s a grouch but also a professional, with a deep knowledge of his craft and a flinty sense of honor. To put it in simpler terms, he’s played by Clint Eastwood .

Eastwood also directed “Cry Macho,” in a stripped-down, laid-back style that perfectly suits Mike’s approach to life. Sometimes in Eastwood’s films — going all the way back to “Play Misty for Me” — there’s daylight separating filmmaker and star, a palpable, if often subtle difference of perspective between the laconic, narrow-eyed man onscreen and the sly, adventurous artist behind the camera. This time, maybe not so much. Which is just fine.

Mike has a risky job to do but, but he approaches his duties with no particular urgency, preferring to drive slowly and take in the scenery. Eastwood, notionally committed to doing something in the angry-dad revenge-rescue genre, uses the plot (supplied by Nick Schenk and N. Richard Nash’s script, based on a novel by Nash) as an excuse for a leisurely excursion through a picturesque landscape. Mike is on a mission, yes, racing the clock and pursued by dangerous hombres on both sides of the law. But that doesn’t prevent him from rolling into a quiet Mexican hamlet and remarking to his companions: “This looks like an interesting town. Let’s check it out.”

Those companions are a 13-year-old boy named Rafo (Eduardo Minett), and Rafo’s prized fighting rooster, Macho, a noble bird who gives the film its title and its theme. Rafo, abandoned by his Texan father and abused by his Mexican mother, is attached both to Macho and to an ideal of tough, strutting masculinity. One of Mike’s tasks is to offer, by precept and example, an alternative way of being a man. Nothing too soft, mind you — this is still Clint Eastwood we’re talking about — but a more patient, less furious approach to life.

“This macho thing is overrated,” Mike says. “You think you have all the answers, but then you get older and realize you don’t have any. By the time you figure it out, it’s too late.” What that amounts to is a benign form of fatalism, a humility that the rest of the movie upholds. The button-pushing and liberal-baiting that flared in “The Mule” and “Richard Jewell” aren’t much in evidence here, and the canonical Eastwood persona — the avenger of innocence who dwells in legal and moral gray zones — is in a state of semiretirement. There is evil in the universe, but it might not be entirely his problem.

The opening scenes suggest otherwise. Rafo’s father, Howard (Dwight Yoakam), a big shot Texas rancher and Mike’s former boss, dispatches Mike to Mexico to collect the boy. Though Mike doesn’t much like Howard, he feels a sense of obligation, since Howard helped him get back on his feet after a series of personal tragedies.

Once across the Rio Grande, Mike finds Howard’s “nutcase” ex-wife in her bedroom, and their son at a cockfighting ring. It’s 1980, by the way. The existence of GPS, cellphones and heavy security on the United States-Mexican border would spoil the atmosphere. Mike, Rafo and Macho light out in a series of Detroit junkers — mostly stolen, though nobody seems to mind — pursued by mom’s nasty boyfriend and the occasional federales.

Now and then, Mike calls Howard from a pay phone. The whole project turns out to be more complicated than it seemed at first. “Don’t trust anyone” is Rafo’s mantra. That may be too sweeping, but “don’t trust anyone played by Dwight Yoakam” is a pretty good rule of thumb. As the old man, the boy and the chicken make their way down the highway, you can anticipate the turns the story will take.

But not quite. The twists arrive, but not with the impact you might expect. What started as a thriller takes a long detour into the pastoral, as car trouble strands our travelers in a quiet village with a sweet cantina run by a widow named Marta (Natalia Traven). She and Mike get up to some heavy “Bridges of Madison County”-style flirting, while Rafo spends time with one of her granddaughters. There are some wild horses that need breaking, and other animals to look at, and whatever else needs to be dealt with can just wait awhile.

Maybe this will make you restless. Maybe you want car chases, gunfights, quotable catchphrases and somber meditations on violence, justice and the American West. If so, there is a whole Clint Eastwood filmography to peruse. This one is something different — a deep cut for the die-hards, a hangout movie with nothing much to prove and just enough to say, with a pleasing score (by Mark Mancina) and some lovely desert scenery (shot by Ben Davis). If the old man’s driving, my advice is to get in and enjoy the ride.

Cry Macho Rated PG-13. Rough language and behavior. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters and on HBO Max .

A.O. Scott is a critic at large and the co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Cry Macho Reviews

Westerns often have an oversimplified plot that gives more space for the protagonists to develop and drive the story. Cry Macho attempts to do just that but fails on many levels.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

Cry Macho is a slow, sweet story with outstanding cinematography that leaves viewers with the melancholy of a sunset, but it’s not a film that one must rush to see.

Full Review | Jun 5, 2023

There aren't any injustices to rectify or honors to avenge in Cry Macho, but rather, personal quests about what one needs - beyond what one thinks one deserves. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 31, 2023

Cry Macho? If anything, you’ll be crying tears of boredom...

Full Review | Nov 12, 2022

Cry Macho is an incredibly monotonous buddy road trip film with nothing to say of any substantive value.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 9, 2022

The storytelling stakes may be quite low, but there is still a pay-off to collect that most will find satisfying.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2022

Slow, bland, and dull, "Cry Macho" is competently put together by an admirable Clint Eastwood, but it's the very definition of forgettable.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | May 18, 2022

If this is 91-year-old Clint Eastwood's swansong, it's a fitting finale.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 21, 2022

There's not much nuance or dimension to the movie, but like Mike, and often Eastwood, it gets the job done - only now it's a little slower, a little blander, and decidedly less memorable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 13, 2022

Cry Macho is not raising the blood pressure as one might expect from a movie directed by Clint Eastwood, but its certainly a beautiful swan song.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2022

Cry Macho is far from Eastwoods best work, but a skilled director on an off day can still be worth watching.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2022

Just tag this one every which way but interesting.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 11, 2021

Cry Macho very obviously suffers from its lack of relentlessness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 1, 2021

Nobody has turned getting old into a project like Eastwood has, the weariness deepening while the swagger fades like a mirage, leaving him frailer, more exposed and more recognisably human. But still Clint, still the myth.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 30, 2021

Cry Macho deserves credit for putting Eastwood in the saddle again and showing that he still looks great in a cowboy hat. But, ultimately, that makes it all the more frustrating because it doesn't actually do anything worthwhile with him or the character.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 24, 2021

More successful is the gentle, dusty momentum that sets out its stall against desert backdrops south of the border, open highways, and two chalk and cheese characters coming to an arrangement.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2021

The story plays out with a steady pace that holds the attention. If only the writing were more up to scratch, because the script is painfully obvious about each element in the story, never developing badly needed resonant subtext.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 18, 2021

Cry Macho often punches far above the underwhelming writing at the heart of it.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2021

The great Clint Eastwood is 91, and that, to be blunt, is the main problem with Cry Macho, a lightweight modern-era western that he makes the mistake of starring in as well as directing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 14, 2021

There's something touching about seeing the 91-year-old Eastwood in such a reflective mood.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 13, 2021

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Clint eastwood’s ‘cry macho’: film review.

The director plays a former rodeo star enlisted by his ex-boss to fetch the wealthy rancher’s teenage son from Mexico in this story of an old cowboy getting a second chance.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven and Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood has often shown a weakness for corn, usually tempered by the unfussy efficiency of his direction and, in movies where he does double-duty in front of the camera, by his mythical screen persona. But in Cry Macho , the corn is inescapable. A project that has kicked around for some 40 years, the film was planned at various times as a vehicle for, among others, Roy Scheider and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Whether either of those actors would have been more persuasive, we can only guess. But this is a story so crusty and antiquated in its conveniently resolved conflicts, contrivances and drippy sentimentality that it should have been left on the shelf.

