Bewitched, Bothered and Beguiled

Now that Sophia Coppola is doing a remake, we figured we should watch The Beguiled (1971), Don Siegel's Civil War Gothic, starring Clint Eastwood.

A little girl picking mushrooms in the woods comes across a wounded Union soldier (Clint Eastwood) during the Civil War. To keep her quiet while the Confederates ride by, he kisses her, although she is only 12. That's the kind of heel he is.

She takes him back to the Southern girls' school she is attending. It is lead by headmistress Geraldine Page and her top teacher Elizabeth Hartman, and full of impressionable young girls and a more hard-headed slave, Mae Mercer. All are staunch Confederates, but if they turn him over to the patrols with his wounded leg, he will die in Andersonville. So they keep him quiet and try to heal him. Also, it's nice to have a man around the house. And he tells such pretty lies.

The movie is mainly a quiet psychological drama, as Eastwood first tries to stay alive and free, then tries to seduce one or all of the girls and teachers (and the slave, who isn't too impressed by this soldier theoretically fighting to free her). He is a master manipulator, the women are weak or strong, but all naive. Who will win, who will survive?

In fact, "drama" undersells it - this is almost a horror movie. So, "Gothic". Eastwood is very good in his role. It's not quite against type, since he's always a kind of anti-hero, but he is quite hateful. Geraldine Page is very good in an understated way - I almost feel that we expect excellence from her, so we don't quite appreciate it as much. All the girls are good, which isn't maybe what you'd expect from he-man Don Siegel.

Best role goes to the turtle of course. I wonder if he did his own stunts.