The Beguiled

The premise of Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled is almost literally a Monty Python sketch; the Pythons' Holy Grail, perhaps in a sendup of the source novel and previous film adaptation, has a scene with a setup that's only slightly more ridiculous.  In both cases, a young man (for the Pythons, a knight, for Coppola, a Union soldier) is injured and reaches a haven with no men to be found (in Grail, a monastery with nuns, in Beguiled, a boarding school with a couple of teachers and one rstudent who's rather mature for her age).  It's not hard to see the comic possibilities: in the climax of the Pythons' scene, one of the nuns announces their plans, stating, "And after the spanking, the oral sex!"  The knight replies, "Well, I could stay a bit longer..."

The inherent silliness is not lost on Coppola.  She's included some rather amusing moments in her film, particularly a scene in which the teachers and girls sing to the soldier.  As they beam at him and he smiles right back, there are a million things left unsaid.

And yet this film is actually toned down from the 1971 Clint Eastwood version, which is by all accounts much raunchier.  Even though the 2017 version is the more modern film, it's this one that relies more on meaningful glances.  There's been much discussion of the male gaze in recent years; you could say this film is about the female gaze, and the projections the women put onto the soldier: as a protector, an escape, or perhaps just a night of fun.

Yet apart from this theme and a couple of melodramatic twists that follow the source material, there isn't much to the film.  It's hard to see why Coppola felt a remake was necessary.  Particularly undeveloped are the relationships between the women, which seems like a missed opportunity in light of some juicy assignations that go down late in the film.  A worthwhile remake of this story could be made.  But this isn't it.