Full credits

Distributor: Warner Bros. Production companies: Malpaso, Albert S. Ruddy Cast: Clint Eastwood, Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven, Dwight Yoakam, Fernanda Urrejola, Horacio Garcia-Rojas Director: Clint Eastwood Screenwriters: Nick Schenk, N. Richard Nash, based on the novel by Nash Producers: Clint Eastwood, Albert S. Ruddy, Tim Moore, Jessica Meier Executive producer: David M. Bernstein Director of photography: Ben Davis Production designer: Ron Reiss Costume designer: Deborah Hopper Music: Mark Mancina Editors: Joel Cox, David Cox Casting: Geoffrey Miclat

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‘Cry Macho’ Review: Clint Eastwood’s Mexico-Set Ancient-Cowboy-Meets-Troubled-Teen Afterschool Special

Eastwood remains a filmmaker of ageless diverting classicism, but this road movie is a minor affair.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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At 91, Clint Eastwood still knows how to direct a movie with a nice, clean leisurely classical spareness, something you wish more directors knew how to do (or wanted to). As a filmmaker, Eastwood has earned the right to be called ageless. As an actor, though, he’s not trying to hide his age. In “ Cry Macho ,” he plays a broken-down horse breeder and former rodeo rider who is given the task of going down to Mexico City to retrieve a 13-year-old boy, Rafael (Eduardo Minnett), and drive him back to Texas. (He’s taking the boy from his wealthy-diva Mexican mother and bringing him to his American ranch-owner father.) Eastwood is still handsome, and he still does the Clint sneer, with one side of his mouth open a tiny bit wider than the other side. But the Clint we see in “Cry Macho” is bent over, with a carefully combed shock of gray-white hair, skin like creased parchment, and eyes that gleam with an old person’s primal vulnerability. His movements are careful, and when he speaks, the words float out of his windpipe in a way that’s so cracked and dry and deliberate that, at moments, you can hear the old Eastwood minimalism shading off into a new Eastwood fragility.

What’s gone, from this slow-talking, slow-moving Clint, is any sense of impending danger. He throws a punch or two in “Cry Macho,” and does it convincingly, but he also takes senior-citizen siestas, and it’s not as if his character is pretending that he can use his sheer strength to dominate the much younger scoundrels, bruisers, and Federales who are on his tail. The way Eastwood dominates now is with the pensive simplicity of his words — his I-say-what-I-mean-and-mean-what-I-say steely gentleman’s directness, which has become his armchair form of machismo.

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How is the movie? Adapted from N. Richard Nash’s 1975 novel (the script is by Nash and Eastwood regular Nick Schenk), it’s friendly and diverting and formulaic, in an inoffensive and good-natured way, and it’s a totally minor affair. It’s set in 1979, after Clint’s Mike Milo has been fired by Howard Polk, his boss at the ranch, played by a blustery Dwight Yoakam. But as we learn, Mike owes Howard a lot (he saved Mike’s life after he’d bottomed out). So when Mike is asked to head over the border to retrieve Howard’s estranged son, he’s got little choice but to go.

The destination is a mansion in Mexico City, where the boy’s reckless and debauched mother (Fernanda Urrejola) warns Mike that the kid is a wild thing, out in the gutter, attending cockfights and God knows what else. She asks Mike to please take him, and good riddance. (Actually, though, she needs to hold onto her son to provide leverage for an investment deal.) We’re led to think that we’re going to be seeing the poster child for unruly movie delinquency, but Mike shows up at a cockfight, where it takes him about three seconds to find the boy and his pet rooster, named Macho. Our first reaction is: The kid seems pretty nice. And so does the rooster.

They are. Eduardo Minnett, who has been a regular on several Mexican TV series, has a baby-faced wholesomeness and a sweet, spirited manner. Rafael has every right to be surly about Mike taking him away, but we can see from the start that he’s no delinquent; his mother is just projecting. Mike still has to win him over, of course, but the movie might have had more bite to it if Rafael were in greater need of taming.

He and Mike pile into Mike’s two-toned Chevy suburban and head out on the road, during which they’ll get to know each other and undergo a few adventurous ordeals, none of which ever turns too dark. The car gets stolen, but that’s okay, they’ll soon find an abandoned one. In a parking lot, the locals get heated over what this aging gringo is doing traveling with a Mexican kid, but that’s okay, they soon turn their aggression on the sinister henchman who’s trying to bring the boy back. Sitting down for lunch, Rafael casually orders a tequila, but that’s okay, Mike waves the order away and sets him straight. “You get too angry,” Rafael tells Mike. “It’s not good for you at your age.” He’s right about that, but “Cry Macho” isn’t an angry Clint movie. By the time these two arrive at a makeshift ranch, and Mike starts teaching the kid to ride horses, we realize that we’re watching the closest thing we’ve seen to a Clint Eastwood Afterschool Special.

Late in the film, Clint tells the kid (whom he calls “Kid” — yes, it’s that kind of movie), “The macho thing is overrated.” Which actually sounds like just the sort of reflective, ancient-and-wiser, red-state-shading-into-blue idea that you want to hear from the preeminent macho movie star of the last half century. The nonagenarian Clint says it like he means it. The truth is, though, that the rest of the movie doesn’t quite bear it out. Even though he doesn’t rule physically anymore, the Clint we see in “Cry Macho” is just as rooted in the domineering presence of his mystique as he ever was. He’s just quieter about it. The movie turns into a romance: When they’re at that ranch, the woman who runs the adjoining cantina cooks for them, and she and Clint strike up a flirtation so sly it kind of sneaks its way into the movie. The actress Natalia Traven has a face that seems to have lived , just like Clint’s, and it’s sweet to see them pair off. But it’s not more than sweet. “Cry Macho” is a pleasant enough place-holder for Eastwood, but I hope and suspect that down the line he’s got some more macho to cry.

Reviewed at Park Ave. Screening Room, Sept. 13, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 121 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release of a Malpaso, Albert S. Ruddy production. Producers: Albert S. Ruddy, Tim Moore, Jessica Meier, Clint Eastwood. Executive producer: David M. Bernstein.
Crew: Director: Clint Eastwood. Screenplay: Nick Schenk, N. Richard Nash. Camera: Ben Davis. Editors: Joel Cox, David Cox. Music: Mark Mancina.
With: Clint Eastwood, Eduardo Minett, Dwight Yoakam, Natalia Traven, Fernanda Urrejola, Jorge-Luis Pallo, Rocky Reyes.

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Cry Macho review: Clint Eastwood plays the last cowboy in blunt, elegiac Western

At 91, Clint Eastwood is more than an actor; he's an institution, a bulwark, a base mineral. That granite squint — and all its history — hangs heavily over Cry Macho , a movie of such complete elemental Clint-ness that it feels in some ways like a summation of his whole career, and a requiem for it too. The story itself is pure Western pulp, a dime-store roundelay of banditos, lost dreams, and femme fatales. But the poignancy of watching him play the cowboy once more feels like its own exercise in a kind of collective connective remembering: a bygone vision of masculinity whose template he didn't just embody on screen for decades, but half-invented our idea of in the first place.

The first thing to know, maybe, is that the origins of Cry dates back nearly 50 years; a long and winding road whose lead casting at one point or another included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roy Scheider, and even Eastwood himself, who passed on the role in the late 1980s. The second thing to know is that Macho is also the name of a chicken — specifically a prized rooster owned by the 12-year-old boy that Eastwood's Mike Milo, a washed-up Texas ranch hand and rodeo man, has been sent down to Mexico City to fetch. Though it's essentially more like a sanctioned kidnapping: His old boss Howard (Dwight Yoakam) hasn't seen his estranged son in years, but he wants to take him back from his abusive mother, and Mike — once a championship rider, until he broke his back and fell into pills and booze — owes him more than one favor.

