I admire those people who have been doing what they like all their lives, mainly because I find it difficult to do it. So when I saw the 88-year-old director Clint Eastwood (hereinafter referred to as East Wood) still filming, I was admired and felt a life force burning. In contrast, I really couldn’t live. Like a person.
▲ "Mule" Clint Eastwood
Dongmutou’s latest movie "The mule", the name seems unattractive at first glance. It belongs to the kind of film that is very artistic and wants to tell you the principles of life . It may still appear very silent and monotonous, with a high probability. It also scares many people away. Since its release, there have been relatively few films in theaters, but no matter what, this movie is worth watching.
"Mule" is certainly not an animal film, but specifically refers to people who transport illegal goods. It can also be subdivided according to the different items to be transported. For example, drug mules are used to transport drugs, and money mules are used to transport money.
▲ Stills of "Mule"
The "Mule" in the film is about a poisonous mule, that is, the male protagonist Earl Stone (starring East Wood). In addition to explaining his identity, there may be another meaning, a stubborn person .
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Earl Stone is an 80-something old man. Due to the development of the Internet, he was unemployed in his old age. He was not reconciled to the bleakness of his life. He occasionally became a poisonous mule. With his senior delivery ability, he embarked on another life. A "peak". Regrettably, Skynet was restored without leaking, and he was finally arrested.
It sounds incredible, a bit of a Breaking Bad feeling, but it does exist. The film is adapted from an article published by New York Times reporter Sam Dolnick in 2014 .
▲Clint Eastwood and Leo Sharp
The prototype of the true event is called Leo Sharp. He was born in 1924. He was a veteran of World War II and had no criminal record. He was very clean.
After Sharp retired from the military, he drove a small airline, and later went bankrupt and moved to all continents in the United States, such as Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, and Iowa.
▲Leo Sharp in 1945
But his favorite is gardening. He earned a lot of income by cultivating various new flowers from hybrid lilies, won many praises, and went to various places to give speeches and the like.
However, with the development of the Internet in the 1990s, he failed to follow the trend to develop his own business, which caused the business to deteriorate day by day, and finally closed down. This was undoubtedly a major blow to him, but he was able to get out of the predicament very quickly.
According to the introduction of a Mexican farm worker, he successfully came into contact with the "drug mule" business and obtained a very attractive income.
How much income do you get from being a poison mule? According to the police at the time, there was generally US$1,000 per kilogram. Sharp transported 104 kilograms at the time he was arrested, which means that he earned US$104,000. A monthly income of 100,000 U.S. dollars is not a small amount. For the average person, it is very attractive.
It’s not like he was caught in less than one year in the movie, but ten years after he did it. This old driver is really "dedicated". Because he transports a large amount each time and is very stable, people in the industry call him Tata, which means grandpa in slang.
▲Video recording when Sharp was arrested
However, the old driver also overturned the car. As the police sneaked into the group undercover, Sharp was arrested on October 21, 2011 during several months of wiretapping and groping. The driving recorder at the time just recorded the entire process of his arrest, and other gangs were also arrested one by one.
At first the lawyer defended him on the grounds of Alzheimer's disease, but was later refuted because he followed the drug lord to various waves in Hawaii during the period.
On October 8, 2013, Sharp pleaded guilty, but he did not explain his relationship with the drug lords, nor did he explain how he avoided various investigations. He said he was sad for what he had done, but that was already true. If he can leave the prison, he is willing to grow Hawaiian papaya to repay the $500,000 fine he owes because it is so sweet and delicious.
According to the laws and regulations at the time, Sharp’s violation of the law could have been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years, but because he pleaded guilty and his elderly relationship, the court finally decided to sentence him to three years in prison.
▲ Leo Sharp in his plantation in 2014
However, due to his poor health, he was released only a year later. In 2014, New York Times reporter Sam Dolnick spent several months interviewing him and publishing that article. In December 2016, Sharp died in Hawaii.
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That article was also noticed by Dongmutou at the time. He found Sam Dolnick and wanted to know more details and Sharp’s motives to make this story into a movie.
