nancy@enmasse.UUCP (Nancy Werlin) (09/19/85)
> > Mark Leeper: > > THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES [ ... is possibly ... ] the best film > > Eastwood has directed and probably the best he has been in. > Dennis Doubleday: > I think JOSIE WALES is great, too, but I can't rank it that high > in the Eastwood canon, though, not when it includes masterpieces > like ... THE BEGUILED. Readers, please note moi's judicious editing of the two articles above, in which I repeat the gist of the matter (i.e., only the point about which I have something to say), while indicating the extracted parts via ellipses and brackets. Ah. Lovely. A prime example of netiquette. *I* don't waste time and space and money on USENET. But hold your applause -- spare my blushes. Yes. But where was I? Of course. Mr. Eastwood. THE BEGUILED. First, let me say: I am not an Eastwood fan. To tell truth (and I sometimes do), I categorize *Dirty Harry* movies (and I do not mean "films," I mean "movies," and perhaps I even mean "flicks" -- but then again perhaps not...) alongside of football; i.e., I am not interested. Perhaps one day I might be persuaded to take an interest...but I will need persuasion. Large amounts of persuasion. You may ask, then, why I would have seen THE BEGUILED (which, *spoiler!* I plan to recommend). Well, since you ask, I will tell you: pure inertia. Yes, I simply could not drag myself as far as the television knob so as to change the channel or turn the thing off. On came the Movie of the Week and there I was, watching it. Helpless. In fact, there we both were, Clint and I, somewhere in the South during the Civil War: Clint, a wounded Yankee with a game leg, stranded near a Ladies' Academy, about to get into youcanjustguess what trouble; and I, a lazy Yankee with a bowl of popcorn (no doubt), watching shamelessly. Okay, so the plot was obvious, for the most part. You all know, whether or not you've seen this movie, exactly what happens to Clint when he is taken into the care of the nubile young women, and their two headmistresses, who are waiting out the war at the School. Yes yes. Sexual frustration, jealousy, competition, hope, True Love, and tragedy. Yes yes. All very obvious. I watched every last bit of it. I may even have forgotten to eat a few pieces of popcorn. Speaking of food, an important element in this movie's plot is mushrooms. This may be one reason that I liked the movie so much; I am fond of mushrooms. I especially like marinated mushrooms, and if anyone has a recipe, please send it on. Writing this paragraph, actually, makes me feel a bit like Nora Ephron, and if you haven't read *Heartburn*, well, you should. The movie will star Meryl Streep, so they say, and you can make what you want of that. I myself am rather sick of her. Clint became sick, too, from the mushrooms (that's the spoiler, folks) and I cried. Yes, I did. So I think all you folks who tuned out of this discussion because Clint Eastwood isn't, say, Dustin Hoffman (or Meryl Streep), might want to see THE BEGUILED (which I'd rather though was titled BEGUILED) anyway. Nancy Werlin EnMasse Computer Corp. Acton, MA
peter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (09/25/85)
> ...THE BEGUILED... > > In fact, there we both were, Clint and I, > somewhere in the South during the Civil War: > Clint, a wounded Yankee with a game leg, > stranded near a Ladies' Academy, about to get into youcanjustguess > what trouble; and I, a lazy Yankee with a bowl of popcorn > (no doubt), watching shamelessly. I'm going to *kill* Dave Sim one of these days. Really I will. Cerebus the Aardvark, issue #iforgetatthemoment: "The Beguiling". Argh.