The Beguiled: 1971 Clint Eastwood film is a sweaty, southern hothouse
On paper, Don Siegel’s 1971 southern gothic melodrama The Beguiled appears the perfect candidate for a remake: a critical and commercial failure in its own time, its infamous reputation helped it linger in the margins of popular consciousness.Sofia Coppola would have thought as much when she directed her own take on Thomas P Cullinan’s source novel in 2017.While Coppola’s version is full of distinct beauty, Siegel’s original stands alone in its unyielding thorniness.That may have seemed like a career misstep for star Clint Eastwood upon its initial release but it now stands clearly as one of the most potent subversions of the masculine archetype he helped popularise.Eastwood plays John McBurney, an unscrupulous corporal fighting for the Union during the waning days of the American civil war.
Wounded in rural Mississippi, McBurney is found drenched in his own blood by 12-year-old Amy, out picking mushrooms despite the many potential dangers,She takes the wounded McBurney to the seminary where she boards,Soon, his presence both as an enemy soldier and a man throws the ecosystem of the Confederate-sympathising, all-women school into disarray,McBurney immediately sets to work, smooth-talking his way into the good graces of formidable headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page), naive schoolteacher Edwina (Elizabeth Hartman) and Hallie (Mae Mercer), the enslaved woman forced to do much of the physical labour around the school,Being boarded up inside the school’s music room with a grave injury to his leg does little to dissuade McBurney from imprinting his sexual presence upon both boarders and faculty any which way he can – through charm, manipulation and, ultimately, physical dominance.
It’s a setup that has only grown queasier over time,Eastwood commits to the lurid and the artful in equal measure; his McBurney is both brutish charm and self-serving facetiousness,The bolder McBurney’s lies and manipulations, the more relaxed and convincing he becomes, right up until the mask slips off to reveal raging entitlement underneath,It’s an all-time scumbag performance,Page too takes southern stereotypes and finds countless flecks of subtlety as the headmistress.
But the most stinging member of the ensemble is Mercer, whose portrayal of Hallie heightens the power dynamics at play within the school.McBurney is an anti-slavery Unionist; the camaraderie he initially offers Hallie, missing from her interactions with the other women, is ripped away when she doesn’t comply with his demands.Her character is excised in Coppola’s remake, robbing the material of a terrifyingly frank demonstration of the collision between power, race and gender.To capture these ever-shifting alliances, the camera careens, crawls, corkscrews and swoons, as lithe and pliant as the branches of the willow trees encircling the school.The boarding school – all muslin, white lace and straw hats set amid a forbidding natural landscape – plays like a demented inverse of Picnic At Hanging Rock.
In candlelight and shadow, these images feel like a waking nightmare.Siegel was no stranger to crafting films that condemned the things they seemed to embody.His earlier sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a political Rorschach test of the McCarthy era – the titular body snatchers construed either as communists or their McCarthyist pursuers, depending on who you talked to.While on one hand The Beguiled seems to channel a genuine chauvinistic fear of the consequences of second-wave feminism’s sexual revolution, Siegel posits that men have good reason to fear: they are more than deserving of retribution.Revenge, here, isn’t best served cold – but rather hot, sweaty and southern.
