Based on a true American story. It tells the story of a veteran working as a gardener, Earl Stone, who stumbles on a job that only requires him to drive, but unbeknownst to Earl, he becomes a drug trafficker for a Mexican cartel , From the first trip to the twelfth trip, the rewards for transporting drugs solved a lot of problems for him, and finally brought him trouble. The film does not deliberately exaggerate the binary discussion of right and wrong, and its calm lens language narrates a criminal who bears hardships. Thoughts and perspectives on life.
The film shot starts with Hemerocallis and ends with Hemerocallis, forming a closed loop but the characters' moods are very different. The humorous line design makes the conventional linear narrative not boring. Director Dongmu's work is not just about one theme, it shows various elements and conflicts in life, the Internet, race, veterans' treatment issues, especially It's the sentence "You young people are holding mobile phones all day long. I really doubt that you can't even open a fruit jar without Google." Some directors have the feeling of admonishing juniors by using characters, and the two most obvious things in this film are Conflict is the conflict between family and career. This kind of down-to-earth element is often found in director Dongmu's later works, especially in a strong autobiographical nature, the most impressive of which is Earl's dialogue with his wife, "I really don't understand how you can. Spend so much time and energy on these flowers and plants" "I love them, each flower is unique" "your family is too". Is it wrong to love flowers and to realize your dreams? of course not. There is nothing wrong with protecting the family. It is rare to have both. Obviously, the protagonist Earl in "The Mule" did not do it, and it can be said that he did it very badly. In this regard, the attitude given by the film is not so much biased as one side. It's a reconciliation, where Earl detours from time to time to see old friends in transit, parks to enjoy a sandwich, and helps the family with the financial burden while getting paid to be complimented by friends.
Relying on crime to get paid has achieved its own purpose, and the film is not for this selection of black and white. The proper handling of characters in the gray area is the characteristic of Director Dongmu. From "Unforgivable" to "Perfect World", we can see this. The characteristic of describing controversial characters with a special entry point can also be seen in "The Bridge's Last Dreams" and "Captain Sully".
They all say: Veterans don't die, they just fade away. For Clint Eastwood, who's still on set at 90, it's probably; veterans don't die, they never wither.
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