Clint Eastwood spends much of The Beguiled (1971) in an unusual position for one of his characters. Corporal John McBurney is wounded, trapped inside a Confederate seminary and surrounded by people who could turn him over to nearby soldiers whenever they choose. His best chance of staying there is convincing them that they want him around.
McBurney quickly figures that out. He adjusts his personality depending on who is in front of him, moving from jokes with Carol to earnest promises with Edwina and respectful flattery with Martha. AFI’s synopsis describes the same basic strategy: McBurney understands that the household’s goodwill is what stands between him and Confederate custody.
1. He makes Amy the hero of his rescue
McBurney starts working on the household almost as soon as Amy brings him through the gates. When Martha asks how he got there, he credits “the grace of God” before immediately identifying Amy as the person who made his rescue possible.
It is a clever way to answer Martha without sounding helpless. McBurney turns Amy’s decision into something admirable, giving the youngest person at the seminary another reason to feel protective of him before Martha has even decided what to do.
2. He turns his surrender into a compliment
McBurney is an enemy soldier arriving at a Confederate school, but his introduction hardly sounds like one. After giving his name and regiment, he jokes that he is surrendering to the prettiest Confederates he has encountered.
Eastwood plays the moment lightly, as though the danger surrounding McBurney can be handled with a smile. That becomes the character’s basic method. He cannot control the people around him physically, so he tries to make himself pleasant enough that nobody is eager to send him away.
3. He keeps Carol interested without promising too much
Carol makes her interest in McBurney extremely obvious. She teases him, compliments his appearance, and eventually suggests meeting him later when the rest of the house is asleep. McBurney plays along without ever giving her quite as much as she wants.
He tells her that she is hard to resist but immediately brings up the danger of being caught. It is a useful middle ground for him. Carol leaves the conversation believing the possibility is still there, while McBurney avoids making a promise that could create another problem inside an already tense house.
4. He uses Edwina’s jealousy to focus on her
Edwina arrives just after seeing McBurney with Carol, and she is plainly unhappy about it. Instead of becoming defensive, McBurney changes his tone almost immediately and turns his attention toward Edwina.
He even notices the anger in her eyes and folds it into another compliment. Eastwood makes the switch look effortless. A playful conversation with Carol becomes a much softer exchange with Edwina because McBurney realizes that the same approach will not work on both of them.
5. He quickly tells Edwina that Carol means nothing
Edwina does not simply accept McBurney’s explanation. She has already heard the kind of excuse he is giving her before, recalling how her father dismissed other women as people he was merely amusing himself with.
McBurney nevertheless keeps pushing the reassurance. Carol, he insists, does not mean anything to him. The important thing is less whether Edwina completely believes him than how quickly McBurney understands what she needs to hear. He rarely wastes much time defending his behavior when changing the subject to someone’s feelings works better.
6. He gives Edwina a future to imagine
Once Edwina admits how strongly she feels, McBurney goes considerably further. He tells her that when the war ends, he will return for her.
That promise changes the scale of their conversation. He is no longer simply telling Edwina that Carol does not matter. He gives her an imagined life beyond the seminary and beyond the war. Edwina immediately asks him not to say it unless he means it, and McBurney assures her that he does.
7. He understands Martha’s lie almost immediately
McBurney’s social instincts become much more useful when Confederate soldiers unexpectedly arrive at the school. Martha protects him by suddenly introducing him as a cousin from the Texas side of her family.
McBurney catches on and joins the performance instead of hesitating. He changes his manner and even produces a convincing enough Texas accent to keep the story moving. For once, his ability to become whatever the situation requires is not just helping him manage relationships. It is keeping him out of Confederate hands.
8. He compliments Martha as soon as the danger passes
Once the soldiers leave, McBurney does not treat Martha’s rescue as something he was simply owed. He immediately tells her she was splendid.
Martha responds by complimenting his own performance, particularly the accent. The exchange is brief, but it shows McBurney reinforcing another important relationship at exactly the right moment. Martha has just taken a major risk for him, and he makes sure she knows he appreciates how well she handled it.
9. He tries to repair the room with an apology
By the final dinner, McBurney’s earlier confidence has caused far more trouble than it solved. He enters the meal knowing that several people at the table have reasons to distrust him, so his first move is noticeably different from the playful approach he used when he arrived.
He apologizes for what he said and did earlier and tells the group that he wants to make things right. Martha accepts the apology and tries to move the meal forward. It is McBurney returning to the technique that worked for him from the beginning: lower the tension, say the right thing, and try to make everyone comfortable with his presence again.
10. He makes himself sound useful right to the end
McBurney does not stop at apologizing. During dinner, he announces that he plans to leave the next morning and promises to ask the first Union troops he meets to place a guard around the seminary, something he says can be done for friendly Southerners.
It is another attempt to change what his presence means. McBurney entered the school as an enemy who could bring danger to everyone inside. Now he presents himself as somebody who might provide protection after he leaves. By this point, however, the charm that repeatedly bought him more time has finally run out.
To Watch or Buy The Beguiled, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Beguiled-Clint-Eastwood/dp/B001VMF5H4