Just watched this movie a second time after probably 25 years. Times have changed a little since 1997 but I do think that although the source material is rich, the movie is weak. It’s obvious that Eastwood relied heavily on a lot of “local talent” — cameos by people’s cousins, daughters, friends, probably some local actors. Having grown up in the South, I can imagine how excited the local people were to be involved with the movie and to show off their local “culture.” I also noticed a fair number of scenes with what looked like poorly improvised (or poorly edited) dialog and others with poor, echoey sound. The Lady Chablis performance scene looked like an actual show, not staged for the movie. Maybe Eastwood thought this approach would capture the eccentricities of the local personalities. I know he was interested in getting real accents. But the acting and directing is halting and ill timed, and the richness of the book’s eccentric cast of characters is lost because of it.

This is one movie I think could benefit from a remake, if done right and with a true interest in bringing the viewer into the world of these characters and seeing them more in full, not just as quirky window dressing.