McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Rating:
Summary: Haunting, beautiful and near perfect
Review: I experienced repeated viewings of this movie on a widescreen in Montreal's art theaters of the early 80's, at the height of my love affair with Robert Altman and Leonard Cohen. At the time, neither of these artists could do wrong, so I wondered how the movie would fare 20 years later. Would I discover I had been infatuated blindly in my youth? Or would my ardor be re-kindled?

I found I have less patience for some of Altman's mannerisms: Camera shots that linger on irrelevant close ups as if the camera wandered off and got lost, scenes where cast and director seemed to be jamming and can't get the magic to happen, and abrupt cuts that disrupt the flow of the movie. It is as if Altman gave up on some scenes and moved on even though they didn't quite work.

However, most of the time, the magic is there. The opening credits show a hunched rider bundled from the relentless sleet in a huge fur coat ride though a breathtaking wilderness. It's beautiful and raw, but not romantic. We see McCabe (Warren Beatty) bumbling through his attempts to build a whorehouse and gambling saloon: a man with entrepreneur spirit and vision, but hopeless at business. The townspeople, deftly sketched with Altman's trademark overlapping conversations and ensemble sets, rally behind McCabe without really connecting with him. Soon, more people come to town, including Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie), the tough Madam who has the business sense that McCabe lacks. When McCabe bungles the ultimate negotiation of his "holdings" with a large mining company, he misses out on the big cash payout and has to face the bounty hunters sent to get him out of the way. The town deserts him and Mrs. Miller sinks into an opium induced dream world.

We see the town buildings grow from the timber of the great northwest (the carpenters on the sets must have had a ball), and small hovels change into cozy wood paneled homes. The photography catches the rain, snow, dark clouds and dazzling sunshine and colors of the northwest, as well as the actor's terrific performances, and the fated arc of McCabe's rise and fall.

In the end, Altman doesn't give us neat answers. Why did the townsman rally to save a church run by a minister who mostly ignored them, while deserting McCabe who brought them prosperity? Was Mrs. Miller found of McCabe, or was it just a business relationship? Was McCabe just a bumbling man in the right place at the right time, or did he have some unique entrepreneurship? I have my answers, just as you will have yours after watching the haunting, beautiful movie.

The DVD transfer appears rather grainy to me (I remember such crisp images from that large theater screen), and the sound is dim (Leonard Cohen's songs are distant and I really had to crank up the volume).

Rating:
Summary: Pacific north "western"
Review: Set in the late 19th century Pacific Northwest, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is unlike conventional westerns. Warren Beatty gives an outstanding performance as McCabe, an itinerant gambler who settles in the small town of Presbyterian Church, and goes about building a saloon and whorehouse with Constance Miller, played by Julie Christie. When McCabe is approached by a pair of mining company employees to sell out his holdings, he bluffs, holding out for a better offer. As in poker, sometimes they call your bluff, and so it is with McCabe. Bounty hunters are sent in to get rid of McCabe, and take his property by force.

The town used for the movie was literally carved out of the wilderness of British Columbia, and has the rough edge and character of a newly born mining town. Seasons set the mood for much of the movie, with rainy northwest weather, contrasted with winter snows. While the confines of the town are close, what is striking about the main characters is their distance from each other. McCabe struggles with his feelings for Miller, but she maintains her emotional distance, more interested in opium than McCabe. The final scene plays out as the town's church burns, and McCabe faces the bounty hunters, while Mrs. Miller slips away to smoke opium. Sad, haunting and realistic, this film has been called 'perfect' and one of the best of all time. To me, it's good, but not great. While praiseworthy, it moves a little slowly. The DVD commentary from Altman is pretty good too.

Rating:
Summary: If A Frog Had Wings
Review: Robert Altman's peak was in the late 60's to the mid '70's, when he directed three classic films, M*A*S*H, NASHVILLE, and this masterpiece, McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Dark, off-kilter, and probably closer to the real world of the 1890's than the trash passed off as Western period films since 1903, MC&MRSM is a dark critique of the myth of American individualism.

Set in the bleak mining town of Presbytrian Church, the film tells the story of John McCabe, a gambler who sees an opportunity to make money from the grubby denizens of the town by importing whores. He improvises a tent-town bordello, but soon runs into problems with personnel. Enter hop-head madam Mrs. Miller, who lets McCabe know he's an idiot and joins him to turn his enterprise into a profitable business worthy of any Rotary club. All the while, the silent, aesthetic Methodist Minister watches these degrading developments, helpless to stop them.

McCabe, a fool, turns down an offer from a large mining company, who knowing he is a minor fly, sends up some sociopaths to swat him. In one of the most heart-rending sequences ever filmed, a young cowboy we're come to know as an enthusiastic patron of Mrs. Miller's establishment is set-up for murder by one of the three killers merely for sport.

McCabe, often mistaken for a gun-fighter of the same name, is forced to confront these ruthless men, and he manages to kill them, but at the cost of his own life. During the gunbattle the Presbyterian Church is burned and the preacher is blown to pieces by accident. Mrs. Miller retreats to her opium haze.

This plot outline barely scratches the surface of one of the most remarkable films ever made. The look of the film, all muted blues, brown, ochre lights, was groundbreaking in 1971, and still looks great. The ensemble cast of Altman players, John Shuck, Rene Aberjouis among them, create a real sense of community. There is no doubt these men know each other.

Little is said in this film, making it a great example of what a visual director can do; the dialogue is seldom important. The Leonard Cohen score is still the most radical soundtrack ever, and perfectly suited to this "acoustic" film.

