Semi-Enjoying Two Mules for Sister Sara

 August 1, 2024

   What year is the movie "Two Mules for Sister Sara" allegedly trying to portray? That was my initial question when Kathy and I rewatched the old flick the other night as part of my homework for the Payson Film Festival in 10 days, featuring this and other Clint Eastwood westerns in the five day event. 

   It appears Hogan (Clint Eastwood) is riding through Mexico after a "sucker" experience in the American Civil War. So that would put us in the post 1865 zone.

   The film is allegedly set during Napoleon III's intervention in Mexico (1862-1867) which is curious because the American Hogan (Eastwood) carries an 1873 Colt pistol and an 1876 Winchester.

   Also, I counted only one mule and two donkeys in the film. So that was a little weird, considering there are two mules in the title. Also, if you want to get all timeline technical, Shirley Maclaine wears a 1970 bouffant hairdo (see below):

   And, if you are hyper-historically-critical, like me, the reference to "a fistful of dynamite" on the poster seems to be a heavy-handed reference to well, you get the picture.

  According to one website, Clint Eastwood, the actor, was playing on a loophole in his contract for "Rawhide," that stipulated he couldn't work anywhere else in the United States. Of course, he had already made three films in Spain for Sergio Leone, and here he was apparently trying to extend that run. Thus the wonderful locations in Mexico, primarily in Durango, but also in San Blas Estuary along the Mexican Pacific coast. Credit also goes to Sierra de Organos National Park near Sombrete, Zacatecas, plus Guanajuato City and also Tepotzotlan, a small town outside Mexico City. And frankly, the exceptional locations were the best part of the movie and enlivened the tired story for me.

   However, even with all the above goofiness, I have to say the original music by Ennio Morricone is worth the watch. He, of course, created the famous, falsetto cries on "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly," not to mention 399 other movie scores. In "Two Mules" he mimics the braying of a donkey to great effect. Just brilliant, although, once again, we're talking donkeys, not mules! 

"Sister if you wanna bless 'em you bless em dry."
—Hogan (Clint) to the semi-nun with the bouffant hairdo