The famous critic Pauline Kael in an interview mentioned that the opinion about a film sometimes changes according to the time that the film is viewed. A film that might be great when seen for the first time ten years later might seem completely outdated and vice versa. ‘Two Mules’ is a western that was released at a time that the public wanted something else. What they wanted was Clint Eastwood ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ style, and that was what he kept doing for the next years. ‘Two Mules’ was considered a failure, specially because of Shirley MacLaine that did not fit into the standard Eastwood pattern. Nowadays the story is different, the film is worth seeing, specially because of MacLaine. Most of the time they are together and it works very well, Eastwood is less serious than usual and it is very funny how he tries to understand how a nun thinks. The music by Morriconne has a comic touch and together with the wild creatures that are shown on the screen like a scorpion, a rattlesnake, a mountain lion gives a great beginning. The final part does not keep the same level, but those two great actors and their funny relationship are quite enough to make this a very good film. The script of the film was originally written by Budd Boetticher while he was filming “Aruzza” in Mexico. He needed money very badly to complete “Aruzza” so he sold the script, and got very upset later on when they did not make the film the way he wanted.
