Clint Eastwood once again directs and stars, delivering The Mule, a drama inspired by the true story of Leo Sharp, a veteran who became a drug mule for the Sinaloa cartel. Released in France on January 23, 2019, the film will air on television on France 3 on Monday, November 17, 2025 at 9:10 p.m. Eastwood portrays Earl Stone, a broke, lonely octogenarian who takes on a “little driving job” without realizing he’s working for a Mexican cartel. By his side, Bradley Cooper plays the DEA agent hot on his trail, joined by Laurence Fishburne.
Over 80, Earl has little money left, not much of a family anymore, and his horticulture business is falling apart. When he's offered the chance to move parcels from point A to point B, he takes it. He quickly proves to be an incredibly efficient mule, discreet, never flagged. The shipments grow, as does the cartel's scrutiny. Meanwhile, the DEA, led by Colin Bates, tightens the noose. The old man finds himself caught between the criminals he serves and the authorities who are closing in.
The Mule revisits several motifs dear to Clint Eastwood: old age, work, a family neglected, and the time running out to make amends. Nick Schenk's screenplay (already behind Gran Torino) starts with a New York Times article about Leo Sharp and turns it into the portrait of an affable man, friendly to everyone except his own family. That duality drives the film: Earl is valued by the cartel for his reliability, but he is in fact a faltering father and husband who is trying one last time to redeem himself.
The project was shot by cinematographer Yves Bélanger, not Eastwood’s longtime collaborator Tom Stern. The staging leans into road scenes, motels, and family homes, following this aging character through a fringe-America landscape spanning Georgia, Illinois, and New Mexico. The film also highlights the unassuming, almost low-profile side of a very old-school smuggler, which in real life earned him the label of “the cartel’s best mule.”
The film also rests on the cat-and-mouse dynamic between Earl and the DEA agent played by Bradley Cooper. These reunions with Eastwood, after American Sniper, yield a few quiet, observational scenes, in keeping with the director's late-period cinema.
The Mule
Film | 2019
Scheduled on France 3 on November 17, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Biopic, Drama | Duration: 1h56
Directed by Clint Eastwood | Starring Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne
Original title: The Mule
Nationality: United States
A prime-time airing on France 3 will give viewers a chance to revisit one of Clint Eastwood's final major performances, in a film that blends a crime thriller, a family saga, and a meditation on end-of-life.
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