Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled is set during the American Civil War and is about a wounded Union solider, Corporal John McBurney, who seeks refuge in a girls’ school in Virginia and basically sets a sexual bomb under the place. It’s based on a 1966 novel by Thomas Cullinan, which was first filmed by Don Siegel in 1971 starring Clint Eastwood, whose McBurney forces himself on a 12-year-old girl in the opening scene. ‘Not too young for kisses,’ he says, before moving in for a long, deep snog. WTF! Thus far, I have not heard it said that Coppola’s remake does not capture the original, probably because it’s a blessed mercy. She has refashioned a pulpy, misogynistic B-movie into a wonderfully restrained but explosive feminist revenge drama, which has to be terrific. And it is.
The film begins with 12-year-old Amy (Oona Laurence) collecting mushrooms in the woods, as the mists rise and a gauzy sun filters through the vivid green of the hanging moss.
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