This is a prophetic film as well. Go to any town in America and see how the hard-working McCabes are doing against the Wal-Mart supercenters.

A great film, and one that is perfect in every way. Realism, great acting, well-shot, jarring, memorable. Put it up against any current film and see how far the art of filmmaking has lost compared to the technology that has given us such hits as "Pearl Harbor."

Rating:
Summary: Somebody wake me when this thing is over.
Review: Dull, boring, uninteresting moodfest/snore-a-thon. Does for Westerns what "2001" did for Sci-fi. If you like movies for their artistic "vision" then by all means. But if you believe movies should be designed to entertain then you may want to take a pass on this overhyped turkey.

Not even Warren Beatty can salvage this anti-movie. I'm sure Fellini would have liked it though. Just plain awful. 2 dogs.

Rating:
Summary: I didn't get it.
Review: Perhaps I need to view "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" yet another time. I only watched it once and I really didn't "get" it. I had heard that it was a brilliant movie. Roger Ebert even called it a "perfect" movie. However, I was lost.

I know Robert Altman is renowned for genre-deconstruction, but the story of an inept businessman (Warren Beatty) and his whip-smart prostitute cohort (Julie Christie) in the 19th century Pacific Northwest left me cold. I really couldn't get all that interested in these two, even after Beatty's futile battle with the evil businessmen from back East. I can understand exposing the myths of the Old West, but Altman does it in a rather depressing, tedious manner.

On a different note, the famously muddled sound really wasn't all that bad, and the cinematography I thought was quite good. The Leonard Cohen songs are half-decent, but still not good enough to overcome my indifference of his musical catalog.

All in all, I am willing to give "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" another try, but not for a while anyway.

Rating:
Summary: The very best kind of movie--as good as it gets
Review: Put together Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, and Julie Christie 30 years ago and you have an excellent piece of work. This is a classic tragedy, and colors, lighting, scenery, behavior of chatacters, all mingle to act out a story whose end is predicted in the opening scenes by the singer in the background. The conclusion comes inexorably, always foreshadowed by the ballad in the background. In between we have vices, beauty, nearly everything from the human condition. Don't miss this beautiful, tragic story of greed, love, and hopelessness.

Rating:
Summary: Another mess by Robert Altman
Review: Robert Altman fans are like "Velvet Underground" fans: There are only about 500 of them around, they fanatically defend the object of their adulation, they insist that their love is the source of inspiration for everything that came out after them in their respective venues (rock music/film), even when no one else has even heard of them, they find the lack of technique as intentional and laudable, they seem to admire pointlessness. Does anyone really think the man who made "Popeye" is a genius? Everyone I know hated this film - and not because of some perceived attack on capitalism (which I think you need to have a wild imagination to see in this film) but because it seems so pointless, boring, downright pretentious. It is a grade Z art film.

Rating:
Summary: Only a Handful of Great Westerns & This Is One of Them!
Review: "Red River" and "Unforgiven" top my list of the greatest Westerns ever made. Right behind those classics is this film. Director Robert Altman gives us the West as it probably really was if you can peel back the stuff of myth and legend. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie play the hardly heroic leads who are trying to reinvent themselves in the West out of lack of other choices. Beatty is a very flawed, somewhat cowardly entrepreneur while Christie is a madam for the local prostitutes, potentially a much better entrepreneur, albeit a bit of a hop head. They have an affair of sorts that is about the best this twosome can ever hope to have and that's not saying much. After you experience living in this hard scrabble, barely standing town, you will be so glad you were not a hearty pioneer! I know I am. There is nothing glamorous or romantic about this existence in the least and Altman does not flinch from the task of laying before us the unvarnished West. Beatty and Christie also do not flinch from playing these disreputable founders of the Old West.

Rating:
Summary: Degradation of the Western Mythology
Review: McCABE AND MRS. MILLER is a demoralizing tale that degrades the sanctity of the America West. Robert Altman attacks one of the pillars of American cinema and the pioneering spirit of America itself with this film. George Roy Hill's BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and Frank Perry's DOC almost accomplished the same end though from different perspectives. Once again Robert Altman's instincts go awry as he further demonstrates that he is no auteur. McCABE AND MRS. MILLER is really not a film director's vision of a historically based society. Just the opposite is true about this film. It is all style and nothing more. There is no vision here. It is even unlike its foreign cousin, the Spaghetti Western. The Spaghetti Western is truer to the ideals of what made the classic American Western what it was. The Spaghetti Westerns were both style and substance and created a vision of the American West from an almost surrealistic netherworld of turmoil, greed and passions but always in the form of homage. If you want to see a film that de-myths the American West try and see James Frawley's KID BLUE with Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates and Ben Johnson. As far as McCABE AND MRS. MILLER is concerned the script and story are both uninteresting and Vilmos Zsigmond's inventive cinematography, though not befitting of the genre, can not take this snoozer out of the doldrums. Warren Beatty as John McCabe once again gives an underplayed performance but it somehow doesn't work in this film as it did for him in films such as SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS and BONNIE AND CLYDE.

Rating:
Summary: Altman's typical style over substance. Sissy stuff.
Review: It's a travesty that this film should be so highly regarded while Heaven's Gate's gets constantly trashed. This film is typical of its director, having little feel for character or history or myth. It's pretty & "hip" in a fashion catalog way. All the characters have a contemporary (for the period it was made) look & attitude. Bad movie!