The Beguiled is available to stream on Binge in Australia and available to rent in the UK and US.For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
Trump tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminium come into effect globally as Europe says it will retaliate – as it happened
Here is European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announcing the EU’s countermeasures this morning.As of this morning, the United States is applying a 25% tariff on imports of steel and aluminium. We deeply regret this measure.Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and worse for consumers
Donald Trump’s tariffs are disrupting markets around the world – here’s why it could be hurting your super
The Trump administration has imposed taxes on imports from a number of important trading partners, prompting fears of a global trade war.This is creating major disruption in global share markets, including in Australia, which is having a flow-on effect on superannuation balances.Why is this happening? And what can you do about it?The Trump administration has imposed taxes on imports from important trading partners.This includes new tariffs of 25% on all imported steel and aluminium, including against allies and major suppliers Canada and Mexico.The Trump administration rejected Australia’s plea for an exemption from the tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, which came into effect on Wednesday
Gone are the days when a ‘good job’ gets you a house – and now we have the data to prove it | Greg Jericho
A decade ago, the then treasurer, Joe Hockey, told Australians that if they wanted to buy a house, the first thing they should do is “get a good job that pays good money”. But new research from the Australia Institute shows that even a good job is no longer enough to afford to buy a home.The latest housing price figures out on Tuesday suggested that prices in Sydney and Melbourne over the past year have moderated, while in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth the boom times continue.If the graph does not display, click hereFor many, though, regardless of what the figures say, the idea of being able to afford a house is so far beyond reality that they might as well envisage buying a place in a neighbourhood of hobbits.Too often the difficulty is rendered in abstract terms, but the Australia Institute (where I am the chief economist) can now reveal just how cruel things are – and have been for many years
Top City watchdogs drop new diversity and inclusion rules for firms
The City’s top two regulators have said they will not bring in new diversity and inclusion rules for financial firms because they want to avoid imposing extra “regulatory burdens” and costs, in the latest sign of a retreat from efforts to help underrepresented groups.The Bank of England’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said they would instead support “voluntary industry initiatives” aimed at boosting diversity and inclusion in the financial sector.The announcement coincides with a rollback in the US of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that has accelerated under Donald Trump, and with a push by the UK government to reduce regulation to help stimulate economic growth.Sam Woods, a deputy governor at the Bank who leads the PRA, wrote in a letter to Meg Hillier, the chair of parliament’s Treasury committee, and the FCA’s chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, were choosing to “remain alert to the risks of groupthink” within its existing supervisory framework rather than asking companies to report what measures they were taking to improve representation of women and minorities in their organisations.The move comes after an inquiry into sexism and misogyny in the City, by the influential Treasury committee, which examined barriers faced by women in financial services, and looked into whether progress had been made on the gender pay gap, stigma against working mothers, and the sector’s “alpha male” culture
Her grandpa brewed beer in his cellar in Iran. Last month she canned 30,000 brews that taste like home
Zahra Tabatabai’s Back Home Beer features select Middle Eastern flavors, and she’s looking to expand its reach nationallyBusiness heats up for Zahra Tabatabai in March, the month of Nowruz, the 13-day Persian new year festival, which begins this year on 20 March. The Iranian American Brooklynite’s craft beers are infused with Middle Eastern flavors such as sumac and sour cherry, and packaged in design-forward cans featuring poetry in intricate Farsi lettering.Tabatabai’s grandfather used to make his own beer with ingredients from his garden in Shiraz, before the Iranian government instituted a ban on alcohol consumption in 1979. More recently, her grandmother longed to taste her husband’s beer again, so Tabatabai set out to satisfy her yen. During the Covid-19 pandemic, while working as a freelance writer and overseeing the home schooling of her son, who is now 11, she started looking at recipes and enrolled in a home-brewing class, and began watching YouTube videos about the art of making beer
Financial watchdog scraps plan to ‘name and shame’ UK firms under investigation
The UK’s financial watchdog has bowed to longstanding pressure and ditched a plan to frequently “name and shame” companies it is investigating.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has decided not to go ahead with applying a new public interest test for announcing investigations into regulated firms “given the lack of consensus” over the plans.The decision comes as the government puts pressure on regulators to help “rip out bureaucracy that blocks investment” as part of its growth agenda.Critics had pushed back against the FCA’s plan to be more transparent with the public and whistleblowers when investigating potential wrongdoing in the City.The FCA had already watered down the proposals, first announced early last year, after an outcry from businesses and criticism from the then-City minister, Tulip Siddiq
UK drops down list of affluent nations after decade of stagnation, NIESR finds
Poor results at Puma and Zara owner fuel fears of slowing US consumer demand
AI should replace some work of civil servants, Starmer to announce
Apple to appeal against UK government data demand at secret high court hearing
Warner joins London Spirit in men’s Hundred but Anderson unsold in draft
Borthwick deserves credit after bold selection for England’s Wales test