The Mule (2018)

This doesn't seem to have been talked about much since it was brand new. If any aspect stands out, it's the fact that Clint Eastwood has made only one feature since, and that one bombed, whereas TM was reported halfway decent. I chose to watch it largely because it looked different from a bunch of my most recent viewings.

Earl (Eastwood), despite an illustrious ongoing career in horticulture, is hurting for money. At the advice of a "friend of a friend," he gets a shady job transporting bags he's advised not to open. I'm not sure how soon he realizes that his employer is a drug cartel, but he gets surprised at just how much they're entrusting to him. Elderly Anglos with no record even of parking violations make unlikely suspects, so he becomes an MVP, with a lot more comfort than certain other mules. But not everyone in the business is willing to accommodate an employee who doesn't follow strict rules, and one sass to the wrong guy could put him in a trunk. Meanwhile, two DEA agents (Bradley Cooper and Michael Peña) are closing in with help from a reluctant informant (Eugene Cordero), albeit too gradually for the patience of their supervisor (Laurence Fishburne).

In the Line of Fire (1993)

I had seen a few allusions to this picture, primarily back in the '90s. Perhaps it would prove no more of a classic than the same year's Cliffhanger. But it was one of the few titles on my Netflix list to grab me at the moment and not be too much like anything I'd seen lately. Besides, it was due to stop streaming soon.

Decades after not preventing the JFK assassination, Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is still in the Secret Service. He and junior Agent Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) investigate the apartment of a man (John Malkovich) who has reportedly shown signs of plotting a new presidential assassination. That man goes by multiple names but prefers "Booth" -- as he tells Horrigan in one of many hard-to-trace calls. Seems Booth is even more obsessed with Horrigan than with the commander in chief (Jim Curley), claiming a sort of kinship with an agent who got a raw deal but also taunting him for potential cowardice. As Horrigan struggles to find out who Booth is and when he'll strike, the chief of staff (Fred Thompson!) opposes the security measures Horrigan wants, because it's a bad look for the presidential campaign.

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Sometimes a movie sounds interesting based on negative reviews -- by virtue of highly contrary criticisms rather than extreme ones per se. In this case, some say it's too derivative, yet John Wayne refused to work with Clint Eastwood afterward because it's too far removed from traditional westerns. I was not aware of these opinions when I chose to watch; I just knew it was popular overall. In retrospect, neither opinion surprises me. It was an era for experimentation, after all.

The new frontier mining town of Lago is worried about what three outlaws who just finished serving time will do when they return. A mysterious sharpshooter (Eastwood) holds promise for dealing with them, but he acts uninterested in sticking around, until the local authorities agree to give him whatever he wants -- and coerce their neighbors to follow suit. His demands, including literally painting the town red, get increasingly outrageous, to the point that some citizens would rather take their chances without him. But even with his guidance, they're all clearly incompetent shots....

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Hmm, only three months since my last western and five since my last serious one. But this is a bit rarer: a serious western from the late '70s. Well, Clint Eastwood never was one for comedy.

After Union guerrillas under Captain Terrill (Bill McKinney) murder the wife and son of Missouri civilian Josey (Eastwood), he joins a Confederate bushwhacker gang. They become among the last postwar holdouts, until most of them pursue a promise of amnesty that turns out to be a lethal trap, care of Terrill. Josey, of course, is too badass to go down that easy, so a massive manhunt ensues.

Richard Jewell (2019)

When the key events of this story happened, I was 14 and still only so attentive to news sources. I took a little more interest in the story when it came up at the Newseum as an example of controversial reporting. Incidentally, my parents had noticed the problem pretty much right away.

The title character (Paul Walter Hauser) is the 1996 Atlanta Olympics security guard who reports a terrorist's bomb in time to reduce the carnage to two dead and 111 injured. This makes him a celebrity overnight, but the FBI has an obligation to investigate him as a suspect. After Agent Tom Shaw (a composite character played by Jon Hamm) injudiciously leaks this to Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the story spins out of control, making Jewell out to be more and more certain to have planted the bomb for fake heroism. Apparently in response, the FBI regards the prospect all too seriously.

Sully (2016)

I haven't seen many pieces of entertainment, in any medium, based directly on events that I heard about when they were news. In this case, it's hard for me to believe that the event happened nearly 11 years ago.

I speak of the "Miracle on the Hudson," in which long-time pilot Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) lands a damaged commercial plane on a river instead of heading for either of two nearby airports. Everyone survives, but that's not the end of Sully's troubles. He develops PTSD symptoms, he and wife Lorraine (Laura Linney) are not crazy about all the public attention, and the National Transportation Safety Board, while impressed at his landing skill, thinks he made a dangerously wrong decision and should not be allowed to fly again. Can he convince the Board that its analyses are incorrect?

