" I can buy everything with money, but I can't buy time ." This is what Earl, the protagonist of The Mule, said to his relatives in court. For us, we have heard too many similar truths, but when this sentence is said from the mouth of Clint Eastwood, who plays Earl, it still makes people sigh.
The film "The Mule" is not about a mule in the animal world, but a nickname for a gray profession. The so-called "mule" refers to those who help drug dealers transport drugs. Most of them are innocent and use their own bodies or transportation. Tools help drug dealers move drugs from one place to another before taking a commission. The protagonist of the film, Earl, is such a drug mule, but unlike his peers, he is an old man in his late nineties.
When I watched this movie, my first impression was that it was a movie similar to Breaking Bad, but slowly I discovered that there is actually a big difference between the two. Although it was for money at the beginning, as the plot develops, we can feel that the driving force that drives Old Earl to be a drug mule again and again is not just money, but a feeling of freedom.
For a lot of the time, the movie feels like a road movie. Instead of seeing Old Earle in the tension between drug dealers, we see him in his pickup truck as he travels from state to state. Whether it's a bright sun or a cloudy sky, early morning or dusk, all we see is Old Earle "flying free" in his pickup, his windows always open, and the radio will always hear the last one. Songs of the century, the old man just blows the wind and sings. Sometimes he eats some jelly beans or hamburgers. When he is in the mood, he goes to meet old friends and eat his favorite pork sandwich, as if he was not transporting drugs at all. but a good mood.
But behind Old Earle's dashing style, he actually paid a considerable price, that is, family affection. Although Earl played by Clint Eastwood in the whole movie exudes personal charm, he still cannot hide that he is a "jerk". For his own vanity, he divorced his wife of ten years, and Missed all the important days in my daughter's life, from her birth and baptism to her wedding. But fortunately, the old Earl's prodigal son turned back, and when he was approaching his old age, he finally realized that what supports his existence in this world is actually the family that he has always abandoned, so he will start his own "drug mule" career .
From the trepidation when he was a mule for the first time, to being handy later, Earl made more and more money. While satisfying his own desires, he also hoped to use money to buy back the mistakes he made when he was young, buy back his quilt The family that he abandoned, but things did not go as he wished. Although he became richer and richer, his wife and daughter became more and more disgusted and alienated from him. Instead, it was the time he risked his death to stay by his wife's sick bed in exchange for it. the love of his family for him. We all know that money is very important in this world, but more important than money is time and family. Maybe we can't understand it, but the 90-year-old old man has experienced it with his long life.
" Don't repeat my mistakes, I put work more important than family, family is the most important, and career is also important, but compared with family, it can only be ranked second. I learned a lesson to understand this. "
" I think you should stop, these people don't care about you at all, you can wash your hands and find a job you really like... "
The above two sentences, one he said to the police, the other he said to the drug dealer, this old man who paid the price of his long life hopes to use his own lessons to admonish every young man he thinks is not bad, but if Without going through a long life course, who can hear and understand these truths?
In addition to the preciousness of family affection, the film "The Mule" also tells all audiences how powerless a person is in the face of changing times. Earl sneered at the Internet, but the Internet completely destroyed his career in a few years; he hated mobile phones, but everyone's life is inseparable from mobile phones, even he has to rely on mobile phones for work; he is a conservative A white veteran, but advises Lala riders, helps black people repair cars, and works for the Mexican drug syndicate.
You must know that the director and star of this film, Mr. Eastwood, is also a die-hard Republican in reality, so whether from the movie or in reality, this seems to reveal that Eastwood, who is in his 90s, has a kind of attitude towards the times. Powerless and confused.
An elderly man becomes the number one mule of a drug syndicate. This movie seems to show us a spectacle. After all, it is not easy for a ninety-year-old to walk, let alone help people smuggle drugs. But art always comes from reality. The old Earl in the film actually has a prototype in reality. His name is Leo Sharp. , who was 90 years old when he was arrested in 2011 while transporting $3 million worth of drugs across Michigan in a broken truck, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Everything is like a movie, even better than the movie. In the movie, Eastwood conveys his insights and myths about life to the world through Earl's drug mule, and why is Leo Sharp in reality? Being a drug mule all the time, I'm afraid the answer is only the wind blowing through his car window.
View more about The Mule reviews
