In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Monday 25 June 2018

The Beguiled (1971)

Wounded in battle, Yankee Corporal John McBurney (Clint Eastwood) is taken to a Confederate girls' school in Mississippi to recuperate during the American Civil War. Headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page) plans to turn him over to the Confederate army once he's well enough, but McBurney has other ideas. Luckily for him, many of the female residents are more than happy to have a male visitor to turn their various attentions towards.
The disingenuous McBurney makes for interesting viewing from a storytelling point of view, but I don't feel that the necessary balancing and blurring of sympathy and disdain that the script was aiming for was as good as it could've been. Conversely, the more clear cut clash of experience and innocence of the headmistress and schoolteacher (Elizabeth Hartman) characters was for me a highlight, shouldering the film's strengths more effectively.

3 unlocked doors out of 5

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