Truly Dreadful Film

Brilliant and touching

Boring, long, and too preachy.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I watched this at home on DVD from my public library. It is part of a seven movie set of discs of Clint Eastwood movies.In this story Shirley MacLaine is sister Sara. She has been detained in the Mexican desert by some dangerous banditos who have stripped her habit half off. That is when Clint Eastwood as Hogan arrives on the scene. He can't stand to see the woman being treated that way, when his asking the men to stop in a rather mild manner doesn't work, he shoots each of them. Then he and sister Sara begin an uneasy journey together.The entertainment value of this movie comes from the two stars and the characters they create. Overall it is a barely memorable story of the good guys working to prevail over the bad guys but nothing significantly different from any number of movies. The twist here is Sara isn't really a nun, she is actually from a group of working prostitutes but she and Hogan fall in love in the end. A good, representative Clint Eastwood movie.It isn't clear why the title refers to "two mules."

Ennio Morricone writes a letter to Don Siegel after watching Two Mules for Sister Sara:Dear Mr.Siegel,please understand that I worked very hard on the score for your movie. I consider it to be one of my best Western scores after the ones I composed for Sergio. I was very impressed by the way the title theme was used. In fact, the whole title sequence filled with the scenes from nature and its animals was wonderful. I was delighted by it and was expecting so much more.But what happened after that? I was confounded by your insistence on shooting in raw sunlight. Or did you actually use lights during the day? I thought I was on a beach in Arpino or something. There were no interesting camera angles either. Just a rigid camera recording wearisome and silly actions of these actors. I thought I would fall asleep.The rest of my score was wasted on utterly banal scenes. The use of the title theme during the final scene in the bathtub was ridiculous. I consider this to be an insult. And the beautiful "A time for miracles". What did you do with it, Mr.Seigel? It was such a melancholic tune with Christian chanting. You wasted it.You cast a beautiful woman like Shirley Mclaine in the role of a nun. And what for? I have still not understood. Why was she disguised as a nun? It was so disappointing. Were you trying to copy the wonderful Heaven Knows Mr.Allison?I was utterly disgusted by the use of the Mexican underclass as a mere embellishment in your film. The whole part where Sara and Hogan help the Mexican revolutionary so that they could rob the treasure was so fake. Why were they even required? The action scenes apart from the train bombing scene were so poorly executed.The film is an utter failure as a Western and an adventure film. Even the exchanges between atheist Hogan and Sister Sara were dull. You have wasted a wonderful setting with two great stars. And wasted my score which I worked very hard on.I think I will go home and drink some Tequila now.Ennio.(4/10)

I am not a fan of Western films - generally speaking - but Two Mules for Sister Sara is a outstanding story. This movie really did get my attention from the beginning and held it until the very end. It is not a typical shot-them-up Western flick - yet it does have some gun-slinging action in it.This is one of those films I do not want to talk about too much because I don't want to give it away - instead I will tell you to simply watch it because it is good! I can say it is a very interesting concept: The gunslinger helping a nun and vice versa - just watch the film and see how they meet and it plays out you will not be disappointed.9/10

This 1970 producion is the first "spaghetti western" made by mainstream Hollywood featuring Eastwood. The original spaghetti westerns were directed by Sergio Leone and were originally in Italian (Eastwood only added his voice when they were dubbed into English and released in the US).These Italian westerns which made Eastwood famous were filmed in Spain in the last half of the 60s.In this movie Eastwood is a mercenary who has agreed to blow up a French garrison for Mexican revolutionaries in return for half the cash stored there. On his way to this job he saves McClain from being raped and the two proceed with their aims as a duo (she too is helping the revolutionaries disguised as a nun).As an aside Siegel said later that McClain was very hard to work with-- she was tough and "it is like she has balls". She and Eastwood did not get along. Also Eastwood said he had to kill the rattlesnake because Mexican authorities did not want it released in that area. Eastwood does not believe in killing animals--he obviously is against hunting.Siegel's cinematography is flawless may I even say fantastic--watch the mountain lion and the horse stepping on the spider. The story is good up until about the last 30 minutes when it degenerates into a boring moralizing Hollywood finale with a mass assault on the garrison (I much prefer finales with Eastwood and his 6 shooter) also a dud cliché surprise denouement involving McClain.So in summary very good for the first hour but doesn't maintain it.Misc: This movie was high budget for the time (over $4 million) it was moderately successful grossing about $4.5 million in N. America. It was filmed entirely in Mexico over about 60 days.RECOMMEND