Her child, the boy's angry, inebriated mother (Fernanda Urrejola) tells Mike when he gets there, is a lost cause: a savage hooligan who can't be tamed. But Rafo (Eduardo Minet), when he finds him at a back-alley cockfight, just seems like a lost kid who really loves his rooster. And so the pair begin their journey back toward the border, where various messy if somehow consistently surmountable complications ensue. Will the juvenile delinquent and the crusty bronco forge a bond? Does a horse poop hay?

As a director, Eastwood keeps his tone almost primordially simple; not for Macho are the murky moral calculations and defined character arcs of The Unforgiven , American Sniper , or even Gran Torino . As an actor, too, he allows himself certain outlandish vanities: Women, for one, can't seem to stop throwing themselves at Mike's feet in a fever of sexual need, and hardened criminals cower at his right hook. But there's a baseline sweetness to his interactions with Rafo, and something genuinely affecting in watching him lay down to sleep on a desert floor with his ten-gallon hat in his lap, or head down a dusty road with Macho strutting faithfully behind. His Mike is a man out of time: a lone-wolf reminder of a world that once was, and will most likely be lost when he goes. Grade: C+

‘Cry Macho’ Review: Hanging With Grandpa Clint Is a Charming Delight

Clint Eastwood acts his age in this sweet, quiet western.

I feel a little bad for Clint Eastwood . What do you do after you become a legend? Post- Unforgiven , a film in which Eastwood wrestles with his own legacy and the western genre as a whole, his directing career has become divided between prestige pictures like Mystic River , J. Edgar , and American Sniper , films that seemed designed to just pass the time like Sully , Hereafter , and Changeling , and then there are the films that wrestle with legacy and old age, and in these films, Eastwood seems the most at home and personal. Movies like Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino may not be perfect, but they show Eastwood grappling with his own image and what he will pass on to a future generation, and it’s in this vein that he directs one of his best films since Unforgiven , Cry Macho . The plot is barely there, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s not a plot-driven film. It’s a movie where Eastwood gives up the grit and gravel-voice tough guy for something quieter. It’s an embrace of the domestic, and it’s here that Eastwood brings an unexpected warmth to the picture that makes Cry Macho a surprisingly lovely experience.

Set in 1980, Michael Milo (Eastwood) is a broken-down old cowboy. He used to be a rodeo star with a knack for training horses, but that was a long time ago. His old employer Howard ( Dwight Yoakam ) comes to Milo asking the old guy to go down to Mexico and retrieve Howard’s estranged teenage son Rafo ( Eduardo Minett ), with whom Howard would like to restore their relationship. Milo at first refuses, but Howard reminds Milo that he floated the old cowboy through tough times and will continue to do so if Milo does him this favor. So Milo heads down to Mexico, finds the boy in the streets cockfighting with his rooster Macho, and convinces the kid to come back with him to Texas. However, along the way, they both find that a better life may be waiting for them away from America.

RELATED: 'Cry Macho' Trailer Finds Clint Eastwood Back in the Saddle and Still Punching

For its first act, you’re not really sure what Cry Macho is trying to do or where it’s going. But when you pull back and look at the full picture, you see that Eastwood is reframing his thoughts on his masculinity. You have to remember that when it comes to “macho” Hollywood guys, Eastwood helped defined the role with his work in westerns as well as the Dirty Harry franchise. Unforgiven turns all of that on its head in a compelling, thoughtful way, but what do you do after you create one of the greatest westerns of all time? What do you do after that kind of statement? Eastwood has been trying to figure that out for a couple decades now, and perhaps the answer lies in something as quiet and elegant as Cry Macho .

Once you get past the first act where Rafo’s mother ( Fernanda Urrejola ) tries (and fails) to seduce Michael and Michael and Rafo start to bond, the film coheres when their car breaks down in a small town and they find the possibility of peace and settling down. While I wouldn’t call Cry Macho a story of “redemption”—neither Michael nor Rafo have done anything particularly wrong—it is a story about finding peace, and that the way of conflict isn’t to be invited or conquered. From its opening, beautiful shots from cinematographer Ben Davis , you can tell that Eastwood is going for something more pastoral and somber. This isn’t the grizzled veteran telling a young man how to be a man by emulating his violent virtues (something Eastwood touched on with Gran Torino ), but rather letting it all go to try and settle down.

It’s nice to see Eastwood embrace this vision of life. Nothing is going to erase The Man with No Name Trilogy or the Dirty Harry movies. That legacy is secure. But Eastwood knows he’s not that guy anymore, and it would be foolish to try. So instead it’s better to be grizzled, slow-moving Eastwood, and riding around with him and Rafo is like spending time with your Grandpa Clint. Sure, he may be a little ornery, but he’s also full of wisdom and he’s got a good heart. He’s suffered and he’s barely figured life out, but at least he knows it. He’s no longer carrying around anger, and any attempts to be macho at this time just look silly, which is why “macho” is personified by a literal cock. Not only that, but twice in the film when it looks like the only way out of a situation is through violence, Macho comes flying out, attacks the attacker, and the rooster, Rafo, and Michael are able to get away. In this way, Macho becomes a spirit animal of sorts, channeling the violence that Eastwood no longer wishes to perform or embrace. It's also legitimately funny to watch some guy get owned multiple times by a rooster.

I don’t know what the grace note looks like on Clint Eastwood’s career, and I think something he’s struggled with is that he doesn’t know either. At times, it seems like filmmaking is merely a hobby for him. He makes relatively low-cost pictures for one studio (Warner Bros.), his prestige is enough to secure the financing and distribution, and he gets his films in on time and under budget. While this has led to some deeply underwhelming affairs and at times maddening efforts (hello, Jersey Boys ), you try telling a 91-year-old Hollywood legend that it’s time to hang it up. You can’t force a grace note, but Cry Macho is as graceful as Eastwood has been in a long time.

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Clint Eastwood’s Lovely, Awkward Cry Macho Is As Fragile As Its Star

Clint Eastwood’s Cry Macho feels like an illusion. Filmmakers have tried for more than four decades to film N. Richard Nash’s 1975 novel about an aging Texas cowboy who heads to Mexico to kidnap his former boss’s young, estranged son; it’s always seemed like an ideal project for a graying action star, but maybe not quite as graying as the currently 91-year-old Eastwood, who could have easily done it back when the novel came out. (He was reportedly attached to it for a while in the late 1980s.) Watching Cry Macho , you can imagine that younger Clint — say, at age 51, or 61, or, hell, 81 — playing the part. He doesn’t need de-aging because he’s got the audience’s memories on his side. Eastwood’s diction might be awkward, his back hunched, his frame unsteady — but he is perfect for the role because we want him to be.

The actor’s almost supernatural endurance has never been predicated on youthfulness; he’s been playing grizzled ever since 1976’s The Outlaw Josey Wales , released when he was 46. (Over the years, he’s also probably outlived any number of critics who have said he was too old for this or that part.) As the sad-sack Mike Milo in Cry Macho , a former rodeo star and horse trainer who has wrestled with drugs and booze and grief and pain for years, he makes for a predictably fragile figure. But it’s not the character’s sordid history we see reflected in his teetering posture and strained creak of a voice; it’s pure time. When Mike’s former boss Howard (Dwight Yoakam), the same man who fires him from a ranch job in the film’s opening scene, shows up at his house to ask him to do a dangerous favor, we should question the wisdom of sending such a vulnerable person on a lone-wolf mission to retrieve a child from what promises to be a heap of trouble. We don’t. Because it’s Clint.

