Critics reviews

For its flaws, the film cannot be slighted completely. It may not be a love story, as there is no romantic expression between Sara and Hogan, but it does find a satisfying ending in Hogan's reassessment of his personal priorities. Its balance of slowness and frisson, along with MacLaine's energy (Eastwood is fine here but provides little that he does not in other roles), and Morricone's score, makes this a special film that should have more recognition. Just not, perhaps, as a Budd Boetticher film.

Of the five films that studio vet Siegel made with rising star Clint Eastwood—all-killer/no-filler peaks of the extended uproar now known as the New Hollywood—this gritty odd-couple Western was the most overtly comic... The story is by oater champ Budd Boetticher, but the liberation politics and au courant cynicism are courtesy scripter Albert Maltz, one of the original Hollywood Ten.

The screenplay, drafted by Budd Boetticher and polished by Albert Maltz, lacks the economy you might hope for, but there's plenty of opportunity for gruesome mayhem in the last reel. TWO MULES is ultimately minor, but enjoyable, Siegel.