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54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where has this movie been hiding?, July 7, 2001
The Beguiled caught me off guard. We rented it knowing only that it took place during the Civil War, it was made during Eastwood's peak years, and that he had sideburns that looked out of place but really cool. I expected an okay movie that would be The Man With No Name kicks butt in the Civil War, but instead I was completely amazed. I'm glad I went into it knowing little about it, because I just got more and more impressed and into the movie as it went on.Eastwood plays a 'Yank' officer, Corporal John McBurney (or "Mac") who is wounded and taken in by some sort of boarding school for girls in a remote country location. The school is actually a Southern mansion that reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland from the outside. The residents are all female and include a headmistress with a pretty sick secret in her past, a black 'servant' who turns out to be nobody's slave, and several teenage girls. Also, since all the men have been off at war for awhile, they are all pretty sexually frustrated. To keep them from turning him over to the south, where he will almost certainly die of his wounds in a miserable jail, Eastwood's character tries to charms all of them. With some of them, he knows how to play their weak points against them. This unfortunately works a little bit too well, because at least 3 of the women end up having the hots for him so bad that they end up in various stages of fooling around with him. Mac gets WAY more than he bargained for, with more tragic, ugly, and terrible results than you could imagine. Anyone who sleeps with 3 women living in the same city let alone the same house should know that if you are fooling around with 3 women living under the same roof, sooner or later they're going to compare stories, and the whole thing will end up with several women very, very mad at you. Anyway, I knew that at some point he'd get caught with his pants down, and someone would probably get violent at some point, but the way it happens, the timing of it, and the results were all completely unpredictable and stunning. I don't want to say more about the plot too much other than to set it up, because the best moments for me came when a character said or did the last thing I expected them to -either that, or something that I thought might happen did, but with the last character I expected to do it being involved. Eastwood does do his tough guy thing, but there's way more sexuality, not all of it pleasant, thrown in than usual, and his character is definitely more than 'The Man With No Name'. And boy, if you thought his other movies had some tough, cold-blooded characters in them...you ain't seen nothing yet. It was only till hours a after I saw the movie that I realized the category it fell into was Southern Gothic...probably one of the best and most powerful I've ever seen. I think this is the only CE movie that made my husband laugh, comment on how cool Eastwood looked and acted, gasp in shock,and cringe to the point of actually covering his eyes all at once in one viewing. I had the same reaction.I'm dying to comment more on the plot developments, the characters, and the moments that blew me away the most, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone, because this is a movie best viewed for maximum effect when you know less about those things. The Beguiled was way ahead of its time , especially when it comes to strong women, or black female characters that are even stronger.It also probably didn't do as well because the audience was used to seeing Eastwood play a hero (and definitely not used to seeing him as an invalid in one way or another for so much of the movie) and also because audiences wanted a Hollywood ending. I think women who don't especially care for CE films in general would probably find themselves enjoying this one. There are several shocking things that happen, and enough sex and violence to definitely make it R-rated- this is NOT a movie for kids or the faint of heart. The acting, the story, and the dialogue are all so amazing and original, and it's intense, suspenseful, and brilliant. I highly recommend this lesser known, underrated gem. And yes, definitely get it on DVD or video because if it runs on anything other than cable, I'm sure that many scenes that are important to the plot and have great impact to the characters would probably be snipped. You'll just have to see it for yourself.
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DVD ~ Duke Everts
DVD ~ Clint Eastwood
DVD ~ Clint Eastwood
DVD ~ Clint Eastwood
DVD ~ Sondra Locke