Similarly, it would be natural to assume that Mike’s journey in Mexico would be filled with deadly obstacles, but the occasional henchman or suspicious cop qualify more as annoyances. Howard’s ex, Leta (Fernanda Urrejola), tells Mike she herself hasn’t seen her boy in some time. “My son is wild, an animal who lives in the gutter — gambling, stealing, cockfighting,” she says, in the film’s unflinchingly blunt manner. “Take him if you can find him. He’s a monster.” Mike locates the boy, Rafael (Eduardo Minett), fairly quickly at a local cockfight, competing with his trusted rooster, Macho. The kid is certainly no monster. He is suspicious of Mike, because he’s suspicious of everybody — the welts on the child’s back attest to a life subjected to cruelty — but he’s also taken with the idea of living on his father’s massive ranch, a dream vision of comfort and wealth that Mike does nothing to dispel, even though he has his own suspicions about Howard’s promises.

Everything happens a little too easily in this movie: It doesn’t take long for Mike to agree to go to Mexico, nor does it take long for him to find Rafael, or to convince the child to come to Texas. It also doesn’t take long for Leta to decide she wants her son back after all, and to send her inept goons after them. Eastwood, at this stage of his career, can’t really be bothered with narrative escalation and clever twists and tidy endings and closure. And the casual way he approaches exposition — his refusal to engage in the sly nipping and tucking that we expect of other filmmakers — is already the stuff of legend. Early on, as the camera pans across a wall featuring framed newspaper headlines from Mike’s storied rodeo career, we don’t bat an eye when it comes upon one that says “Rodeo Star Mike Milo Breaks Back in Lone Star Event.” What kind of person would frame and hang a headline like that about himself? Doesn’t matter. With Eastwood, the simplicity is often the point. Later, the film cuts to Mike on a wild horse, and it’s so clearly not Eastwood riding that it might prompt a chuckle. But it’s a fond chuckle; the actor-director seems to be in on the joke. (Besides, we could often see the stuntmen doing the riding in those classic Sergio Leone Westerns that made Eastwood a star. We might say he’s come full circle.)

In his later films as director, this glancing approach has occasionally come across as lethargy. It might have been a problem here were Cry Macho trying to be an action movie or a thriller. But the film shows its hand — deliberately, beautifully — when Mike and Rafael find themselves stuck in a small village. The owner of the local tavern, Marta (Natalia Traven), takes them in and treats them like family. Like Mike, she lost a child and a spouse years ago; unlike him, she has a bevy of grandkids she cares for. Mike also starts helping a local man train his wild horses, and villagers soon start bringing him other animals for treatment, as if he were a veterinarian.

Eastwood left genre some time ago, and he’s been walking his own middle ground for a while now. The broken man and the wounded child’s idyll in this village starts to feel like an earthly paradise where their own souls can heal. Most movies would move on from that blissful Mexican village sojourn to more pressing matters, and Cry Macho does, too — sort of — but there’s a fundamental imbalance to the tale that tells us where its heart truly lies. In truth, this idea dates back to the early days of the director’s career. Outlaw Josey Wales was all about finding new homes, forgetting old wars, and mending raw spiritual wounds. It just made sure to throw in a few big gunfights, too.

Now, approaching twilight, Eastwood has stripped everything down to its essentials. The picture doesn’t always work, but it works when it has to. It’s a fragile enterprise — lovely to bask in, but liable to fall apart if you stare too hard. The same could be said for its star. He’s part of the illusion. Somehow, when we look at Mike, we don’t see Eastwood the 91-year-old actor, but Clint the icon — not so much ageless as preserved in weathered glory, cinema’s forever haunted cowboy.

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Running time: 104 Min. Rated: PG-13 (Language) In theaters and on HBO Max

At 91, Clint Eastwood throws a punch, rides a horse and hurls an annoying teenager out of his truck. Aging goals!

“Cry Macho,” Eastwood’s latest, is a Western set in 1979, and you might swear it was made in that decade. The soaring southwestern landscapes, slide guitar soundtrack, and gruff cowboy lead are a throwback to a leaner, less franchise-obsessed Hollywood.

The director and star, Eastwood plays Mike Milo, a retired Texas rodeo rider enlisted on a solo mission to retrieve the son of his former boss (Dwight Yoakam) from Mexico City. The screenplay’s been kicking around since the late 1980s, when Eastwood reportedly turned it down because he thought he was too young. Other actors considered it — including Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011 — but Eastwood finally circled back. And it’s his most charming movie in years.

He directs, famously, with ruthless efficiency. You can all but hear him impatiently commanding the crew to move on to the next scene. The film opens with exposition from Yoakam’s character about Mike’s rodeo accident, addiction and loss of his son. Mike owes him one, so he’s calling in the favor to get his own son back. Information duly dispersed, Eastwood’s headed south moments later.

Clint Eastwood and Eduardo Minett in "Cry Macho"

Mike’s target, Rafa (Eduardo Minett), is a “wild” 16 year old, according to his drunk, rich mother (Fernanda Urrejola). He’s gotten into cockfighting using a rooster named Macho, whose name inspires running commentary on the meaning, and pitfalls, of traditional masculinity.

Mike, unsurprisingly, has no time for Rafa’s B.S. Taciturn and grumpy, he bails on the assignment, then grudgingly agrees to take the kid, in a nice bit of reverse psychology. They’re plagued by car thieves, Rafa’s mom’s goons and federales , and take refuge in a dusty border town. There, they’re befriended by a restaurant owner (Natalia Traven), who takes a shine to Mike, and find work breaking wild mustangs and tending to wounded farm animals.

For all its Western trappings, “Cry Macho” is gentle at its core. Nobody gets killed. I think a punch in the nose is as violent as it gets. Macho himself doesn’t ever fight, though Eastwood gets some amusing rooster reaction shots. And Mike delivers an exasperated monologue about the inherent short-sightedness of machismo: “Only an idiot would be in that profession,” he says of his rodeo days, which ended in a broken back.

Some of the acting feels cardboard; the plot points are never shocking. Eastwood’s love interest is about four decades his junior. And yet, the director casts a Zen cowboy spell that makes it all sort of irresistible. Living at 91 never looked so good.

Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven, Clint Eastwood in "Cry Macho."

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Review: Clint Eastwood confronts his own legacy — again — in the creaky, meandering ‘Cry Macho’

Clint Eastwood in the movie "Cry Macho."

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Macho is the name of a rooster, an expert cockfighter and a plucky companion to a wayward teenager named Rafo (Eduardo Minett). Rafo, in turn, finds himself playing sidekick to Mike Milo, a faded rodeo star played with a familiar dyspeptic wince by Clint Eastwood. Making their way from Mexico to Texas in a rusty old truck sometime in 1980, the three travelers get off to a rough start, with lots of literally and figuratively ruffled feathers, before settling into a sturdy groove. Mike and Rafo, in particular, generate an affectionate rapport that implicitly rebukes the kind of aggressive male posturing summed up by the rooster’s name.

