Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!!
Review: I just watched this and can't recommend it highly enough. Eastwood is very good in a subdued role, and the film crackles with gothic suspense bordering on horror. The atmosphere is perfect and the cast is top-notch. If you're looking to see Eastwood in a role far and away from Leone or Josey Wales, this is the film to see as it's easily one of his best. Interestingly, this was directed by Don Siegel, the director of Coogan's Bluff and Dirty Harry....a decided departure for him as well. All in all, this is a surprisingly strong film and will stick with you.As for the dvd, the extras are slim, but the transfer is nice and it is anamorphic. This would probably be a hard one to rent, so buy it already!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Wickedly Funny
Review: I was never really a fan of Clint Eastwood's films but I really liked this one.Its athmospheric and creepy (including that song!) with great performances by all.There are lot's of funny scenes (Clint expalining his ethics and "respect for land"),That little girl saying "why dont we just hang him?",and the girls stitching something at the end of the movie as if theyre in a knitting class.
You wouldnt really root for anybody in this movie.This movie will make you chuckle,this movie will shock you even by today's standard.A little known movie yet highly recommended.Specially if you want something different.
Rating:
Summary: Geraldine Page runs a School for Girls
Review: If you've gotten a chance to see Don Siegel's films then you know enough to expect some violent rock'em sock'em action. The new DVD of THE KILLERS illustrates that, with even Ronald Reagan grim and nasty as all get out. In THE BEGUILED, Siegel takes on a kind of George Cukor subject, a girls academy during the period of the American expansion of the Civil War, run by Geraldine Page, the Broadway actress who had a brief run of major Hollywood parts perhaps ten years prior to this film. The BEGUILED was a kind of comeback for her, although of course her fans don't ordinarily see it that way, preferring to think that she remained big while the pictures grew small, which in a way of course is very true. She's dynamite in her scenes with Clint Eastwood, with whom she shares a rebellious spark of iconoclasm. If you've seen her tearing up the screen in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH with Paul Newman, you'll recognize the way she can command the screen and make tough men cry.
In later years this film was unofficially re-made, with James Caan and Kathy Bates in MISERY. MISERY, directed by Rob Reiner, was a kind of homage to the central storyline of THE BEGUILED, with Clint as a kind of prisoner to a crazy woman, and oh, what happens to their legs in both films is shocking even by today's standards.
Some people actually prefer MISERY but for me, I would like to see THE BEGUILED rather than MISERY because the older film also has Elizabeth Hartman in a smallish part, and she's always worth a trip to Netflix or whatever. And Pamelyn Ferdin, the little girl from WHAT's THE MATTER WITH HELEN and THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, is adorable and spooky as the girl who saves Clint Eastwood at first, only to lead him to Page's door.
Rating:
Summary: Don delivers another caustic comedy with a few moral lessons
Review: Interesting and unusual, if not unsettling, this is a fine comedy in a fine setting (the South) that shows that everything has a price and a finality. The hero-protagonist (a wounded, recovering Confederate soldier), finds himself as the only male in a purely female environment, and is almost compelled (by desire, by necessity?) to use his charm in order to survive in a (politically/sexually?) rather hostile/agressive environment (a house in the deep South inhabited solely by women, in the midst of the Secession War). By doing such, he somehow tries to use behaviour (seduction) and tactics (outright lies) that are usually the apanage and panacee of females, and gets thereby rather badly burned, as it finally turns out. For this kind of a game, it appears, the female is far better equipped than the male (no real king bees, just queen bees? well, maybe...) Well, you are left pondering, what chance does a single good-looking female in a purely male environment have? Every single one, probably. And what does a single good-looking male in a purely female environment have? In the end result, not a single one, it appears. As it often turns out, at least in this vitriolic comedy of seduction, females tend to act and react in an almost concerted instinctive behaviour, bound by either common desires or common interests, in an almost lemming-like fashion. In the end, if not outright misogynistic, this movie makes you wonder whether males and females belong to the same biological specie. Mind tickling and interesting, I'd recommend this intelligent movie to anyone who likes Eastwood as an actor, but is not the kind of guy to feed exclusively on Spaghettis dished out with ample Tomato Sauce servings.
Rating: 
Summary: Ghastly
Review: Once you start this movie, you can't stop--not because it's so good, but because it's so bad that you have to know what ludicrous thing will happen next. I don't know many people who have seen this movie, but those who have react to its title by recoiling in horror and shrieking. No exaggeration. The story is ridiculous, the characters are all overwrought and poorly portrayed, and the finale is laughable.
