During the Civil War, Northern Corporal John McBurney, wounded in a skirmish, is taken to and cared for at a boarding school for young Southern girls. All the students are torn between their fear of the Yankees and their attraction to this mysterious man. Playing with the situation, John tries to charm one, sometimes the other, but in the end he gives in to the most enterprising one…

One man…seven women…in a strange house! It can be read on the American poster of Don Siegel’s Predators. Next to this slogan, written in large letters, is the face of Clint Eastwood, holding a revolver in his hand – obviously.

This poster suggested to American audiences that Eastwood was the star of the new Western, reprising one of his usual roles: the logically triumphant hero, handsomely defiant and cigar-chomping, as in the days of the roles that made him famous with Sergio Leone. However, this poster was particularly misleading because Predators is nothing but a Western in the most classic and Hollywood sense of the term.

A sick masterpiece

A poisonous, sick and disturbing masterpiece, Predators First of all is the oppressive high-enclosed horror tinge; Perhaps the black diamond of Clint Eastwood’s filmography, he undoubtedly portrays here the most depraved, calculating and manipulative character of his entire career.

As for veteran Don Siegel, who is working with the actor for the third time after Sheriff in New York and Sierra Torrid – Waiting for Dirty Harry – he felt he made the best film of his solid career.

Predators, a mock Western of which the Civil War is ultimately only a distant echo, almost an excuse to offer Eastwood a very unsympathetic character on screen; Far from characters with triumphant valor.

It perfectly fits the desire and vision of Don Siegel, who wants to make a dark film, loaded with symbolism, in the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe. They are so sure of the tone and direction they want to give the film that they take the opposite view of the first version of the script by screenwriter Albert Maltz, who planned the Happy End, where Eastwood’s character suffers a tragic end.

“Women can lie, cheat, murder, anything. Behind their mask of innocence lies as much evil as you could find in a mobster.” Siegel was confused, recalling the story of the movie.

For the filmmaker, sex, violence and female revenge are at the heart of the film, with a red thread “Women’s desire to castrate men”At least symbolized and epitomized by a gruesome amputation scene that evokes fear.

with Bruce Surtey, who is known as a great technician but has never worked as a cinematographer before. Siegel found in him the right person to create this gloomy atmosphere.

Bruce Surtees, son of the great director of photography Robert Surtees, is thus able to work with minimal lighting, earning him the sympathetic nickname “Prince of Darkness”.

A painful failure

Eastwood and Siegel discuss the idea of ​​possibly submitting the film to one of the major festivals—why not Cannes, as Pierre Ricent suggests?—but Universal studio executives refuse.

The Major is sweating: The subject of the film is definitely not commercial… He first wants to know the reaction of the American public, which unfortunately rejects the film. Siegel blames Universal for this, accusing it of deliberately misleading the public with promotional materials; It showed that it was an action movie.

Predators It brought in less than $1 million. A scathing slap that also applies to Clint Eastwood, who tried to portray a character there at the antipodes of the previous ones. Not without some irony, this is with Inspector Harris, which was released in December 1971 and was shot after. PredatorsImpersonating a manly hero with clenched jaws, cynical, violent and misogynistic, Clint Eastwood succeeds and wins back the hearts of a public disoriented by his role. Predators, which remains an authentic masterpiece 52 years after its release. You know what to do if you’ve never seen it.

Les Preies, airs tonight on C8 at 9.20pm.