Cry Macho - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Cry Macho



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Clint Eastwood is a freaking legend, I just have to say that. The 91 year old actor/director is the American energizer bunny, acting in 72 movies and directing 40 of them as well. He’s been acting for 50 years (almost to the month) and he is one of the few actors that I watch EVERYTHING they’re in, whether I like it or not. The man has had some mishaps in his poster modern films compared to the spaghetti westerns and Dirty Harry movies that made him famous, but the gritty old man is still a fascinating man to watch on screen. His presence is simply massive, able to scowl and sear through your soul with just a look, and he’s made some of the most classic films of all times. That being said, not everything the man does is pure gold.

Cry Macho is taken from a novel of the same name, and what’s even more interesting is that Eastwood has been sitting on the script for the movie for almost as long as he’s been acting (the better part of half a century). I’m not sure about the mechanics of why he chose NOW to go back to that 50 year old script, but Eastwood decided that he had one more western left in his old bones, and wanted this one to be it. Cry Macho tells the story of aging and washed up rodeo trainer Mike Milo (Eastwood) who is approached by his old boss (Dwight Yoakum) with an impossible task. Go down to Mexico and find his 13 year old son Raphael (Eduardo Minett) from his alcoholic party mom. Mike is over the hill and not exactly the greatest man for the job, but he owes his old boss Howard a lot over the years as the man took care of the aging trainer after his wife and son passed. So off to Mexico Mike heads.

It’s not going to be easy, but because Mike is the cowboy that Raphael idolizes in his mind, it’s not long before the boy decides to go with Mike back up to Texas to meet his father. However, it’s not going to be easy. The boy’s mother doesn’t want to let her son go even though she hates and abuses him, and sends everything she’s got after the escaping cowboy and her son. Dodging through the desert, keeping away from the federales, and along the way even learning how to live again, the polar opposite men have to learn to make a way through it all.

Cry Macho is a solid premise of redemption and adventure like all Westerns. It has great actors, a decent script, but the slow paced drama has a hard time actually building up momentum and steam throughout the hour and 45 minute runt time. Eastwood gives it his all as the cowboy at the end of his life, and Eduardo Minett is great as Rafo, it’s just that the script doesn’t really give them a whole lot to work with. A lot of the plot points are pretty rote and basic, with the audience able to guess most of them along the way. The film has some genuinely touching moments, but it also follows the pattern of so many other well meaning westerns. The scene where Mike finds peace in the little hispanic town near the border really felt reminiscent of the better parts of No Man’s Land that I reviewed back in August.

The movie is good enough, but barely so, which is a disappointment considering how much I love most Clint Eastwood movies. The elements are there, but I feel Eastwood would have been better doing this one about 20 years ago. Maybe I’m jaded, but as great as the man is, he’s starting to fade in his later years and the creative spark is harder and harder to light up. Well done in places, well meaning, but not always satisfy, Cry Macho does a reasonable job of hearkening back to the old days of the classic western, and is still fun enough for a solid watch in my humble opinion.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for Language and thematic elements




Video:

Sadly due to supply chain issues that have been plaguing the industry lately, the 4K UHD copy of Cry Macho was not available to us (and every other reviewer) at this time from Warner, so we have to “made do” with the lowly Blu-ray format. It seems that studios have been less and less interested in making quality Blu-ray releases (kind of like how DVD encodes went down hill after Blu-ray came out), but Warner has continued to make strong looking 1080p discs nonetheless. The Blu-ray isn’t a wildly ambitious looking film, but it still is very stable and strong by all accounts. The image is given that honey and dust look that is familiar to western fans, with slightly blown out whites, and a distinctly sandy look to it. Colors are warm and slightly diffused, with good primary colors, but dimmed and muted ever so slightly. Facial details and textural clothing details are fantastic, showing every line and crease on Eastwood’s craggy old face. Not to mention some amazing shots of northern Mexico to marvel at. Some banding is present, as is the hazy look that the film utilizes, but other than that this is a very well done Blu-ray.









Audio:

Much like the video encode, the 5.1 DTS-HDMA track is very solid, but not a flashy or show affair. Strong vocals in the front of the room with a good sense of depth and spacial and directional shifts for the moderate action that the film employs. Much of the track is simple ambient noise as Raphael and Mike make their way across the Mexican countryside. There’s a few spicy moments when Raphael’s mother sends her goons after Mike and the boy, but other than that, this is a simple dramatic track with a nice score and well placed dialog. Very very good, with its only real limitation being the simplistic nature of the film’s pacing and style.











Extras:

• Back In The Saddle: The Making Of Cry Macho - Featurette
• Macho and The Mustangs - Featurette

Final Score: ​

Cry Macho is a passion project for the 91 year old living legend, but it seems to fall a bit flat in execution. The slow paced drama has all the earmarks of a classic cowboy tale from Eastwood’s past, but the aging director can’t seem to really hit an emotional resonance with the dialog and direction. There are moments of genuine sweetness and glimpses of the old Eastwood, but the film just never builds enough momentum to be fully impactful. Warner’s Blu-ray is very very nice, with great video and audio, but minimal extras and now DVD to make it a combo pack. As a huge fan of Eastwood I really wanted to like this more than I did, but the movie is still entertaining enough for those of us who really like the actor/director. Wroth a solid rental at the least.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam, Daviel V. Graulau, Amber Lynn Ashley, Fernanda Urrejola
Directed by: Cint Eastwood
Written by: N. Richard Nash, Nick Schenk
Aspect Ratio: 2.39.1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Parisian French, Brazilian Portuguese, Complex Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Cantonese
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 104 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Decembmer 7th, 2021

Recommendation: Decent Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. As an Eastwood fan, I will check it out. Granted, not all his movies are great but they are at least entertaining.