Two Mules for Sister Sara

PG

1970

1 hr. 54 min.

Western

Action

Adventure

List

71%

17 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

When gunslinger Hogan (Clint Eastwood) discovers a group of men attempting to rape a young nun, Sara (Shirley MacLaine), he shoots them dead and rescues the woman. The two escape to a nearby camp of Mexican revolutionaries, who have hired Hogan to help fight the invading French army. En route, Sara turns out to be surprisingly crude for a nun, drinking, smoking and using curse words. When she also proves to be handy with a gun, Hogan begins wondering if she is telling him the whole truth.

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Audience Member

Well worth the watch here even got some comedy in it highly recommend it James Welch, Henderson, Arkansas July 19, 2023

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

07/20/23

Full Review

Federico T

This Sergio Leone influenced western, well directed by Don Siegel, relies its best qualities on resuming some Old Hollywood plot solutions, as in this case is pairing apparently opposite types of protagonists in the adventure conduct, melting action and love genres in a fictional world where every cliché is welcomed and logic must step back on the behalf of the story. Clint Eastwood portrays again the tough stranger from nowhere but he waters down his interpretation in order to serve the plot purposes, even though he subtly suggests there's much more darker and wilder under the character's surface, thus anticipating the work Eastwood and Siegel will accomplish for their next movie together, "The beguiled", that's creating a pitilessly realistic antihero ravaged by his impulses and deliberately depicted in all his weaknesses to the point of finding in himself his own villain. In fact the adventurer is guided to an essentially suicidal mission (fighting an entire French soldiers fort) more by his sexual infatuation than by the prospective to gain a not so well explained treasure about which he is rushly informed by the nun herself, an information that normally he should have taken as a bait. The Shirley MacLaine's character also has the same underground dangerousness connotations and we should have figured out more by that heavy make up despite the vestment. As the story events have not a very strong point and by that engage very little the viewer, the final storming of the French fort is a badly needed climax, bearing in mind that an extreme display of violence has been the solution to the western formula crisis particularly by the end of the sixties (above all, the same kind of chaotic bloodbath in "The Wild Bunch"'s final act, just a year prior this movie). The Ennio Morricone's soundtrack fits perfectly the balance of comedy and estrangement in this tale of disguise and light hearted double-cross mischief.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

05/05/23

Full Review

Dave S

Clint Eastwood plays Hogan, a lonely drifter (if you can imagine that) and hired gun on a mission to assist the Mexicans resist colonization by the French. When he stumbles across a group of men assaulting a nun (Shirley MacLaine), he puts his considerable skills to use in an effort to save her, inadvertently finding himself with a travelling partner. Eastwood, as always, does his thing in playing the squinty-eyed gunslinger, but the movie really belongs to MacLaine, who is absolutely fantastic as the enigmatic nun. The chemistry between the two feels real and while Two Mules for Sister Sara may not be the most memorable Western ever made, it is nothing if not an enjoyable little romp through some beautiful scenery.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/28/23

Full Review

Ed M

I love Clint Eastwood. I love Don Siegel. But this is slow and dated.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/03/22

Full Review

William L

Take the films from the Dollars Trilogy, complete with Eastwood in a leading role, an Ennio Morricone score, and plenty of on-location shooting, but substitute the slow-burning, mysterious narratives pulled from Kurosawa with a B-movie premise and a greater sense of humor. Two Mules for Sister Sara wastes no time in establishing itself, giving Eastwood room to retain most of the calm, cool elements of his traditional persona while making him far more chatty in a plot that doesn't harp on the 'lost West' like so many contemporaries as it is simply an entertaining road comedy. Despite definitely being more lighthearted than many other post-classic Westerns, the film actually works relatively well thanks to the evolving dynamic between Eastwood's Hogan and Shirley MacLaine's Sara. Though they frequently are forced into objectively dangerous (and often serious) circumstances, the chemistry between the two leads ultimately ends up imparting the film with a consistent levity that pairs well with plenty of surprising action. The degree of comfort and familiarity that the two feel around one another by the end of the film is pretty impressive, and a considerable amount of the film's charm comes from MacLaine's performance. Glad I finally got around to this one, this was a daytime TV staple that I constantly skipped over. (3/5)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/11/22

Full Review

robert p

Put Clint Eastwood and Shirley McClaine together and what you get is one fantastic *and* original movie. That's why I am giving this movie a *5* star rating!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Don Siegel

Director

Shirley MacLaine

Sara

Clint Eastwood

Hogan

Manolo Fabregas

Colonel Beltran

Alberto Morin

General LeClaire

Armando Silvestre

1st American

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The movie is a lot better than it might have been.

Rated: 2.5/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

An entertaining western, solidly made by Siegel, whose journey always ride into safe territory with the splendid chemistry between Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 7/10

Aug 28, 2023

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

...only a moderate success.

Dec 4, 2020

Full Review

James Clay

Fresh Fiction

While the two men are best known for subverting the tropes of action pictures, they accomplished something a bit more enticing by casting a wide net and integrating a top tier actor like Shirley MacLaine into their hyper-masculine world.

Rated: B

Nov 19, 2020

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine make an unlikely but surprisingly effective team in this enjoyable Western.

Rated: 3/4

Oct 30, 2020

Full Review

Richard R. Harmetz

Los Angeles Free Press

It has a number of things going for it, chief among them a feeling for the landscape of Mexico (photographed by Gabriel Figueroa) which probably has never before been duplicated.

Jan 14, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

When gunslinger Hogan (Clint Eastwood) discovers a group of men attempting to rape a young nun, Sara (Shirley MacLaine), he shoots them dead and rescues the woman. The two escape to a nearby camp of Mexican revolutionaries, who have hired Hogan to help fight the invading French army. En route, Sara turns out to be surprisingly crude for a nun, drinking, smoking and using curse words. When she also proves to be handy with a gun, Hogan begins wondering if she is telling him the whole truth.

Director: Don Siegel
Screenwriter: Albert Maltz
Production Co: Universal/Universal Int
Rating: PG
Genre: Western, Action, Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 7, 2015

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