Clint Eastwood (“Two Glorious Scoundrels”) is one of the living legends of the dream factory. With 92 years to his name, he can not only look back on a more than impressive career as an actor, but also as a director he is still not shy about delivering a film every year. His thriller “The mule“ from 2018, which is available on Netflix until March 5.
The Incredible Story of “The Mule”
Although Clint Eastwood has taken some narrative liberties for dramatic purposes, “The Mule” is largely based on the story of 90-year-old drug runner Leo Sharp, which was first published in the New York Times article “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90 -Year. “”Old Drug Mule”. Sharp, a veteran of World War II, started his own floristry business after his time as a soldier, growing flowers. When business took a turn for the worse in the 1990s, the man had to look for a alternative source of income to avoid personal ruin.
He then regularly smuggled 100 kilos of cocaine into the United States for the infamous Sinaloa cartel. This worked well for a long time because no one would suspect that the old, seemingly innocent man who listened to country music all the time was in cahoots with an extremely dangerous criminal organization. But on October 21, 2011, Leo Sharp was finally arrested. Police found 104 kilos of cocaine in the back of his pickup truck.
Curious, but also well told?
In the official FILMSTARTS review, “The Mule” received 3 out of a possible 5 stars. Our chief critic Christoph Petersen writes in his conclusion: “In ‘The Mule’ the focus this time is not on the director, but on actor Clint Eastwood – with his endearing performance he makes what is sometimes unnecessarily sugar-coated material – which is now visibly shaky – worth seeing own, so to speak.”
At its core, “The Mule” follows a very classic, almost tired plot, which is only special because its center is an elderly drug smuggler. But that doesn’t protect the film from repeatedly falling victim to exorbitant cliché pitfalls. The fact that ‘The Mule’ still works is thanks to the four-time Oscar-winning lead actor, who doesn’t do much in terms of staging in this case, but can still wrap the audience around his finger with his grater. charm. In a direct comparison, Bradley Cooper as a drug researcher also noticeably loses out.
The fact that the victims in ‘The Mule’ are consistently ignored can also be a bit irritating: “You don’t see a single addict in the entire film and the drugs only appear on screen for a fraction of a second at most. “Despite always brandishing machine guns and having menacing tattoos, the cartel company usually seems quite harmless, almost cute.” Still, thanks to the presence of Clint Eastwood and the incredible story, you are welcome to take a look here.