The underrated Clint Eastwood movie only the French understood: “It was a disaster”
In the summer of 1970, Clint Eastwood was the biggest star in Hollywood. He had shot to stardom with his role as ‘The Man with No Name’ in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy and was dominating the box office with three films that were playing in cinemas simultaneously: Paint Your Wagon, Two Mules for Sister Sarah, and Kelly’s Heroes. As far as Eastwood was concerned, however, things were going very badly indeed.
The actor had become so synonymous with being a wordlessly sexy western star that he felt boxed in. His roles were becoming redundant, and he could feel his autonomy slipping away. So he set out to find a script that would break him free of that ever-shrinking box, and what he found was The Beguiled.
Based on a novel by Thomas Cullinan, the story is set during the Civil War and stars Eastwood as John McBurney, a wounded Union soldier who is taken in by the students and teachers at a secluded girls’ boarding school in Mississippi. From the beginning, it’s clear that he is not to be trusted. He tells them he was a peaceful medic who only carried bandages into battle, only for the scene to cut to a flashback showing him killing indiscriminately. He sweet-talks and flatters his way into the women’s hearts, eventually seducing several of them into secret sexual entanglements that begin to tear the house apart. Ultimately, however, it’s McBurney who has the most to fear. As his indiscretions start to overtake his charm, the women turn on him with disastrous consequences.
The Beguiled subverted everything about Eastwood’s public image. McBurney uses his sex appeal as a tool of manipulation. Far from being silent and stoic, he talks his way into everything and puts his own desires above everyone else’s. He is full of sleaze, and if it weren’t for the constantly shifting dynamics between him and the women, he would be the undisputed villain of the story. Eastwood insisted that the script go through multiple rewrites to make his character sufficiently dark, and there was more than a hint of autobiography in the film. The actor’s relationships with women were notoriously prolific and contentious, and they lurk in the subtext of the movie.
The character is refreshingly unheroic, and the film stands the test of time as a complex, twisted gothic horror story about desire, humiliation, and faith. When the studio tried to market it, however, they made the worst possible choice. Instead of selling it as a darkly erotic departure for Hollywood’s biggest star, they cut together a trailer that made it look like another spaghetti western. It promptly bombed, taking in less than $1 million during its initial domestic release.
“It was a disaster at the box office,” the star said in a 1971 interview with Patrick McGilligan, adding, “Because they never sold it to the audience who would like that kind of film.”
The only place where the film was well received was France. When it was released there, it did so well critically that Pierre Rissient, the unofficial scout for the Cannes Film Festival, urged Eastwood and Universal to submit it to the competition. The studio declined.
The disastrous release of The Beguiled had one unexpected outcome. Furious with how the studio had bungled the marketing, Eastwood decided that he needed to have full control over his movies going forward. Following the death of his mentor and business partner Irving Leonard, he knew it was time to go it alone. He would produce, direct, and star in his next film, Play Misty for Me, and it set the template for the rest of his career.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Clint Eastwood Newsletter
All the latest stories about Clint Eastwood from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.