|
|
|
|
|
|
The Beguiled 
Actors : Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, Darleen Carr
Director : Don Siegel
Studio : Universal Studios
by Universal Studios
Release Date : 1998-07-22
Publisher : Universal Studios
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780783227931
UPC : 025192023828
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 38 reviews)
List Price : $9.99
Our Price : $4.09
|
|
| |
|
CREEPY CLASSIC! |
|
Why is this movie never mentioned when people talk about Clint Eastwood movies? This movie is brilliant. I saw this a few years ago. It came on really late one night and i could'nt believe how good it was. The women in this movie are so scary. Guys want be able to sleep next to there girlfriends after watching this. I want spoil it for you. This is a MUST SEE! |
| |
|
a delicious film that defies classification |
'the beguiled' defies classification. it's not a western, though it turns up on encore's western channel occasionally. it's best as a period southern gothic melodrama filled with many treasures and a few surprises and only one major disappiontment.
among its assets are stunning performances from its three leads. clint eastwood shows that he had the chops to create a character until he traded in for image with the 'dirty harry' films. in his hands, john mcburney is a silver-tongued trap of a man whose presence fires deep emotions in all of the women that come in contact with him.
geraldine page is at her steely best as headmistress martha farnsworth. farnsworth is the type of complex character that drives many a film nowadays. she is fleshly, yet presses all her desries and heartaches down until she becomes a seemingly cold and unfeeling woman. but as the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that she is capable of deep emotion. page doesn't miss a single opportunity to explore each layer of this difficult character.
she is equalled by the fantastic elizabeth hartman as the young assistant head edwina dabney. hartman was an actress out of her time. had she come along now, she would rival any of the young actresses that rack up critical accolades for showing vast amounts of flesh in a misguided attempt to reveal character. hartman, at turns, is delicate, strong, angry, volatile, tender and loving in a role that could be two dimensional.
in the supporting cast, which is largely female, mae mercer, darleen carr and pamelyn ferdin are standouts. mercer invests the role of servant hallie with strength and grit; carr provides some comic relief as the wary uber-southern belle doris and ferdin is simply the best child actress of the 1970s based on this one performance. everyone from the director to robert surtees to the screenwriter has gotten together to create a little girl that is sweet in her innocence, heartbreaking in her love for mcburney and finally chilling when given the chance to exact revenge for a very large infraction committed by the object of her adoration. and ferdin's work is so natural, unforced, and throughly played.
the cinematography is tops and the screenplay, which could have become hackneyed, is very much in control of the source material. it has to wrestle with different sounds and inflections, the ghost of some very aberrant behavior and a country at odds with itself in a time when it was very divided on so many issues.
the film falters only with the casting of jo ann harris as the seductive carol. she is a nubile blonde woman but she is somehow awkward in her teasing games, which affects her seduction of mcburney. |
| |
|
A EVIL CLINT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
The Beguiled is a very strange movie! No not David Lynch or Alejandro
Jodorowsky strange. I type strange for with the exception of
UNFORGIVEN I have never seen THE MAN play such a dark character,I mean
DARK! Drinking,wanting to perform RAPE??? CLINT what are you doing???
I think he was trying to show Hollywood and his fans there was more
to him than the lone cowboy or the hero detective with the big gun!
the Beguiled is a dark thriller with a SHOCKING ending! I really
love this movie and consider it ONE of his best(so does he in his
interviews)What I love so much is not just the directing,or story
but I love seeing the MAN in a EVIL role! So for you Bronco Billy
fans or Philoe Beddoe stay away!!! For those of you who want to see
Clint lick his lips and grin like the DEVIL while a girl reluctently
takes her clothes off. This is the movie for you! Clint has never been
more WICKED!!!! And has a VERY surprise ending!!!
Recommended!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOTE:Don't let the LAME cover of the DVD fool you! This is one SCARY
ride! CLINT! OH! CLINT! What the HELL happened! You got EVILLLLL!!!!! |
| |
|
Some what of a "B" movie but an interesting tale of greed |
|
Production/Editing is a little rough but what is interesting are all the subplots that never make it to the TV screen, such as; the incestuous relationship the head mistress of the Girls School had with her now deceased brother, or the fantasized threesome of the Mistress and senior teacher. It was worth the $$$, especially if you're an Eastwood fan. Plus having only seen it on TV before half the plot is edited out for TV so it's really a much different movie in its original form. |
| |
|
Bill Clinton as a Union Soldier? |
Tagline aside, this film stars Clint Eastwood, not Bill Clinton. He plays a Union soldier wounded in a battle with confederates. He is found by a young girl (apr. 12) who is a student at a southern girls' school run by a strict school mistress with very patriotic (Confederate) sympathies. Eastwood manages to persuade the girl (with a kiss) not to raise an alarm and notify the Confederate soldiers in the area. He further manages to charm the women at the school into helping to heal him and delaying reporting his presence to the authorities.
Eastwood manages this feat by telling each of the women and girls what he thinks they want to hear. He can appear pious, loving, patriotic, amorous or any other way that will appeal to whatever woman he comes into contact with ranging from the schoolmistress to the slave woman who helps out around the place. He manages to convince each of them that she is his primary interest. When things begin to go bad, they go very bad indeed and the women realize that they have created a monster. Their method for dealing with the monster is fairly monstrous itself.
This is an interesting drama that is usually hailed as one of Eastwood's better films but I would not classify it as such. It is worth viewing but is not one of my favorites.
|
| |
|
|
|
