Hopefully, none of my dissertation committee reads this review of Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970).  When I wrote The Costumed Catholic: Catholics, Whiteness, and the Movies, 1928-1973 in completion of my Ph.D., there were many films I referenced on in order to give a sense of the way Hollywood portrayed my Faith.  Most of them I watched, but for a few I relied on plot summaries.  I find describing films at length useful, then and now.  This is one of the reasons I go into the detail that I do when talking about them.  When you are researching such a topic, Two Mules for Sister Sara is one of the most identifiable titles.  Yet, I passed over a closer investigation of it because it is not really about a nun, though I suppose I just spoiled much of the premise sooner than usual.  All the same, there are some Catholic lessons to glean for it, even if it has a somewhat disappointing result.

Though he does not yet know it, lone American gunman for hire Hogan (Clint Eastwood) is about to provide Two Mules for Sister Sara.  We might as well get this out of the way now since I have already revealed the charade.  Sara (Shirley MacLaine) is posing as a nun and she maintains this identity for most of the film.  When Hogan encounters her, she has been stripped nearly naked by a small gang of outlaws.  Being the more or less (usually less) chivalrous type, Hogan shoots and kills her attackers.  Allowing her to put her clothes back on, he is surprised when she emerges from a bush in the black habit of a religious sister.  He has trouble believing somebody as pretty as her could pursue such a lifestyle, but she brushes off his advances, insisting that his intervention is a gift from God.  Her religiosity annoys him, and he is eager that they should go their separate ways.  He is headed south, having been hired by the upstart Juaristas rebelling against French rule in Mexico, to blow up a bridge carrying supplies for the invading army.  Sara is going in the opposite direction.  However, she decides to stick with him because she is wanted by the French for ministering to the Juaristas, which is a crime.  Besides, there are French patrols in the area.  As they travel, she talks about the town from which she has come, and the disposition of the garrison, which is of interest to him.  Their path takes them to a French garrison, which is where they learn not only about the timing of the train that is supposed to cross Hogan’s target, but also where the treasury for this district’s occupying forces is located.  She obtains this information by riding into camp, putting herself at risk of being recognized.  Once they have what they need, it is time to make their way to the bridge.  They are stopped, however, when a band of Mexican native peoples called the Yaquis shoot an arrow that embeds itself into Hogans shoulder.  It is up to Sara to remove the shaft, doing so in a complicated fashion that involves knives, carving, gunpowder, and a lot of whiskey.  The alcohol is for him, and he gets so drunk that he passes out for a few hours.  When he comes to, he is still woozy from his wound and the spirits, making his aim shaky, but the arrow is gone.  Nonetheless, with her steadying shoulder, he is able to get the shot off that detonates the dynamite, accomplishing his mission.  They next go to his contact, who is to point the way to Colonel Beltrán (Manolo Fábregas), who is supposed to pay Hogan.  Sara goes, too, ostensibly to pass along what they have learned about the garrison in Chihuahua.  This is the town in which she says she had lived in the convent, so she is eager to get back to it, and Hogan decides to go as well.  This is also where the money is being held that the Juaristas wish to take for themselves.  Another data point relayed by Sara about the French troops in Chihuahua is that they would all be too inebriated to put up any resistance on July 14^th, Bastille Day, also known as French Independence Day.  Yet, when Hogan, Sara, and the Juaristas get to the town, they find stone cold sober men marching in straight lines around their fort.  She quickly comes up with another plan, saying that there is a tunnel from the house in which she lived that could get the Juaristas into their target building.  This is when we also find out that she is not a nun.  This happens when they all enter said house and it turns out to be a brothel, Sara promptly removing her veil.  Hogan has some inappropriate things to say about this revelation, but he focuses on the task at hand.  Unfortunately, the metal grating that leads into the fort cannot be shifted from their side.  Thus, they have Hogan bring Sara to the garrison as a way of gaining access inside.  They expect her to be thrown straight away into the prison beneath where they can give access to the Juaristas waiting on the other side.  Instead, the French commander invites them in for a drink.  This means they are not where they need to be when the others set off the piñata packed with explosives at the main entrance to the fort.  Not that this matters as the attack is successful anyway.  In the aftermath, Hogan finds Sara bathing back at the brothel, and he decides to, er . . . enter.  The end.

I gave a somewhat shorter description of Two Mules for Sister Sara because I wanted to save some of it for my Catholic analysis.  It does seem like somewhat of a moot point since she is not, in fact, a nun.  She is actually about as opposite as a person can be from being a female religious.  There are signs along the way as to her true identity, such as the puffs on cigars and swigs of whiskey she sneaks at convenient moments.  While this is meant to be a clue, it should be noted that it speaks to a stereotypical view of all women of the habit as being strait laced in everything they do.  It is true that such behavior is highly discouraged among them, but it is not so completely unheard of as to be treated as it is here.  It may be extremely rare that one would see such things, but they are not perfect, and they would be the first to admit to this fact. All the same, these lapses in so-called typical behavior aside, one could almost be convinced that Sara is actually a nun.  Early on, she is insistent that Hogan help her bury the men he killed to save her, calling it the Christian thing to do.  She also stops to pray when they get to a roadside shrine, saying that to pass it by without doing so would be a sin.  This is not good theology, but it fits with what people commonly believed in the nineteenth century.  These are surface observations, things anyone might recognize about the life of a nun.  The more specifically Catholic scene is when Hogan is wondering why any woman would give up marriage, or at least being with a man, for a life of celibacy.  She responds by telling him that her spouse is Jesus.  People outside of the Catholic Church have trouble with this concept.  How can anyone be wedded to Christ?  Such questions forget the fact that this kind of imaginary is Biblical.  It also points to the belief that sexual relations are the end all, be all, of interactions between a man and a woman, regardless of marital status.  As great as this response is, it makes the ending all the more disappointing.

Speaking of disappointed, I hope Bren Ortega Murphy, a former Loyola University Chicago professor who served on my dissertation committee, would not have felt this way with what I have to say about Two Mules for Sister Sara.  I say “former” because, sadly, she passed away a few years ago.  She gained her notoriety for the work she did on nuns. Having said that, where I pray she is now, such emotions would be thankfully beyond her.  In the meantime, we have about two thirds of a decent movie.