laugh and admire the romance. A perfect 10.

That was long before there ever was any Clint Eastwood the famous actor/director. Bon Appetit

tensions abound! Not only that but it's a fun, well-made movie. Shirley MacLaine was great and, lets face it, Clint Eastwood was born to make westerns. Well, maybe not "make" them ... but he's a great cowboy. Well directed, well paced, good story, good acting and it stars a nun and a cowboy. The opening music didn't "do it" for me but even that would probably grow on me. I fully endorse this movie. Look for "Two Mules for Sister Sara" T-shirts with myself in the background giving the thumbs-up.

and it plays out you will not be disappointed.9/10

soldier-of-fortune named Hogan. This blood-splattered but amusing western comedy/drama teams Eastwood's gimlet-eyed mercenary up with an impious Catholic nun, Sister Sara Shirley MacLaine of "Sweet Charity" ,in Mexico during the late 1860s when the Mexicans were throwing off the yoke of French oppression. In the original Boetticher script, the setting was the Mexican Revolution rather than the French Revolution, Boetticher's nun character was entirely different. Incidentally, sources say Boetticher hated the film. Indeed, "Two Mules" contains a surprise ending, and the constant bickering between Hogan and Sara generates many hilarious moments. Eastwood and MacLaine are charismatic throughout. The film is visually splendid to gaze at thanks to Oscar nominee Gabriel Figueroa's cinematography. Consider the way he skewers his set-ups sometimes for a interesting effect. The encounter with the Indians boasts some memorable camera angles, especially when Clint topples from the saddle.Hogan Clint Eastwood of "Coogan's Bluff" is leading a supply horse loaded with dynamite on his way though the dangerous Mexican wilderness when he stumbles accidentally onto three drunks and a naked woman in the middle of nowhere. The gunmen offer to share the lady, but then open fire in return. Hogan guns down two of them, but the third seizes the woman as a shield. Hogan fires up a stick of TNT and slings it at them. The third man fires at Hogan and flees. Hogan drops him with three shots. Afterward, Hogan discovers the naked lady is a Catholic nun! He helps her bury her assailants and then blows his cool when he sees Sara sprinkling his canteen on their graves. He snatches his canteen and suggests that she bless them without water since they are in the middle of an arid region. Things turn even weirder when a column of French cavalry show up, and Sara goes berserk. The French cannot capture her, she explains rapidly to Hogan, because she is working in league with the revolutionaries. Hogan unearths the dead killers and sends them off at a gallop on the backs of their ponies for the French to pursue. Hogan and Sara slip away.Hogan has come to Mexico to help destroy a French prison on Bastille Day, and he winds up escorting Sara to the prison town. Before he reaches the prison, Hogan gets really drunk after the Yaquis shoot an arrow into his shoulder. Sister Sara uses the reflection off her cross to drive the superstitious Indians away. The scene where she has to remove the arrow from Hogan's shoulder is pretty gritty stuff. Hogan gets himself lickered up to tolerate the pain while Sara digs around the shaft of the arrow and carves a groove in it so he can put gunpowder on it, fire it up, and push it out the back of his shoulder. This scene can be rough on the squeamish. Anyway, since he is tanked enough up to withstand the pain of the arrow removal, Hogan has a difficult time with a train that he is supposed to destroy. He cannot climb the trestle to lash sticks of TNT to the pylons so he convinces Sara--who has a fear of heights--to climb up it and attach the explosives. It is ironic that a nun would hate to ascend and this plays into the big revelation at fade-out. Here comes the train and Hogan misses every shot until Sara hauls off and decks him. He recovers and nails one stick of dynamite and the entire structure collapses under the train.The big finale finds Hogan and Sara along with some revolutionaries staging an attack on a French garrison. Siegel turns this scene into a massive combat sequence with Hogan demonstrating that he is an excellent shot with either hand. There are a couple of bloody shots in this battle sequence. As usual, Clint remains as cool as a glacier. The big surprise--which I won't reveal--concerns the way that Hogan's relationship with Sara concludes. "Two Mules for Sister Sara" is part shoot' em western and part romance and together a very amusing adventure opus.

did not fit into the standard Eastwood pattern. Nowadays the story is different, the film is worth seeing, specially because of MacLaine. Most of the time they are together and it works very well, Eastwood is less serious than usual and it is very funny how he tries to understand how a nun thinks. The music by Morriconne has a comic touch and together with the wild creatures that are shown on the screen like a scorpion, a rattlesnake, a mountain lion gives a great beginning. The final part does not keep the same level, but those two great actors and their funny relationship are quite enough to make this a very good film. The script of the film was originally written by Budd Boetticher while he was filming "Aruzza" in Mexico. He needed money very badly to complete "Aruzza" so he sold the script, and got very upset later on when they did not make the film the way he wanted.

MacLaine nothing really surprises me.As far as Eastwood's post Spaghetti movies, he's rarely been in better form than this. Essentially continuing his man with no name persona, he gets far more dialogue this time around which fleshes out his character and makes him a little more three dimensional. It's a nice change of pace from the Leone westerns to hear Clint spout a few humorous lines and have the odd hilarious facial expression in between his trademark squinting and snarling and cigar chomping.Disciples of Leone's trilogy may never warm up to an admittedly hammier Clint in this, but as Clint's Hollywood westerns go, this is a fun and well made duster. Shouldn't be missed.

unexpectedly when Sister Sara is about to be raped by three men... Fortunately for her, he kills them all...But unlike the 'Man With No Name,' Eastwood doesn't turn and ride away... He escorts the good-looking nun in her mission...But the nun's strange behavior intrigues his curiosity... She smokes cigars, she drinks whiskey and her language comes to be every day more profane...Hogan's fascination with her arrives at its peak when she removes an Indian arrow from his shoulder, having rendering him half insensible by intoxicating him with shots of Whiskey...After joining her to blow up a French supply train, he is persuaded to help a group of Juaristas led by Colonel Beltran Manolo Fabregas in a final attack on a French garrison...The climax of "Two Mules for Sister Sara" displays the differences between Leone's conclusion which the 'Stranger' merely disappears into the mists of time... The change of image didn't excite the audience leaving the picture with enough nostalgia for the myth of the loner, the super hero, the 'Man With No Name.'The film beautifully shot in Color is really a two-character story... The interesting team gives amusing and tender performances... The motion picture echoes "The African Queen," but is far away from being Hepburn/Bogart exciting adventure...