The only film Clint Eastwood claims to have “failed” is a beloved psychological thriller

Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood has always been just as calculated as its personalities on the screen, lightening closely on the horizon of the industry to select the actor roles and the opportunities for realization. Slowly increasing in the 1960s thanks to its main Western roles in the television series Rawhide And Sergio Leone Dollar Trilogy, at the time of the decade, Eastwood already had a collection of classics in his bandolier.

The 1970s would be even more fruitful, making him a familiar name and a contemporary Hollywood icon thanks to classics such as the 1970s Kelly’s hero1971 Dirty harry And The Hors-La-Loi Josey Wales In 1976. The emblematic character on the screen of Eastwood – the Wanderer with rough and just – was born and Hollywood was seduced. But, as a perfectionist of his job, Eastwood was not satisfied with the entire career to date, despite such success, believing that he had “failed” his largely celebrated film from 1971 Attractive.

Clint Eastwood tried to play against his guy in “ The Beguiled ”

1971 was a founding year for Eastwood, with Attractive Be released in the same 12 months as its beginnings as a director, Play Misty for meand the film acclaimed Dirty harry This would arouse a beloved franchise. However, unlike its memorable beginnings and its action film, Attractive was a rather confused drama that was received with the lukewarm applause of the publicWith the intermediate box-office only selves it among the lower ranks in Eastwood’s filmography, even if the criticisms have made him a lot more praise.

A period drama set during the American civil war, Attractive is a psychological story of suspense who sees a soldier of the injured union, played by Eastwood, trying to win the affection of the students of a boarding school for Confederate girls while he recovers from his injuries. Based on the book of the same name by Thomas CullinanThe Southern Gothic film with key themes of sexuality and power, Eastwood reversing its image in the main role, playing a weak, vulnerable and emasculated individual.

Although the film, directed by Don SiegelWho would become a key collaborator from Eastwood, was the key to the early success of the actor, he does not look at him exactly. In an interview Movie how (via The mirror), Eastwood admitted, “The only photo in which I failed was Attractive… It was good for me personally, seriously welcomed, but it was very poor for the company that spent the money to produce it. »»

Continuing, he added: “Maybe that could not have succeeded because the hero failed … he tried to do everything through the back door. He was not such a bad person; He was just trying to exist. ”

“ The Beguiled ” was then redone by Sofia Coppola

Eastwood, who is used to playing the stoic hero of his own tales, could be congratulated for having played against his guy in the complex and manipulative role, and he certainly demonstrated to the public and criticism that he had much more range than we thought before, but it was far from a resounding artistic success. But, thanks to the famous source material of the film, to come the 21st century, it was considered ripe for a remake, with Sofia Coppola seize the opportunity.

“When I saw the film, it was so fascinating for me that these Macho – Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood filmmakers – would make a story in a girl’s school in the South,” said Coppola Film school rejects When he explains his reasoning for choosing the project. “It is a male point of view of a group of women that I thought” okay, I want to tell this story from the point of view of women. “”

Feeling as if she “had to give these women a voice”, Coppola overturned the script and changed the concentration of the male head ruse to female characters at the heart of history. The result is something that is more limited and atmosphericCentered on themes of female solidarity, even if the two films share a critical apathy.

In the annals, it can indeed be the remake of Coppola, with Kirsten Dunst And Nicole KidmanThis is better appreciated thanks to its poetic and sweet expression of southern exoticism, with the oblivion of Eastwood in the chaos of its cinematographic success in the 1970s. Although far from “failure” described by Eastwood, Attractive is not exactly Dirty harry Is it?