the beguiled (1971)

the beguiled marked clint eastwood's third collaboration with dirty harry director don siegel, and its very much a departure for eastwood in several ways. the film is set during the american civil war, with eastwood an injured confederate soldier that seeks solitude within the confines of a union-leaning all girls school. whilst within the walls of the school the effects of a male presence are felt in many a different way by each of the girls. some despise him due to his political leanings, while others fall at his feet in adoration, thirsty for the company of a bona-fide man. the film carried the genuinely awful tagline of -

one man.... seven women.... in a strange house!

it was apparently in an attempt to break free from type-casting that eastwood took the beguiled on, and ultimately its an experiment that i feel falls disappointingly short of the usual level of quality that one associates with the work of both eastwood and siegel. not only is the deceitful character of eastwoods mcburney incredibly unlikeable (to the point of an insatiable level), but the entire film is dogged down by horrendous characteristics. the portrayal of sexuality is very disturbing, and also very confusingly portrayed. in this respect it reminded heavily of powell and pressburger's black narcissus, although the beguiled never reaches the nadir that the archer's work does. to be perfectly honest the manner in which the topic of incest is handled and explained is just completely strange. it makes very little sense, and bogs down what could be a good basic story in strange and seemingly unrelated subtext.

the beguiled feels heavily biblical in the nature in which it examines its subject. each of the women represent a specific attitude or theme of humanity, and the way in which they react to the character of mcburney is actually fairly interesting. the manner in which each of the girls react and are placed during the amputation scene is wonderfully recreated too, if not a little too late in proceedings to be salvage the film. the film ends with perhaps the strangest death that eastwood, or indeed any other actor has ever had to experience; death by mushrooms. its all very odd, and not in a positive manner. i cant help but feel that the beguiled would have worked much better with more of a focus on the horror side of things, with an escalating psychologically disturbing pace being the successful route forward.