Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Mae Mercer. Dir. Don Siegel, Universal, 1971.
I want to strap Gov. Ron DeSantis into a theater seat with one of those Clockwork Orange devices and show him Don Siegel's 1971 Civil War-era melodrama, THE BEGUILED. Before it rolls, I want to whisper in his ear, "You're about to watch Clint Eastwood navigate a crisis premised entirely on gender, identity, gender roles & politics, the frightening power of repressed feminine sexuality, & good old lust, a movie so freighted with said saying "gay" will be the least of your issues, from now on."
I'm not sure what Siegel & Eastwood told producer Jennings Lang to get this picture greenlit, but the resulting pyschosexual thriller/meditation on sexual roles & mores, framed up as a southern gothic melodrama, cannot possibly have been close. Don Siegel helmed the original ode to '50s paranoia, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and the pro-cop DIRTY HARRY, so injecting his preoccupations into B-pictures came easy to him, but THE BEGUILED lets Siegel use the story & setup as window dressing for his obsessions with sex, sexuality, & its changing nature. It tanked, & few critics bothered to take note, but over the years fans & writers have realized the gravity of their mistake. That's good, but it's sad Siegel didn't live to see his most personal and most singular film get its due.
At the end of the Civil War, as Grant pours eastward from Natchez, Corporal John McBurney, a wounded Union soldier, finds sanctuary - or something - within the walls of Geraldine Page's Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Women, a second-tier charm school for young southern would-be belles, its headmistress now responsible for the girls until the war ends. Having attended an all-boys' school for two years, I can attest that even in our moments of unity, secure in our fellowship, we were also 1200 horny teenage boys - the rumor of a visiting girl could rip a day apart. That's young boys, but Siegel & original novel author Thomas Cullinan don't buy into any behavioral restraint as the result of being "good girls." Whatever facade each girl maintains, all harbor at least childish passions for McBurney, and neither propriety nor a Union uniform will hold those passions in check for long.
As for McBurney, he sees the advantages of his situation, the dangers, the possibilities, but not the power of his captors until too late. Determined to forestall turnover to CSA troops and to sit out the last of the war in comfort, McBurney must both see & cover all the angles. Like Gabriel Byrne in MILLER'S CROSSING, his understanding of humanity cannot leave room for any variable or odd end. He has to divide & conquor Miss Farnsworth & her #2 - and object of interest pre-McBurney - Miss Edwina (Hartman.)
[ ] Scarred by her father's infidelities, McBurney has to sell Edwina his monogomous devotion even as she catches him with 17 year-old Carol, the sexually compulsive student McBurney most desires. He has to leave a door open to his desire for the mature, possibly perverted passions of Miss Martha, even flatter pubescent Mary, the 12 year-old he kisses to make good her discovery of him at film's beginning. Playing his many hands just right, McBurney stands to eat well, love well, & live well in his harem-like sanctuary.
Hence, of course, the problem. THE BEGUILED is not a Coen Brothers film. It's not ROUNDERS, where Matt Damon wins through to own Teddy KGB. It's THE HUSTLER. THE CINCINNATI KID. Even ROCKY. It's the story of a man whose reach exceeds his grasp, a morality play about the way our words and lies always form the noose from which we dangle. It's about the idiocy of trusting your own success. It's not a movie about Clint spitting reflectively as he rides into the sunset.
It's a damn strange film, smart & provocative as it is. I've watched BRONCO BILLY many times, and the movies with the monkey. I've seen Clint make strange movies, but nothing remotely like THE BEGUILED. It's as bold, as thoughtful, and as good a film as he's done.
I can say more. I can excoriate Sofia Coppola's whitewashed remake, which subtracted slave woman Halle, played with quiet, amused ferocity by blues singer Mae Mercer in Siegel's original, a somewhat magic-negro role Mercer tears into like a good roast. I can wring my hands & say her decision, predicated on the idea that "the tweens I make films for don't need to be distracted by slavery" utterly silences any interesting post-feminist conversation she hoped to start.
I can mention Geraldine Page was nominated for Oscars eight times before winning for THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, unsurprisingly and wrongly passed over for Miss Farnsworth. Once more, I can celebrate Siegel's ability to infuse A-movie ideas into B-picture productions, creating provocative, thoughtful entertainments, movies which srirred both brain & groin.
But why? It's all just padding. The only way to truly evaluate & think about Siegel's film requires seeing it. Then seeing it again.
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