Pale Rider (1985)

If anyone could and would make a serious western in the mid-'80s, it was Clint Eastwood. Indeed, PR made more money at the box office than any other '80s western, partly, I suppose, because Eastwood didn't direct any others that decade. Of course, this was no guarantee of high quality to me.

On the outskirts of a fictional California town named for Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart), who owns most of it, LaHood's not-so-coy hoods, led by his son Josh (Chris Penn), wreak havoc on the less successful gold miners, trying to drive them away. The LaHoods claim to own the land, but their actions bespeak an illegal desperation, and the only "lawmen" ever in the vicinity are mercenaries led by Marshal Stockburn (John Russell). Things start to look up for the prospectors when a man who never gives his name (you know who) comes out of nowhere and protects Hull (Michael Moriarty), one of the few brave enough to go into town anymore. Hull gives him room and board, tho semi-fiance Sarah (Carrie Snodgress) has misgivings -- until they see his clerical collar, whereafter everyone calls him "the Preacher." Nothing like a man of faith to inspire mass confidence in a cause, but how much can the miners depend on a wanderer?

A Perfect World (1993)

Heh, when I moved this up in my queue, I didn't know that the story would start on Halloween and end a few days later. That detail is too minor for a summary on Netflix or even Wikipedia. I just wanted something that wasn't horror, even if it is a bit of a thriller. And it's one of director Clint Eastwood's own faves.

In JFK-era Texas, Butch (Kevin Costner) and Terry (Keith Szarabajka) bust out of prison. Thanks to incautious if not unhinged behavior on Terry's part, they see fit to take a hostage, eight-year-old Phillip (T.J. Lowther). Their plan is to keep him until they drive to another state, quite some distance away. Red (Eastwood), a Texas Ranger, starts hunting for them, reluctantly bringing along criminologist Sally (Laura Dern) and FBI marksman Bobby (Bradley Whitford).

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

From the title, I got the impression that this story would concern air force pilots. Instead, there's only a little aviation in the beginning. It's just that the destination and main setting is an alpine fortress nicknamed the "Castle of Eagles" (which had been a working title) for its low accessibility. Regardless, a war flick with the director of Kelly's Heroes and the writer of Guns of Navarone seemed promising.

In World War II, seven commandos in the UK are assigned to parachute a few miles from the castle, enter it in disguise as German soldiers, and fetch an American prisoner before he can spill too much. Because of the international nature of the incident, one of them, Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood), is a U.S. Army Ranger. Only field leader Major John Smith (Richard Burton) knows all the details of the mission, including other agents already nearby. He also seems to have the best handle on just how dangerous it is....

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

The recent death of Robert James Waller prompted me to check out the one screen adaptation of his best-known novel. It's unlikely that I'd ever have seen it otherwise: While it has more fans than haters, people have likened it to popular movies I deemed both dull and depraved—a deadly combination. It wouldn't be the first popular Clint Eastwood-directed movie I disliked either. And Meryl Streep has the odd distinction of very few great films despite consistently great performances. Nevertheless, my curiosity got the better of me.

After the death of Francesca (Streep), her adult children, Carolyn (Annie Corley) and Michael (Victor Slezak), learn that her posthumous wish deviates from the assumed plan to bury her next to late husband Richard (Jim Haynie). They are equally shocked at her reason: She wants to join her paramour from 1965, Robert (Eastwood). Details pour forth in a letter to them, and we're treated mostly to flashbacks to four days when Richard was away, starting with Robert's outsider status in rural Iowa prompting Francesca to offer some hospitality. He's a National Geographic photographer, see, hoping to snapshot the titular bridges....

American Sniper (2014)

This is probably the most polarizing movie on my blog yet, if only for political reasons. Clint Eastwood has not endeared himself with the left wing lately, and some have bemoaned the implications of his latest runaway box office success. (I take it as a sign that few modern movies speak to conservatives at all, so they come out in droves for the outlier. That and they wanted to honor the recently deceased, a factor that played no small part in The Dark Knight's success.)

Personally, I was more concerned about Eastwood's record as a director. His films are consistently esteemed, but about a third of them almost make me wish I hadn't bothered to watch. They tend toward depressing themes and don't always offer enough to make up for that. But if I found Letters from Iwo Jima OK, how much worse would a biography of Chris Kyle be? My answer: not at all.