“Cry Macho,” a creaky, semi-sweet, unavoidably sentimental adaptation of a 1975 novel by N. Richard Nash, can thus be seen as Eastwood’s latest reckoning with certain wrongheaded assumptions about masculinity, and with a particular tough-guy ethos that he has both defined and subverted over his six-decade career. At this point, it would be a surprise to report that the movie was anything else. The self-critical strain in Eastwood’s work has become so pronounced of late as to run the risk of seeming repetitive. In recent years his usual motifs — the inevitability and futility of violence, the complicated and often-misunderstood nature of heroism — have tended to register with greater force and clarity than the movies themselves.

If “Cry Macho” seems too slight to bear the weight of all this thematic baggage, it nonetheless feels like a picture Eastwood had to make, and not just because the opportunity once already slipped through his fingers. (Eastwood turned down the lead in a “Cry Macho” adaptation in 1988, joining the ranks of several actors — including Robert Mitchum, Roy Scheider and Arnold Schwarzenegger — who have been eyed for the part.) He slips effortlessly into this world of cowboys and horses, dusty roads and lonely missions, though the grim fatalism that has often accompanied his forays into western territory is kept mostly at bay. The most startling violence is meted out not with guns or fists, but by Macho the rooster himself, whose various clucking, crowing performers — all 11 of them — might be collectively credited with the movie’s standout turn.

At 91, Clint Eastwood throws a punch and rides a horse in his new movie. And he’s not ready to quit

With ‘Cry Macho,’ Clint Eastwood may be the oldest American to direct and star in a major motion picture. But ask if anything has changed since his start and you get the verbal equivalent of an amused shrug.

Sept. 12, 2021

Clint Eastwood and Eduardo Minett stand with clenched fists in "Cry Macho."

Maybe that’s unfair. Eastwood’s human co-stars — including Minett, a Mexican television actor making his Hollywood film debut — sometimes struggle to make something emotionally credible out of the clumsy formulations of the script (credited to Nash, who died in 2000, and Nick Schenk). But Eastwood, now 91, betrays no more strain than usual. You can roll your eyes at his signature mannerisms, but taking those eyes off him is another matter. His weathered scowl and stiff, purposeful gait suit Mike Milo seamlessly, as does a tragic personal history — a rodeo career cut short by injury, a wife and child he lost years earlier — that recalls any number of Eastwood’s many soulful sufferers.

Some of those earlier roles were also written by Schenk, and “Cry Macho” echoes them in ways too deliberate to chalk up to coincidence. Like Walt Kowalski in “Gran Torino” (but with less racism), Mike must bond with a youngster whose culture proves utterly alien to him. And like Earl Stone in “The Mule” (but with less drug-cartel mayhem), Mike finds himself on a Mexican road trip that turns out to be more than he bargained for. He’s sent on this mission by his demanding former boss, Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam, right at home), a Texas ranch owner who wants to reunite with his long-absent son, Rafo, who’s presently trapped in his mother’s allegedly abusive clutches.

Howard isn’t being entirely forthright about the situation, but those essentials are more or less accurate. You might wish they weren’t. Rafo’s mother, Leta (Chilean actor Fernanda Urrejola), turns out to be an unpersuasive collection of vampy crime-boss clichés who, despite her feigned indifference to her son’s fate, has no desire for Mike to take him across the border. Leta serves a couple of fairly obvious narrative purposes, one of which is to throw herself unsuccessfully at Mike and impress upon us the undimmed vitality of Eastwood’s sex appeal. She also commands a crew of gun-toting henchmen who take off after Mike and Rafo when they fly the coop, and who conveniently turn up whenever the proceedings need a jolt of suspense.

Clint Eastwood dances with Natalia Traven in "Cry Macho."

There isn’t all that much more to it. There are two bumbling cops who elicit some choice insults from Mike. There are the requisite bonding moments that transpire between him and Rafo, a likable kid who’s had few role models and even fewer options between his two uniquely irresponsible parents. Rafo aside, the Mexican characters in “Cry Macho” tend to be either irredeemable crooks or candidates for sainthood. Falling squarely into the latter group is a moony-eyed cantina owner named Marta (Natalia Traven) and her adorable grandchildren, who open their home to Mike and Rafo for a pleasant enough spell.

The simplicity of the story Eastwood is telling would seem to suit his unvarnished, unfussy style, though frankly, a bit more fuss — a few more takes to smooth out a wobbly performance, an extra light bulb or two in the interior shots — wouldn’t have gone awry. But “Cry Macho,” with its attractive but not indulgent landscapes (shot in New Mexico) backed by a spare, twangy Mark Mancina score, takes pains to reject anything that might smack of falsity or pretense. That’s a bit rich when you consider that the filmmaker’s much-vaunted modesty also comes with a hefty dose of self-flattery, even (or especially) when Mike calls out the preening male braggadocio that Rafo seems to idolize. “This macho thing is overrated,” he says, “just people trying to be macho and show that they’ve got grit.” For true grit, he scarcely has to add, you need look no further than Clint Eastwood himself.

‘Cry Macho’

Rating: PG-13, for language and thematic elements Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes Playing: Starts Sept. 17 in general release and on HBO Max

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Justin Chang was a film critic for the Los Angeles Times from 2016 to 2024. He won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in criticism for work published in 2023. Chang is the author of the book “FilmCraft: Editing” and serves as chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn.

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Metacritic reviews

83 Consequence Clint Worthington Consequence Clint Worthington One of Eastwood's most pleasing character studies since Million Dollar Baby.
75 IndieWire David Ehrlich IndieWire David Ehrlich The latest of Eastwood’s many potential swan songs, this sketch of a movie is transparent enough to focus all of your attention on the shadow imagery behind it. On the brimmed silhouette that its director and star cuts in a door frame, on the six pounds of gravel that it sounds like he gargled before every take, and on the way that he plays Mike as a man who would give anything for a place to hang his hat if only he could bring himself to take it off his head. Better late than never.
70 Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz There is a craggy kind of elegance to Cry Macho. You know what you’re getting for the most part. This does not include a lot of surprises. It does include comfort in the familiar. Eastwood has earned that, too.
65 TheWrap Robert Abele TheWrap Robert Abele A road movie that, considering who made it, starts pretty far down that road, Cry Macho is familiar and loose, sometimes rattly, occasionally wince-inducing, and in a few moments genuine in ways no one else seems to know how to do anymore.
60 Variety Owen Gleiberman Variety Owen Gleiberman It’s friendly and diverting and formulaic, in an inoffensive and good-natured way, and it’s a totally minor affair.
60 Screen Daily Tim Grierson Screen Daily Tim Grierson From the film’s first moments, the audience can guess exactly how the story will pan out, and the pleasure is watching Eastwood gracefully negotiate every well-worn twist and turn.
58 The A.V. Club Ignatiy Vishnevetsky The A.V. Club Ignatiy Vishnevetsky The fact is that, as a movie, Cry Macho is slow and sometimes dull. But as a statement by Hollywood’s oldest leading man and working director, it offers its share of gleaming low-key insights.
42 Paste Magazine Jacob Oller Paste Magazine Jacob Oller Eastwood’s been riding off into the sunset for decades now, and Cry Macho’s creaky, lackadaisical hat-wave is a feature-length parody of a golden oldie.
30 The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney This is a story so crusty and antiquated in its conveniently resolved conflicts, contrivances and drippy sentimentality that it should have been left on the shelf.
25 San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson But Eastwood is undercut by the unbearably weak screenplay by Nick Schenk, who adapts a 1975 novel by N. Richard Nash. Schenk has turned in good work for Eastwood before, including “Gran Torino” and “The Mule,” but here his strategy seems to be having his characters explain everything that they’re doing and feeling, much of which should be delivered visually. Action is character, after all.
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Over Clint Eastwood's decades-long career, the Western is a genre in which he's made a considerable impact. Some of his finest works, including Best Picture winner Unforgiven , were Westerns, which is why it's always interesting to see the Hollywood legend return to this well. Never one to slow down, the now 91-year-old Eastwood directs and stars in Cry Macho , based on the novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash (who also co-wrote the screenplay). A few of Eastwood's late-period films have been well-received, but this one falls short of the mark a bit. Cry Macho is a fairly standard Western hampered by a thin story, which prevents it from reaching the heights of Eastwood's storied filmography.

