When Clint Eastwood starred in the 1971 Don Siegel drama The Beguiled,<\/i> it was in the hopes of pushing his image beyond the spaghetti Western antihero or misplaced musical star (yes, we remember Paint Your Wagon<\/i>). The Beguiled<\/i> gave Eastwood the opportunity to play a romantic lead, and much of the 90-minute runtime has Eastwood playing Eastwood acting like a wounded soldier whom every lady loses her mind over. Sofia Coppola\u2019s new remake seeks to reshape the film and remove the Eastwood persona, turning the dashing Union soldier into a frightening and all-too-real representative of our times.<\/span><\/p>\n Coppola\u2019s version of The Beguiled<\/i> follows the basic outline of the original. John McBurney is a wounded Union soldier taken in by the ladies of Miss Martha Farnsworth\u2019s (Nicole Kidman) finishing school. As McBurney recuperates, he becomes a source of fascination and lust for the women in different ways, leading to a volatile confrontation. <\/span><\/p>\n The distinction between Coppola\u2019s and Siegel\u2019s versions lies with agency and what the shifts in control and power mean for the characters. The overall takeaway from Siegel\u2019s film is that ladies are thirsty for Clint Eastwood and are ultimately driven mad by his unrestrained sexiness. Eastwood\u2019s smooth talk works on each of the women he meets, and he faces little to no resistance from them. They\u2019re all enchanted by his good looks, and when the tables turn it\u2019s the result of feminine jealousy and revenge. The females\u2019 power for Siegel lies in their penchant for vengeance, yet the control remains firmly male. It isn\u2019t that the women are dominant; they\u2019ve been seduced and are the ultimate women scorned.<\/span><\/p>\n Coppola\u2019s rendition creates a genuine fluctuation in dominance between McBurney (here played by Colin Farrell) and the women of Miss Martha\u2019s. The women are in control of McBurney\u2019s fate from the moment they discover him, threatening to turn him over to the Confederates at any minute. It\u2019s only through their feigned \u201cgood Christian charity\u201d that they decide to let him stay, predominantly because the women have seen no one else for years. <\/span><\/p>\n McBurney\u2019s arrival doesn\u2019t precipitate the threat of sexual violence, though it opens the door for exploring it. Miss Martha hides the girls so that any soldiers who pass by \u201cavoid temptation,\u201d though her maternal protection of the girls from McBurney in the third act show this to be a false front meant to keep the girls in line. McBurney is put in the liminal position of being an invader and possible restorative to the young girls\u2019 views of men. They call McBurney \u201cdangerous,\u201d a \u201cblue-belly\u201d who\u2019s part of a cabal that \u201crape every woman they see.\u201d Their trepidation is mixed with attraction, specifically to his newness. They fear men in general, but ensconced in the safety of the school they are allowed to look, and subsequently desire, McBurney of their own free will. <\/span><\/p>\n For McBurney, Ms. Martha\u2019s school is a new land of opportunity. He reveals to her that he\u2019s an immigrant who took someone\u2019s place in the war for money. Were he to be sent off with the Confederates he\u2019d be killed. If he returned to his own regiment, he\u2019d most likely be labeled a deserter. He has no home or means of money. His only chance is to manipulate each woman, in the hopes someone will either allow him to stay (Ms. Martha), marry him (Ms. Edwina), or just find him good company (the girls). McBurney puts on a different affectation for each woman, in the hopes of selling himself as what they want. He becomes a playmate and father figure to Amy (Oona Laurence), all \u201cdarlin\u2019s\u201d and \u201cm\u2019lady\u2019s\u201d; to Edwina he is a hero ripped from a romance novel. McBurney wrests control of the school by playing up his nice, useful and, ultimately, desirable traits. <\/span><\/p>\n Where Eastwood was the attractive and cocky male driven to destruction by an all-consuming female sexuality, Coppola\u2019s McBurney falls into the category of \u201cNice Guy.\u201d A \u201cnice guy\u201d is a term used to describe a male who comes off as sensitive, vulnerable and otherwise appealing to women in order to secure control in some way, whether sexual or physical. The young women buy into McBurney\u2019s act; Edwina, at one point, points out that he\u2019s a \u201csensitive person.\u201d Yet his attempts to act as an institutional aggressor are easily identifiable. When he compliments Edwina it\u2019s from an area of dominance, telling her \u201cyou don\u2019t know how beautiful you are.\u201d He isn\u2019t as syrupy to Ms. Martha, coming at her from a place of equal respect, but emphasizing her strength and need for a male companion by bringing up the fact she has no lover. As he makes himself useful around the school \u2014 tending the garden, itself filled with double entendre \u2014 McBurney makes a point of smiling to himself, proud that he\u2019s gotten one over on everyone. <\/span><\/p>\n The problem starts when he goes too far in his attempts to dominate. (Spoilers follow.)<\/i> He finally consummates his newfound status in the house with one of the girls, which ends up putting him in a situation where he loses a limb. An attempt to save his life is perceived by McBurney as a castration. Just as the wandering Confederate soldiers tell Ms. Martha \u201cthere\u2019s nothing more startling than a woman with a gun,\u201d the audience sees there\u2019s nothing more frightening to a man than losing his manhood to a woman. McBurney loses his control, and his manhood, manifesting his domination into full-bore aggression. He becomes physically abusive, wields a weapon, and threatens to shoot any of the ladies who try to stop him. This, in spite of his protestations that \u201cI\u2019m not a bad fella.\u201d To McBurney, he just wants to be \u201cwelcome\u201d to interact with the women on his term<\/i>s, stay in the school on his terms<\/i>, and dominate them in a method that best suits him<\/i>. When he loses that ability, his nice guy veneer is exposed for the facade it is. He feels he is owed their gratitude for being a nice guy. In his mind the women have driven him to this point and, thus, it is their fault. <\/span><\/p>\n McBurney tells Amy he looks birds and \u201canything that is free,\u201d but he sees this strictly in terms of his own freedom. By permanently removing McBurney from their lives and further isolating themselves, the women are able to reestablish and retain their control. As with many of Sofia Coppola\u2019s films, women can only live freely by removing themselves from a society shaped and dictated by men. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n