Rating:
Summary: Most Fascinating
Review: One of Clint's most interesting works....A story observed during the Civil War, but delving into other things besides bloodshed. A supreme pyschological thriller!
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps Eastwood's Best Work
Review: The Beguiled can be catalogued with other quirky tales wrought by the likes of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner. Behind the South's veil of honor lurks secrecy and seething sexuality. While Williams and Faulkner might be considered more interested in the personal, The Beguiled weds that emphasis with a social context and its impingement upon the inhabitants of a southern boarding school for girls. Set in the rapidly declining Antebellum South, the film makes good use of history and its parallels with the motivations of its characters. Union soldiers press forward into undiscovered territory, intruding and ultimately violating an insular world of social convention and interior reality. Indeed, Eastwood eventually ingratiates himself upon the inhabitants of the girls school, whose residents are entertained and eventually repulsed by his sexual advances. The Southern sense of honor is violated as Eastwood beds down with one of the girls and penetrates the cloistered world of manners, meaning and sexual tension. Capturing the spoils of war is, however, complicated by the personal life of the headmistress. As the Blue and Grey might have once been considered brothers in arms but are now enemies, the sacred trust between kin was also apparerently violated by the headmistress and her brother, a role Eastwood unwittingly comes to play. Unlike the outcome seen in the Civil War, Eastwood's advances are cut off as he pays the price in a scene with strong Freudian undertones. Wounded but not forgotten, Eastwood is the lingering reminder of lost honor and innocence. The school's inhabitants try to rewrite the past, and so return to childhood's lost idyll, but in blending play with brutality they become murderers, proving one can never truly return home. An inverse of the characterization seen in Eastwood's "man with no name" series, The Beguiled captures a scenic and personal depth until then not seen in films of The South. Here the plot is less obtuse and Eastwood's motivations more explicit than in his work with Sergio Leone -- where silence speaks volumes -- or in his own film, High Plains Drifter, which nonetheless opened Eastwood's character up through flashbacks.
Rating:
Summary: Where has this movie been hiding?
Review: The Beguiled caught me off guard. We rented it knowing only that it took place during the Civil War, it was made during Eastwood's peak years, and that he had sideburns that looked out of place but really cool. I expected an okay movie that would be The Man With No Name kicks butt in the Civil War, but instead I was completely amazed. I'm glad I went into it knowing little about it, because I just got more and more impressed and into the movie as it went on. Eastwood plays a 'Yank' officer, Corporal John McBurney (or "Mac") who is wounded and taken in by some sort of boarding school for girls in a remote country location. The school is actually a Southern mansion that reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland from the outside. The residents are all female and include a headmistress with a pretty sick secret in her past, a black 'servant' who turns out to be nobody's slave, and several teenage girls. Also, since all the men have been off at war for awhile, they are all pretty sexually frustrated. To keep them from turning him over to the south, where he will almost certainly die of his wounds in a miserable jail, Eastwood's character tries to charms all of them. With some of them, he knows how to play their weak points against them. This unfortunately works a little bit too well, because at least 3 of the women end up having the hots for him so bad that they end up in various stages of fooling around with him. Mac gets WAY more than he bargained for, with more tragic, ugly, and terrible results than you could imagine. Anyone who sleeps with 3 women living in the same city let alone the same house should know that if you are fooling around with 3 women living under the same roof, sooner or later they're going to compare stories, and the whole thing will end up with several women very, very mad at you. Anyway, I knew that at some point he'd get caught with his pants down, and someone would probably get violent at some point, but the way it happens, the timing of it, and the results were all completely unpredictable and stunning. I don't want to say more about the plot too much other than to set it up, because the best moments for me came when a character said or did the last thing I expected them to -either that, or something that I thought might happen did, but with the last character I expected to do it being involved. Eastwood does do his tough guy thing, but there's way more sexuality, not all of it pleasant, thrown in than usual, and his character is definitely more than 'The Man With No Name'. And boy, if you thought his other movies had some tough, cold-blooded characters in them...you ain't seen nothing yet. It was only till hours a after I saw the movie that I realized the category it fell into was Southern Gothic...probably one of the best and most powerful I've ever seen. I think this is the only CE movie that made my husband laugh, comment on how cool Eastwood looked and acted, gasp in shock,and cringe to the point of actually covering his eyes all at once in one viewing. I had the same reaction.I'm dying to comment more on the plot developments, the characters, and the moments that blew me away