Eastwood stars as Mike Milo, a former rodeo star who fell on hard times after suffering a tragedy. One day, Mike's former boss Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam) asks him for a favor. Howard wants Mike to travel to Mexico and bring Howard's son, Rafael (Eduardo Minett) to Texas, citing concerns the boy's mother, Leta (Fernanda Urrejola), is constantly abusing him. Mike agrees to take the job and goes south of the border to find Rafael. From there, the two have to avoid the authorities and Leta's hired muscle in order to get back to the United States.

Related: The Original, Canceled Version of Clint Eastwood's Cry Macho Explained

Eastwood's always been an economical filmmaker and Cry Macho doesn't waste any time in setting up the story and bringing viewers right into the plot. While that approach is welcome ( Cry Macho runs 104 minutes), the primary issue is there isn't much to the narrative in terms of developments or thematic material. The story itself is quite simple, and any attempts to dig deeper below the surface (whether it's Rafael's troubled childhood or the elderly Mike's perspective on "being macho") fail to leave much of an impression. Cry Macho plays with some interesting ideas, especially considering Eastwood's onscreen past and image, though there isn't enough there to make it standout as one of the director's better offerings.

The emotional core of Cry Macho is in the dynamic between Mike and Rafael, and the two make for a solid pair, whether they're carrying the film's more dramatic moments or injecting a bit of levity. Aspects of their relationship may come across as predictable (Rafael is in need of a dependable father figure), but their connection still feels earned. Minett does a good job as Rafael, finding a balance between a street-smart teen and vulnerable child looking for someone to trust. Eastwood is characteristically reliable, channeling his typical persona to bring gravitas to Mike. However, an argument can be made that at 91, he is a bit too old with regards to a subplot where he becomes something of a romantic interest for widowed grandmother Marta (Natalia Traven). As nostalgic it is to see Eastwood in his cowboy get-up riding horses, certain elements of the character's story don't land as well.

Unfortunately, Mike and Rafael are the only characters with real meat to their portrayals. A majority of the supporting cast consists of stock characters that exist mainly to serve a purpose in the story. Horacio Garcia Rojas' Aurelio is just an obstacle that gets in Mike and Rafael's way for a few confrontations (which are easily resolved) and Traven doesn't have much to do as Marta. This does allow Eastwood to keep the focus on Mike and Rafael's journey, but the two-dimensional ensemble does make the film drag a bit in the middle section, which could cause some viewers to lose interest. None of the actors are bad in their roles, it can just be difficult to get fully invested since the story is so thin.

It is impressive to see Eastwood continue to churn out films as a director and actor, pulling triple-duty for Cry Macho as he serves as producer as well. And die-hard fans who have been following his career for years will likely find something to enjoy and appreciate. However, when compared to some of Eastwood's best works (and even a handful of his more recent efforts), Cry Macho is lacking what's necessary to be a real crossover hit and it likely won't be much of a factor come awards season. Those who love Westerns and Eastwood may be inclined to seek Cry Macho out on the big screen if they feel safe, but everyone else can catch it on HBO Max. There's something comforting about seeing Eastwood in another Western, but that's not enough to truly elevate this particular film.

Next: Cry Macho Official Movie Trailer

Cry Macho was released in U.S. theaters on September 17, 2021, and is also available to stream on HBO Max. It is 104 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Eastwood's drama is awkward yet lovely; language, drinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Movie is largely about connecting and finding a ne

Though Mike can be cranky and he sometimes resorts

Main character is a White male who in some ways fi

Dialogue about a boy being abused; bruises shown o

A woman tries to seduce the main character, lying

Several uses of "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," "ba

Teen orders tequila at a café. Teen may be secretl

Positive Messages

Movie is largely about connecting and finding a new, sweeter rhythm to life because of the connections with others, including those that cross cultural divides (though movie is more about humans than about cultures).

Positive Role Models

Though Mike can be cranky and he sometimes resorts to violence, he's essentially a kind, honorable man (he hopes to get this job done). He's good to animals and winds up being helpful. You could argue that he fits the "White savior" description, but it's made apparent that he's the one who's actually saved here.

Diverse Representations

Main character is a White male who in some ways fits "White savior" narrative but is ultimately the one who's saved. Also varied, positive characters of color (mainly Latino). A young girl is deaf/hard of hearing; a quick scene shows the main character communicating with her through ASL. While movie doesn't specifically acknowledge age, it shows a 91-year-old who's capable of doing much more than sitting on the sidelines.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Dialogue about a boy being abused; bruises shown on his back. Teen thrown to ground. Police with guns. One car rams another; car crash. Injured animals, with minor wounds. A rooster fight is shown, but it's broken up by police before it starts. Archival footage of a rodeo accident with a man falling off of a horse. Dialogue about a woman and child killed in a car accident.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A woman tries to seduce the main character, lying on a bed and gesturing for him to join her (he walks away, which enrages her). Tender love story between two characters includes dancing, flirting.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," "bastard," "puto," "bitch," "ass," "pr--k," "hell," "goddamn," "damn," "crap," "whore," "perverted." Exclamatory use of "Jesus" and "Jesus Christ." "C--k" is used, in reference to a rooster.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teen orders tequila at a café. Teen may be secretly drinking alcohol at a café; he switches glasses and gulps down the contents (viewers don't know what's inside). Dialogue about main character's history of "booze and pills." Secondary character drinks and acts drunk. Dialogue about selling "pills and dope." Federales search a vehicle for drugs. Main character drinks a glass of brown liquid (contents undefined).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Cry Macho is a Western-ish drama directed by and starring Clint Eastwood . There's dialogue about an abused teen, with bruises shown on his back. The boy is also thrown to the ground by a villain. Police with guns are shown, and one car crashes into another and rams it off the road. Injured animals (with minor wounds) are shown, and death is discussed. A woman tries but fails to seduce the main character; he begins a tender love affair with another woman that includes dancing and flirting. Characters use the words "s--t," "bitch," "a--hole," "bastard," and more. A teen tries to drink tequila (and maybe does, though it's unclear), and an adult character is seen drinking/drunk. There's dialogue about selling or abusing "pills, dope, and booze." The movie is awkward in spots but also a lovely, relaxed drama starring a cinema icon. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (4)
Kids say (2)

Based on 4 parent reviews

I loved it!

Great movie. refreshing. love clint eastwood. also, good sound track, what's the story.

In CRY MACHO, Mike Milo ( Clint Eastwood ) is a washed-up rodeo star who's now working as a trainer for his loyal Texas rancher boss, Howard Polk ( Dwight Yoakam ). Howard comes to Mike with a special task. Howard's 13-year-old son, Rafael -- "Rafo" or "Rafa" for short (Eduardo Minett) -- is in Mexico with his irresponsible mother, Leta ( Fernanda Urrejola ), and is possibly being abused. Howard can't go himself, so he asks Mike to retrieve the boy. Mike finds Rafa at a rooster fight with his prize bird, Macho. With tales of Howard's ranch and many horses, Mike talks the boy into coming back with him to Texas. Unfortunately, both the Federales and Leta's bodyguards are on their trail. As they lie low in a small border town, they meet the widowed Marta (Natalia Traven), who runs a small restaurant with her four grandchildren. The longer they stay, the more they hesitate to leave.

