Review of Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) by Stuart K — 10 Mar 2013

Directed by Don Siegel (Coogan's Bluff (1968), The Beguiled (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971)) and written by blacklisted writer Albert Maltz, this was a light-hearted but incredibly well made western which had a good pairing in the lead, and a killer score by Ennio Morricone.

While it's not perfect compared to Siegel's other films, it's a film that grows on you over time and it does have some good moments. Set in Mexico during the early 1860's, during the French intervention in Mexico, American drifter Hogan (Clint Eastwood) comes across a group of Mexican bandits about to rape nun Sara (Shirley MacLaine), but he puts a stop to all that.

Sara is in Mexico working with the Mexican revolutionaries who are fighting the French, and Sara proves to be a match for the tough Hogan, who watches in amazement as she drinks his whisky and smokes his cigars, and she proves to be helpful when he's struck by an arrow, and she helps him bring down a French ammunition train, but he's able to get her to the revolutionary camp, led by Col.

Beltrán (Manuel Fábregas) where they're preparing for a battle with the French. It's a very good film, but at the time, it split critics and audiences down the middle, even Universal didn't know what to do with it, and delayed it's release by 6 months.

But, Eastwood and MacLaine have good chemistry and it's heavy going in places, but Morricone's score is a killer.