the most, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone, because this is a movie best viewed for maximum effect when you know less about those things. The Beguiled was way ahead of its time , especially when it comes to strong women, or black female characters that are even stronger.It also probably didn't do as well because the audience was used to seeing Eastwood play a hero (and definitely not used to seeing him as an invalid in one way or another for so much of the movie) and also because audiences wanted a Hollywood ending. I think women who don't especially care for CE films in general would probably find themselves enjoying this one. There are several shocking things that happen, and enough sex and violence to definitely make it R-rated- this is NOT a movie for kids or the faint of heart. The acting, the story, and the dialogue are all so amazing and original, and it's intense, suspenseful, and brilliant. I highly recommend this lesser known, underrated gem. And yes, definitely get it on DVD or video because if it runs on anything other than cable, I'm sure that many scenes that are important to the plot and have great impact to the characters would probably be snipped. You'll just have to see it for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Bayou Brothel
Review: THE BEGUILED is a Clint Eastwood film you seldom hear about, and it really isn't worth seeing. It involves Eastwood playing an injured Union soldier who is wounded in the south and taken up by an all-girls boaring school. Instead of turning him over to the Confedrates, they decide to nurse him to health, andf the result is all the women literally fightin over him. Directed by the late, great Don Siegel, THE BEGUILED is a type of movie I have never seen before. It involves Eastwood being the victim and the antagonist at the same time. Having mutiple affairs in the boarding school eventually leads to intense conflicts which results in the women plotting to kill him. The sad ending coupled with the bizarre plot are the reasons why this is not of Eastwood's better films. He does give a good performance as John McBurney, and the agony he suffers after his leg is amputated will really shake Eastwood fans.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey Into The Darkness of The Human Soul
Review: The Beguiled is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen,contributing to my early love of cinema,and sadly remaining underrated to this day.
While it is hard to pigeonhole the film into one specific genre, be it a thriller or a psychological drama,it is one of the very few films that without the use of blood and gore,manages to be very disturbing and violent.A raw and primitive violence that is directed more at the viewer's mind and psyche.
Don Siegel is one of the best American directors,who like Sam Peckinpah,understood the meaning of this violence and did not shy away from showing it without tantalizing the 'voyeur' in his audience.
His collaboration with Clint Eastwood is one of the most successful in cinema..(Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Escape from Alcatraz, Two Mules for Sister Sarah)..And with the Beguiled he managed to direct an original film that had the best performances his star had to date,(a transitional role in Eastwood's career, in between the westerns of Leone, and the toughness of Harry Calahan.)
The whole mood of the film has this creepy and sinsiter atmosphere that appears quite subtle on the surface,yet as your delve deeper,it slowly unleashes much darker and well hidden forces.
It is the story of a wounded Yanky soldier(Clint Eastwood)evading capture in the south during the civil war,finds refuge in an all girl boarding school.The headmistress (the geart Geraldine Page)takes him in and provides him with a sanctuary and care that befits her Christian duties and sensibilities.Yet this stranger awakens many feelings in the house: curiosity,jealousy,sexual fantasies, up to the will and determination to murder.
The increased confidence of the recuperating soldier in manipulating the sexual vulnerablity of these girls and their headmistress,goes hand in hand with the change that occur within them,from gentle and virtuous to cold and calculating.
I liked the fact that the contrast between the raging war outside and the serene and peaceful sanctuary inside turns to be only an illusion.
I liked too the fact that despite the rift that the soldier caused directly and indirectly among the girls,they at the end link their fates and bond together,like they carefully did in the face of war, even if this means getting rid of the 'disturbance' that turned their world upside down.
I also loved the fact that ultimately the message of the film is about what a person is capable of doing in certain circumstances, and how a ideal world can hide many deep hidden frustrations that,pushing the right buttons, can be as menacing and deadly as any war.
What is quite interesting too, is how a deeply religious environment and person, can also hide strong sexual desires and energy that are truly haunting.One particularily powerful scene, among many, is the sexual threesome dream that Page has,an unrestrained and perverse passion mixed with religious guilt: an explosive mixture.
The Beguiled reflects a time when directors had the artistic freedom and clout to make the film they wanted.The original script had a happy ending, but Siegel opted to change it to its darker conclusion, something very few studios would allow these days.
The Beguiled is a powerful movie that on no accounts should be missed.A journey into the darkest recesses of the human soul that you will not easily forget.
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