Is It Any Good?

There's no getting around the fact that Eastwood, at 91, looks a bit rickety for his role and that the movie feels a little slapdash. But it's also an unusually lovely, relaxed work from an icon of cinema. In one scene, Rafa and a grumpy Mike must reload a bunch of stuff into the trunk of their stolen car after the Federales have searched it. A shirtsleeve hangs out of the closed trunk. Mike regards it for a second, starts to fix it, and then waves it off. Why bother? Often, Cry Macho itself feels like that. Some scenes seem to have been stuck together with details haphazardly left out. Dialogue sounds blocky and over-explained. And while Rafa is described as a tough, feral street rat, the cherubic Minett doesn't quite fit the part, any more than Eastwood feels right for Mike.

And yet Cry Macho is such a precious movie. How few filmmakers were or are working at 91, and how many have the courage to show themselves on-screen at that age? (While the movie doesn't specifically discuss age, it's still there.) In a way, it plays like the final films of another great actor-director, Charlie Chaplin -- A King in New York and A Countess from Hong Kong : a bit awkward, but still revealing. Not to mention that this is Eastwood's 39th film, and, learning as he did from directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel , his classical, no-nonsense style has evolved into a beautiful polish. In this movie, as in many of his others, he wants to demonstrate inclusiveness for characters of color (while acknowledging cultural differences), to discuss the downsides of being "macho," and to show that there's a slower, more delicate, more observant rhythm of life.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Cry Macho 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Do the movie's Latino characters have clear strengths, weaknesses, and wants? Do you consider Mike a "White savior"? Why, or why not?

How does the movie address old age? How does it feel to see a 91-year-old Clint Eastwood at work?

What does Mike mean when he says that "macho stuff" is overrated and "nobody likes it"?

How does the movie handle drugs and alcohol ? Are they glorified in any way? Are there consequences for substance use/abuse? Why does that matter?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 17, 2021
On DVD or streaming : November 4, 2021
Cast : Clint Eastwood , Dwight Yoakam , Eduardo Minett , Natalia Traven
Director : Clint Eastwood
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Drama
Topics : Horses and Farm Animals
Run time : 105 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : language and thematic elements
Last updated : October 5, 2023

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Cry Macho review – Clint Eastwood’s dull 70s drama evokes no tears

The director’s latest film, in which he stars as a former rodeo star who travels to Mexico to save a friend’s son, is an inert disappointment

C ry Macho, the new 70s-set film from the world’s most prolific nonagenarian director, Clint Eastwood , has endured an almost 50-year journey to the screen, a journey that, after actually watching Cry Macho, is of far more interest than what’s ended up in front of us. After his screenplay was rejected in the 70s, writer N Richard Nash turned it into a novel before then pitching the exact same screenplay, which this time got bought by Fox. Eastwood was offered it in the late 80s but decided to star in The Dead Pool instead, while offering to direct Robert Mitchum in the role. In the 90s, Roy Scheider signed on but production was never completed. Over time, Pierce Brosnan and Burt Lancaster were also attached before in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger picked it as his next role but stepped back when he became governor. As his term ended, he announced that it would be his next project but just as production was set to start, his affair with a household employee who bore his child caused it to fold.

One might call the project cursed, a stop-and-start conveyor belt that frankly should have stopped decades prior. Eastwood’s decision to reboard the project in 2020 for a film ambitiously made during the latter half of the year with pandemic restrictions is an understandable one – it’s a film that speaks to themes both visually and textually that have interested him for years – but it’s also one that’s crucially misjudged. It’s unclear how much of the script has been tweaked over time – the writing credit includes Nash and also Nick Schenk, who wrote Gran Torino and The Mule – but it seems like the right answer would be “not enough”. Eastwood, who turned 91 this year, plays a character who feels written as much younger (as implied by the many actors who have briefly been attached before – Scheider was 59 and Schwarzenegger was 64) and so such a giant leap should be supported by major changes in the writing. But with women half his age begging him to sleep with them and a physically strenuous job that would seem difficult to manage at his age, the film starts off with a handicap, one that it’s never quite able to get over.

Eastwood plays the improbably named Mike Milo, an ex-rodeo star whose career ended after a severe back injury. He retreated behind the scenes to breed and train horses, a job that in the opening he gets fired from. Bizarrely right after letting him go, his former boss (a hammy Dwight Yoakam) hires him to head to Mexico to bring his troubled 13-year-old son Rafo (Mexican TV star Eduardo Minett) back from his mother. Milo agrees and after finding the kid in the middle of a cockfight, he starts the journey back home, with a number of potholes on the way.

We’re already in loosely similar territory to both Gran Torino and The Mule but thankfully, Eastwood isn’t playing yet another “get off my lawn” bigot, whose vileness is played for uncomfortable humour, instead he’s just haunted by the career he lost and the family who died years prior. He’s well-intentioned, a PG grouch who ultimately wants and hopes for the best and the role allows for his natural charm to shine even if it’s only used in short supply. There’s also a refreshing economy with his relationship to the kid, the pair bonding with ease without an extended “you’re not my real dad” tension. The two have a comfortable chemistry but the script fails to give them enough of substance to work with, just a string of perfunctory and increasingly uninteresting conversations about very little of interest. There are easily signposted emotional beats that the film fails to hit and what could have been an engaging, if simple, tale becomes strangely lifeless.

What’s most surprising about some of Eastwood’s later films is their inefficient storytelling. What some of his best, and even some of his more middling, films share in common is an old-fashioned sturdiness that glides us from first to second to third act with a rigid professionalism. Instead Cry Macho is dogged by a slack pace and an inertness that overwhelms, scene after scene of nothing, not a funny line or a moving moment or an unresolved conflict, just nothing. Eastwood seems to think he can coast on the scenery and the goodness of the characters alone but it’s glaringly not enough, its heart might be on its sleeve but it’s barely pumping.

The film acknowledges age but not advanced age and, as in The Mule , Eastwood plays a character who much younger women are unable to control themselves over, a strangely egotistic throughline (this time he is at least able to avoid having multiple threesomes). The Macho of the title is the name of Rafo’s rooster and does allow for some discussion over the value placed on hyper-masculinity. There’s a minor moment of self-reflection near the end, as Milo looks back on the decisions he’s made and the vulnerability he took too long to embrace. It’s an almost fascinating meta speech from Eastwood but also a frustrating one, giving the film a sudden depth that had previously been absent. There’s more room here for lived-in melancholy, briefly teased in that scene, but it’s left empty and so when big emotions do arrive, or at least when they’re supposed to, Cry Macho will leave all eyes in the house as dry as the scenery.

Cry Macho is released in US cinemas and on HBO Max on 17 September and in the UK on 12 November

Clint Eastwood
Drama films

Cry Macho Review

12 Nov 2021

In its earliest scenes, you could easily label Clint Eastwood ’s latest directing/starring effort ‘Cry Expo’, clumsily keying the audience in through exposition on who exactly Mike Milo is. Dwight Yoakam’s pissed-off rancher Howard rattles off a laundry list of Eastwood’s character’s various faults and troubles to the man who has lived through them all. That’s immediately followed by a slow pan across newspaper clippings and trophies that offer precisely the same information, leading you to assume Eastwood might be losing his touch as a filmmaker. Those worries don’t ease until midway through this shaggy-dog (shaggy-cockerel?) story, when Cry Macho finally finds its vibe.

