Earl can pay for his granddaughter’s wedding and show up at her graduation, but there is a bitter irony to all of this happening at his old age, and only through criminal work. The things he can do to finally make amends with his family will also tear him away from them. Clint Eastwood told USA Today that he could understand Earl’s predicaments, even if only from being an older man.
Like Earl, Eastwood has had a troubled personal life, as documented in Patrick McGilligan’s highly critical biography “Clint: The Life and Legend.” The vague autobiographical feeling in the movie, of an older man looking back at what he’s left in his life, is helped by Eastwood casting his real daughter to play his movie daughter.
New cartel leader Gustavo refuses to give Earl the grace and loose leash that Latón did, and is significantly more threatening, having his men drive Earl out to the woods to let him know, in no uncertain terms, the consequences of failure. “No uncertain stops,” one enforcer tells him, taking whatever joy and pleasure he might have gotten from the work away. Instead, he must follow the routes down to the letter. “Don’t be stupid.”
But Earl can’t help but be stupid, leaving a crucial job to visit his dying ex-wife Mary, ultimately choosing reuniting with his estranged family over the job. If not one of the greatest Clint Eastwood movie moments, it is one of the most touching.
He is finally arrested soon after, having angered the cartel and given the DEA ample room to catch him. In prison, having redeemed himself in the eyes of his family, he is given one final grace note: the chance to practice horticulture while locked up.