One would have to search pretty far and very wide to find a Clint Eastwood film quite as bizarre as 1971's The Beguiled, in which the laconic star plays a wounded Union soldier who finds sanctuary at an all-girls' boarding school in the Confederate South. Then again, the strangest thing about it may be the fact that he and director Don Siegel made it right before they unveiled one of the most iconic characters of the decade in Dirty Harry. By contrast, Yankee Col. John McBurney is downright cuddly -- or at least he tries to be in an effort to keep from getting turned over to the Rebels.
It all starts when a severely battered, burned and bruised Eastwood is found in the woods by 12-year-old innocent Pamelyn Ferdin, who helps him evade capture and leads him to Geraldine Page's self-contained "seminary for young ladies," which is the epicenter of repressed sexuality you would expect it to be. In addition to the tightly wound Page (who is revealed in fractured flashbacks to have had an incestuous relationship with her brother, now absent), there's also sole teacher Elizabeth Hartman (who claims she doesn't trust any man, but eventually she makes an exception), and 17-year-old troublemaker Jo Ann Harris (who's singled out for being a hussy early on and lives up to that billing). There's also Mae Mercer as a slave in Page's employ who's less than overjoyed by the presence of a blue belly in her house, much to Eastwood's puzzlement. Then again, there isn't much that happens in the course of the film that he does understand.
As befits the era in which it was made, there is little in The Beguiled that can be taken at face value. When Eastwood describes his war experiences to Page, painting himself in the rosiest light possible, the simultaneous flashbacks reveal that he's lying through his teeth. Furthermore, Siegel gives us access to the thoughts of the characters, which frequently contradict their actions. The kicker comes, though, when Eastwood belatedly finds out why you shouldn't play three ends against the middle -- especially if you're the middle. Also, hell hath no fury, et cetera, et cetera.
Source:
http://craigjclark.livejournal.com/630182.html