It’ll please fans of Eastwood who were hoping that he would return to the Western milieu that once made him famous, though this new outing doesn’t deliver the raw, profound themes of an Unforgiven . Nor is it a keen deconstruction of the masculine tropes that the actor/director once embodied and occasionally still clings to.

Dusting off a script that has lingered in development limbo for decades, the prolific, 91-year-old filmmaker has fashioned something that feels of a piece with Gran Torino (and shares screenwriter Nick Schenk ). Here, Eastwood’s Mike schools a young-’un (Eduardo Minett) and hits upon a way back to life in the last place he expects to find it, all while showing he’s more than just another gruff loner. Sadly, the returning writer/director combo also repeats the uncomfortable all-women-love-our-leathery-lead wish-fulfilment of The Mule .

Not to worry: time spent in the company of this weathered, mournful man and the teen he’s entrusted to transport isn’t entirely wasted, and there is a solid story in place. Eastwood and Minett share an easy chemistry, and there are a few other solid performances. It’s just a problem when your single-most compelling character is a rooster.

Movies | 06 08 2021

IMAGES

Review: ‘Cry Macho’ a sentimental reminder of Eastwood’s talent
CRY MACHO review by Roy Frumkes
Review: Clint Eastwood's 'Cry Macho'
Cry Macho (2021) Review
Review, "Cry Macho:" Clint Eastwood, 91 Years And 79 Movies Old, Says
Review: 'Cry Macho' Directed By and Starring Clint Eastwood

COMMENTS

Cry Macho movie review & film summary (2021)
Because even if Eastwood keeps up his filmmaking pace for another decade or more, "Cry Macho," which he directed from a long kicking-around script by Nick Schenk and N. Richard Nash, and which began as a 1975 novel by Nash (and this movie adapts it very loosely, to say the least), will end up one of his more unusual films. Its title and trailer suggest a potentially blistering, and likely ...
Cry Macho
Jul 24, 2023. Jun 5, 2023. Rated: 8/10 • Jan 31, 2023. From Warner Bros. Pictures comes director/producer Clint Eastwood's uplifting and poignant drama "Cry Macho." The film stars Eastwood as ...
'Cry Macho' Review: The Good, the Bad and the Poultry
Mike, Rafo and Macho light out in a series of Detroit junkers — mostly stolen, though nobody seems to mind — pursued by mom's nasty boyfriend and the occasional federales. Now and then, Mike ...
Cry Macho
Slow, bland, and dull, "Cry Macho" is competently put together by an admirable Clint Eastwood, but it's the very definition of forgettable. Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | May 18, 2022. James ...
Clint Eastwood's 'Cry Macho' Review
Clint Eastwood's 'Cry Macho': Film Review. The director plays a former rodeo star enlisted by his ex-boss to fetch the wealthy rancher's teenage son from Mexico in this story of an old ...
Cry Macho review
The director plays a 'real cowboy' who bonds with the boy he's asked to rescue from his mother in this touching road movie. C lint Eastwood still looks good in a cowboy hat. His latest ...
Cry Macho (2021)
Cry Macho is a film with an old soul. Clearly, having Clint Eastwood (a 91 year old man) as both the protagonist and director contributes to that, but there is more to it. Everything about this production is slow and mellow, never getting too intense. The story is straightforward, small, and predictable. The editing is calm. The acting is gentle.
'Cry Macho' Review: Clint Eastwood's Buddy-Movie Afterschool Special
'Cry Macho' Review: Clint Eastwood's Mexico-Set Ancient-Cowboy-Meets-Troubled-Teen Afterschool Special Eastwood remains a filmmaker of ageless diverting classicism, but this road movie is a ...
Cry Macho review: Clint Eastwood plays the last cowboy in blunt
Cry Macho is a movie of such complete elemental Clint-ness that it feels in some ways like a summation of his whole career, and a requiem for it too. ... Cry Macho review: Clint Eastwood plays the ...
Cry Macho (2021)
Cry Macho: Directed by Clint Eastwood. With Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam, Daniel V. Graulau, Amber Lynn Ashley. A one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder takes a job to bring a man's young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. On their journey, the horseman finds redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
Cry Macho Review: Clint Eastwood Shines in This Quiet Western
Reviews; Movie; Cry Macho; Clint Eastwood; About The Author. Matt Goldberg (13807 Articles Published) Matt Goldberg has been an editor with Collider since 2007. As the site's Chief Film Critic, he ...
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Verdict. Cry Macho has spare moments of charm and tranquility, but mostly it's a dry and unfinished story that fails to hit even the most basic of Story 101 beats. Clint Eastwood, though still ...
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Cry Macho review - even Clint Eastwood can't rescue ropey western. He remains a magnetic presence, but can't sustain interest in this dated tale, which would have us believe the 91-year-old ...
Movie Review: Clint Eastwood's Cry Macho, on HBO Max
Movie Review: In the neo-Western Cry Macho, 91-year-old Clint Eastwood plays a has-been rodeo start who heads to Mexico to kidnap his former boss's young child and bring him back to Texas. The ...
'Cry Macho' review: Clint Eastwood's most charming movie in years
Aging goals! "Cry Macho," Eastwood's latest, is a Western set in 1979, and you might swear it was made in that decade. The soaring southwestern landscapes, slide guitar soundtrack, and gruff ...
'Cry Macho' review: Clint Eastwood confronts legacy on HBO
Review: Clint Eastwood confronts his own legacy — again — in the creaky, meandering 'Cry Macho'. Clint Eastwood in the movie "Cry Macho.". (Claire Folger / Warner Bros.) By Justin ...
Cry Macho (2021)
65. TheWrap Robert Abele. A road movie that, considering who made it, starts pretty far down that road, Cry Macho is familiar and loose, sometimes rattly, occasionally wince-inducing, and in a few moments genuine in ways no one else seems to know how to do anymore. 60. Variety Owen Gleiberman.
Cry Macho Review: Clint Eastwood's Latest Western Isn't One of His Best
Published Sep 18, 2021. Cry Macho is a fairly standard Western hampered by a thin story, which prevents it from reaching the heights of Eastwood's storied filmography. Over Clint Eastwood's decades-long career, the Western is a genre in which he's made a considerable impact. Some of his finest works, including Best Picture winner Unforgiven ...
Cry Macho Movie Review
Often, Cry Macho itself feels like that. Some scenes seem to have been stuck together with details haphazardly left out. Dialogue sounds blocky and over-explained. And while Rafa is described as a tough, feral street rat, the cherubic Minett doesn't quite fit the part, any more than Eastwood feels right for Mike.
Cry Macho review
Cry Macho review - Clint Eastwood's dull 70s drama evokes no tears. The director's latest film, in which he stars as a former rodeo star who travels to Mexico to save a friend's son, is an ...
Cry Macho Review
Cry Macho Review. It's 1980, and former rodeo star and washed-up horse-breeder Mike Milo (Clint Eastwood) is tasked with retrieving his old boss' son (Eduardo Minett) from Mexico and bringing ...
Cry Macho (film)
Cry Macho is a 2021 American neo-Western drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk and N. Richard Nash, based on Nash's 1975 novel.Set in 1979, it stars Eastwood as a former rodeo star hired to reunite a young boy (Eduardo Minett) in Mexico with his father (Dwight Yoakam) in the United States.There were many attempts to adapt Nash's novel into a film over ...
'Cry Macho' review: The Clint Eastwood movie is a weak addition to his
CNN —. At 91, Clint Eastwood's long career as a filmmaker and longer one as a star are far more interesting than "Cry Macho," an understated, uneventful slog of a movie that feels like a ...