So, this movie can actually be said to be Dongmutou’s explanation of Sharp’s behavioral motives. Why do you have to do such things at your age?
▲Earlstone in "Mule"
In recent years, Dongmutou seems to like to make movies based on real events. Like the previous "Captain Sally" is a reasonable guess for the captain's behavior, although that movie also attracted a lot of controversy later. .
▲ "Captain Sally" Tom Hanks
In the film, the approach taken by Tomochi is relatively restrained. It does not over-exaggerate or beautify the role. Instead, he has a reasonable imagination of the role's behavior, which makes people calm down and feel the role .
▲ "Mule" Earl and two women
The role is not perfect, as he himself said, he is not a good husband, nor is he a good father. He likes to show his face and selectively ignores the feelings of his family. He treats others better than his family. He spends all his time on his own affairs. He knows he is transporting drugs but has not stopped in time. He has the southern United States. His prejudice and racial discrimination, he is still young (the 4-minute scene in the room was deleted).
▲A deleted fragment of "Mule"
Dong Muko is about the same age as this character, so it's perfect to direct and act by himself , and he's acting on his own , and he also added the stalks of the previous starring movie and some "autobiographical" colors.
▲Guns in the movies of Dongmu
Guns are almost always items that appear in Dongmutou's early movies. They are also found in "Mule". The most classic scenes, such as the drug lord who likes to shoot guns, were shot dead by his hand.
▲The "Mule" drug lord was killed
And when Dong Mu-mutou was threatened by a small transparent gun finger, he said that he was a soldier, and he was not afraid of it at all. The old man thought to himself, if I was young, you wouldn't be enough for me to fight.
▲Dongmutou when he was young
Dongmutou was indeed a veteran. He was drafted into the army during the Korean War in 1951 to work as a lifeguard. Unfortunately, he sat on a fuel-drained attack plane during the vacation and crashed with the pilot. Hai, the last two swam 5 kilometers before being rescued.
▲Eight children of Dongmutou
The daughter of the character in the film is also his real son and daughter, and it is said that he also recognized the illegitimate daughter during filming, and invited eight children born to multiple women to attend the Los Angeles premiere.
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Of course, what is more important is what he wants to express through this movie.
Dongmutou did not criticize this role, but more understanding. He attributed Sharp's motives to outside honor, a mule who lost his way.
▲The most miserable state of Dongmutou in "Mule"
What the movie "Mule" wants to say is very simple, that is, to pursue freedom, cherish family members, and enjoy time. Of course, there is also an indescribable so-called meaning of life.
I was also moved by the warmth at the end of the film. The place where my family is located is the whole world. Nothing is more important than family. Today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow is better than today.
▲The warmth scene of "Mule"
Perhaps life is a closed-loop road, and you are like a mule on the road, constantly going back and forth, repeating, but as long as you keep walking, every step is fresh and meaningful. Just like the starting point and ending point in the film cannot be changed, but the route can be constantly changing, even the same road is shot with different lenses.
▲ Dongmutou who has been on the road
Although everyone knows the truth, it seems to be different from what he says. After watching the movie, I came out of the movie theater and walked on the road. I felt that the time was so good, the sun was so good, everything was beautiful like flowers. I could feel that power, which was different from the motivational effort of chicken soup. Upward power.
It's been a long time since I saw a movie like this in a movie theater. It was as light as water but quenched my thirst.
■ reference test data:
"The New York Times" reported in 2014 the prototype character:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/magazine/the-sinaloa-cartels-90-year-old-drug-mule.html
■ To Look Back:
"Fast and Furious Special Action": Shuangsen's performance is not satisfactory, the car becomes a saving the planet
Zhou Xun’s movie took three years to release, but now it seems that it still hasn’t erupted in silence.
"Send Me to the Blue Clouds": Yao Chen is still acting as an independent woman, but this time she can only comfort herself
"Angry Birds": The anger is gone, but the desire to survive is quite strong
"The Silent Witness": I was disappointed, even with Zhang Jiahui, Ren Xianqi and Yang Zi, I couldn't stand it!
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