10 Hated Movie Performances That Were Secretly Genius

As funny as The Simpsons' Paint Your Wagon moment is (and it is hilarious), it's probably done everlasting damage to Joshua Logan's 1969 Western musical of the same name, which starred Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, and Jean Seberg as an unlikely polycule riding the highs and lows of a boom town in the late 19th century United States.

Post-Simpsons, Paint Your Wagon is best known as "the movie where Clint Eastwood sings", which is a far departure from the gruff, masculine archetype he projected in the Dollars Trilogy and the Dirty Harry series. For that reason, it's seen as a jarring aberration in the actor/director's filmography, when in actual fact, Eastwood had been singing in screen roles for several years before Paint Your Wagon was made, releasing in 1963 the album "Rawhide's Clint Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favorites".

And, even aside from the fact that there's a precedent for Eastwood indulging his music tastes (he's also a noted jazz fan), his performance in Paint Your Wagon is really good. He's a great singer, a charismatic screen presence, and plays off wonderfully with Marvin and Seberg as their love triangle develops. 

The film itself met a lukewarm response in 1969, releasing when musicals were falling out of favour, but it's still a heartfelt, boisterous production whose shortcomings are overcome by the performances of its leads. It mainly belongs to Marvin - whose growly rendition of Wandrin' Star is one for the ages - but Eastwood remains impressive, with the film sitting just as neatly in his back catalogue as Sudden Impact.