Clint Eastwood's 'The Mule' Trailer Debuts

Stylish, emotional and tense, Eastwood's new film looks set to continue his winning streak with factual movies

Clint Eastwood in 'The Mule' (WarnerBros.)

by Jack Linsdell

The first trailer for Clint Eastwood's 'The Mule' has debuted online in the last couple of days and its quality (although we haven't seen the film yet, but considering Eastwood's professional reputation) looks to continue the high standard of dramas that are "based on true stories" that the veteran filmmaker seems to be taking on. 

After an incredibly successful acting career in which he had become something of an 'icon', Eastwood made the transition behind the camera, to the point that over twenty-five years later and he has become one of the greatest film directors of all-time. With so many commercial and critical hits, Eastwood's filmography as an director is very impressive. What is most admirable about his directing style is the simplicity he adopts when blocking and shooting his scenes. Eastwood's use of long edits, continuous camera movements and slower pacing mean that audience immiscibility is greatly enhanced, to the point that the focus is on the performance of the actors - not on impressing the audience with flamboyant filmmaking (although there is room for this to co-exist like Spielberg's films show us). Recently, he has taken this approach (unique in Hollywood where directors 'over-think' shots, lighting choices etc.) to the telling of true stories, which has become a trademark of his career. 

Recently, his adaption of ex-Seal Chris Kyle's life in 'American Sniper', starring Bradley Cooper, proved that a war film could be made with a slower pace and a simple feel and, too mine (and most people's) surprise, became not only another critical hit for Eastwood but a commercial powerhouse too. The film ended with a global total of $547.4 million on an mere $60 million, which for those who don't know, is a massive achievement. His next film, based on the incident termed 'Miracle on the Hudson', told the story of Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger and how he successfully landed a plane full of passengers safely on the River Hudson after a bird strike took out one engine. 'Sully', released in 2016, also became an unusual commercial success, becoming Eastwood's third highest global grosser with $240 million and it's simplistic approach allowed excellent performances from Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart (amongst others) to lead the film. In 2018, he returned once again with 'The 15:17 to Paris', in which he asked the three young American's who successfully foiled a terrorist attack on a train to Paris in 2015 (which the films about) to play themselves. Although it's $55 million worldwide gross was considerably lower than his previous two, all three films are prime examples where Eastwood's simplistic (but no less stylistic) approach to filmmaking has made his "based on true events" films both extremely successful commercially and critically, in ways they should have had no right to be.

This brings us, then, to Eastwood's 'The Mule', subject to be released in December 2018, as another true story. It tells the story of Leo Sharp, a World-War Two Vet., who became a drug dealer/courier for the Sinaloa Cartel in his eighties. Based on an article released by the New York Times, the film reunites Eastwood with Bradley Cooper (from 'American Sniper') and screenwriter Nick Schenk (who also wrote the screenplay for 'Gran Torino'). Interestingly, 'Gran Torino' was the last film Eastwood starred in that he also directed and if our experience at how good the partnership between Eastwood and Schenk is from that film is anything to go by, 'The Mule' looks like another win for him. 

The trailer starts off with some emotional punch, with Eastwood saying "don't do what I did and put work in front of family" and this continues his exploration of family on (leaving your family behind in 'American Sniper', feeling like you've let your family down in 'Sully' and in 'Gran Torino' not being appreciated by your family etc.) giving his films a grounding in emotional themes which we can all associate with. As the trailer continues, we see glimpses of the pursuit by the authorities to track Sharp (Eastwood) down, promising us scenes filled with tension and a slow-paced narrative, not afraid to take its time and make the audience wait, nervously. The impressive supporting cast is shown, namely Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Pena and Andy Garcia - promising us another solid well-acted drama by Eastwood. 

'The Mule' trailer once again seems to show an scenario where a veteran actor and director whose had so many successes both in front of and behind the camera, continues his fine form despite his age. Like Spielberg (whose recent films of Bridge of Spies and The Post are some of the best low-budget dramas of his career), Eastwood doesn't seem to be putting a foot wrong at the moment. His simplistic filmmaking style has proven it can work for fictional action/thrillers and, more recently, "based on true story" dramas and 'The Mule' looks to continue that success on. I say, some people have the talent. 

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