This Clint Eastwood Western Was Hated By Its Writer For A Good Reason

Without the Western, Clint Eastwood would never have become the screen legend he is today. The actor not only came to prominence as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's seminal trilogy, he directed one of the most widely-praised revisionist Westerns with 1992's "Unforgiven" (which fans believe is Eastwood's best film). Throughout his career, he has relied on the once massively popular genre to boost his profile again and again. But Eastwood was never going to please everybody, and it seems with 1970's "Two Mules for Sister Sara," he upset the very writer who'd come up with the story in the first place.

Directed by Don Siegel and written by Albert Maltz, "Two Mules for Sister Sara" saw Eastwood play Hogan, a Civil War soldier who, after rescuing Shirley MacLaine's titular nun from bandits, joins Mexican rebels as they take on the invading French. The film was based on an original screenplay by Budd Boetticher, himself a director of multiple Westerns who wrote the "Sara" script in the mid-'60s and originally had the intention to direct. But after he became committed to another project, he sold the screenplay. When Siegel's version of the movie finally arrived, Boetticher referred to it in a 2001 interview as an "abortion." Evidently, the director felt his original vision of a love story had been utterly compromised, with Boetticher expressing dismay at the way in which Siegel had directed MacLaine so as to make it obvious that she was not, in fact a nun — a revelation that came later in the film, but which wasn't actually present in Boetticher's original treatment.

The man who wrote the original story for "Two Mules for Sister Sara" had a lot more to say about the final film, too, and didn't let Siegel off the hook after attending the premiere.

Having worked together on "Coogan's Bluff" in 1968, Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel re-teamed for "Two Mules for Sister Sara" in 1970, which would ultimately become the second of five collaborations between the pair. Just a year after the movie was released, the actor/director duo reunited for "The Beguiled" and the legendary yet controversial "Dirty Harry" before cementing their undeniable status as two of the great filmmaking collaborators with "Escape from Alcatraz" in 1979. Their 1970 Western might not have been quite as celebrated as that prison drama, but it received a decent critical response and made a modest profit, bringing in around $5 million on a $2.5 million budget.

One man who certainly didn't give the film a positive review, however, was Budd Boetticher, who made his feelings known to Siegel following the premiere. In a 1999 interview (via Senses of Cinema), the director told Andrew Rausch that he thought the Western was "horrible," adding that while Don Siegel was "a dear, dear friend," he couldn't hide his feelings about the movie. Boetticher recalled attending the premiere at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. "I was sitting with Ron Ely, the actor. And Clint, who is now a very dear friend of mine ... When we saw that picture, I said, 'The stupidest S.O.B. in the theater was the leading man. Couldn't he smell her breath?'" Evidently, Boetticher felt the characterization of Sara gave away the reveal that she was not a nun and in fact was a woman of ill repute. According to the director, at one point Ely suggested he and Boetticher "get up and hit those two guys behind us," to which Boetticher replied, "You hit Clint, and I'll hit Don."

Budd Boetticher certainly wasn't the first writer of a Clint Eastwood/Don Siegel movie who hated the way his original script was translated to the screen. John Milius, the writer behind 1973's "Dirty Harry" sequel, "Magnum Force," found the final product distasteful, arguing that the director and Eastwood had completely upended Harry Callahan's characterization and changed the original ending beyond recognition.

But while Milius seemed to reserve most of his opprobrium for interviews, Boetticher told Siegel exactly what he thought about "Two Mules for Sister Sara." As he told it, Siegel called him the day after the premiere and was met with yet more criticism. "Don, how could you make a piece of crap like that?" Boetticher recalled saying. He continued:

"He said, 'It's a wonderful thing to wake up in the morning and know there's a check in the mail.' And there was dead silence. Finally he said, 'I'm talking to the wrong guy, aren't I?' I said, 'You sure as hell are. It's better to wake up in the morning and not be ashamed of what you see in the mirror.' And Don was getting older. Now I'm ten or twenty years older than he was then, and I would never do that."

Despite Boetticher's distaste for the film, "Two Mules for Sister Sara" remains one of Eastwood's most underrated movies, and most of that is down to the chemistry between the leading man and Shirley MacLaine. It might not have met the original writer's expectations, but Siegel's version of the movie certainly worked for most critics, even if it isn't necessarily one of Eastwood's most celebrated Westerns today.