Eastwood Shakes up Oscar Race

By John H. Foote

Never count Clint out.

Ever.

The four-time Oscar-winning director-producer, now 88, plays the lead, directs and produces The Mule.

Warner Brothers dropped the trailer today and I must say it looks like vintage Eastwood.

The film tells the story of a senior citizen drug mule for a cartel, running drugs for the money, no more.

In 2004, Martin Scorsese and his Howard Hughes film The Aviator (2004) seemed headed for Oscar glory, finally, until Eastwood and Million Dollar Baby (2004) swept in at the last minute to grab the major awards.

Eastwood has never won an Oscar for Best Actor, though he was nominated for both Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). He should have been nominated for Gran Torino (2008) but was snubbed. The Academy loves this man, and if the film is as good as the studio obviously thinks it is, counts on him to be in the mix.

Eastwood has twice won for Best Director and Best Producer, for Unforgiven (1992) his masterful western, and Million Dollar Baby (2004) his haunting love story with a dark twist. Nominations for Best Director and Best Picture came for Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), and the Best Picture nomination for American Sniper (2014).

Yesterday Christian Bale altered the race for Best Actor, today it is Eastwood. See? Nobody knows anything at the end of the day.

Watch the trailer for The Mule below

John H. Foote

John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep  Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.

He remains cinema obsessed