McCabe & Mrs. Miller
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Movie Reviews of McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Movie Review: A True Film Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been waiting for years for a DVD version of Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs.Miller" to come out.This is my all time favorite western (or should I say anti-western).It is a anti-western because there are no heroic John Wayne types in ten gallon hats.Instead we are shown a weary frontier world populated by immigrants who are trying to eek out an existence. The film is about an itinerant gambler named McCabe (well played by Warren Beatty) who comes to a muddy, primitive, frontier mining town with the ideal of getting into the business of supplying the local miners with whiskey and women.He is soon approached by Mrs.Miller (a hard as nails prostitute played by Julie Christie) to go into a partnership to build a proper bordello.She supplies the women and the management, while he supplies the house.All goes well until McCabe is approached by a large mining corporation to buy out his holdings.When negotiations break down, the corporation sends a murderous posse.This film is arguably Robert Altman's masterpiece.The story is something you might hear by a midnight campfire. There are no real heroes, yet these characters keep you infinitly interested.Beatty and Christie are brilliant in the lead roles, playing two very flawed people, who have nobody to blame but themselves for their downfall.The supporting cast is excellent giving the viewer possibly a dozen other mini stories in the background.The cinematography in this movie is beautiful as it shows this drama being played out in the warm amber glow of gas lamps and fireplaces. The soundtrack to this movie is packed with the wonderful music of singer-songwriter Lenard Cohen. His world weary voice perfectly matches the film's dirty, frontier town and its inhabitants.The DVD to this film supplies extras which includes Robert Altman's commentary, a short documentry and a trailer.The dialogue track to this movie has always been somewhat muddy and indistinct.It was a real joy to be able to use the DVD's subtitles feature to figure out the content of many of the background conversations.I love this movie and I have seen it multiple times over the years.It is a beautiful but haunting film which stays with you long after its over.Movie Review: Sublime
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorite films of all-time, Robert Altman's best, and perhaps Warren Beatty's best.As others have said, this film explores the dark, realist side of the American West. However, unlike other anti-Westerns of the era like The Wild Bunch, it does so in a hauntingly beautiful, even lyrical (albeit melancholic) way, augmented by Leonard Cohen's perfectly matched songs and the atmospheric cinematography.
There are the usual Western archetypes and themes - the gunslinger, the [prostitute], the church (symbolizing redemption and civilization), etc. - but Altman turns them upside-down. The would-be hero is an insecure bumbler who lets the whore get under his skin and dies, unceremoniously, in a snowbank. There is no honor among the thieves - they shoot people for no particular reason. The church burns. And, unlike most Westerns, the film is set not in the desert, but in the foggy Pacific Northwest, adding to the murky, morally ambiguous atmosphere, which is further enhanced by the occasionally inaudible dialogue.
This understated film has none of the overwrought archness of Altman's later work, so those who have been put off by same (as I have) need not worry - these are not merely clever celebrity cameos, but characters who live and breathe and make us care about what happens to them. The film is sombre but has many naturally comic moments (thanks to Beatty's usual bumbling loverboy persona) and is never merely studied or self-important. Similarly, for those who might be skeptical, Cohen's music is his earliest, most affecting, and least pompous.
I have a very sensitive BS meter and it never buzzes during this remarkably beautiful and affecting movie. For those who really care about film, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Movie Review: Just some Joseph looking for a manger!
Summary: 5 Stars
Warren Beatty as John McCabe, rides horseback alone into the muddy, mining town of Presbyterian Church with aspirations in the "hospitality" trade, and heads for the local tavern, and inquires, "Where's the back door?"..While outside, the village snoop played quirkily by Rene Auberjonois fuels innuendo that "Pudgy" McCabe is a celebrated gunfighter with a big rep, in fact gunned down Bill Roundtree, a man not to be trifled with, over a poker squawk, a marked Queen..Actually, McCabe had slipped outside to fetch a navajo blanket to spread over a card table to simulate the feel of felt, and add a dash of class to a game of five card stud..Ironic how first impressions and uncontested speculation end up so misguided, off the mark?..McCabe was foremost a backwater businessman, a speculator, on a mission to set up a whorehouse and gambling parlor, for diversion, but more for profits..He told his patrons, boys, help me set the tents up for my chippies, and we'll start to have some fun around here, cause I got girls that can turn more tricks than a monkey on a hundred yards of grapevine..Such a facility with words sprinkled among the dead-enders up in those cold, damp hills of Washington state, prompted McCabe to be the town's leading citizen, it's spokeperson..And, like the cards that got Bill Roundtree killed, also a marked man, the Joker in a stacked deck..Watch this marvel of a movie, directed and co-scripted by Robert Altman of "Mash" and "Nashville" fame, and discover how the West was not won by a roundtable of civic-minded Rotarians, but pirates and plunderers!..Oh by the way, did I mention Julie Christie is Mrs. Miller, the opium smoking madam, realist, to Warren Beatty's, John McCabe, the frontier pimp, idealist?Movie Review: American Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
One reviewer here insists that if you buy this DVD you will not get the basic movie, you'll only be getting a lot of commentary. This is nonsense - this DVD offers the basic movie, plus plenty of commentary if you want it, etc. - all the usual good stuff you want in a DVD.
Having taken care of that, I just want to express my undying admiration for this film. It's probably the only movie I make a point to watch annually, usually in the autumn or early winter. (This ain't a summer picture in any way, shape or form - it's saturated with the feel of bad weather.)
Every moment of "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" works for me. The bridge encounter involving Keith Carradine is my nomination for the single most stunning sequence in the history of the movies. The music - my God - here I go again with another superlative - I really can't think of a film that better unites image and music unless maybe it's 10 or 15 minutes of "Yellow Submarine." Maybe the opening of "2001," OK, that too. Robert Altman once said in an interview in the San Jose Mercury News that he was listening to Leonard Cohen's music in Paris while he was working on the script. While he was working on the script! The music informed the writing! It's an organic part of the whole deal! And on the DVD it's gorgeously clear and vivid. Thank you, Robert Altman. And Leonard Cohen. And Brian McKay and Edmund Naughton. And Warren Beatty and Julie Christie too, and the Mighty Altman Art Players, wherever you have scattered. Your work here will live forever.
Movie Review: If not Altman's greatest film, certainly one of his top five....
Summary: 5 Stars
This, along with Nashville, are my favorite Altman films. This is one of the most beautiful, haunting, sad, and poetic westerns ever made. Actually, to call it a Western is a bit misleading, as it may be technically a Western, it is much more than that. The Leonard Cohen soundtrack fits in so well with the film. Amazingly, the songs by Cohen were NOT written specifically for the film. Altman was a major Cohen fan, and got permission from Leonard to use his songs for his film. Thank you, Mr. Leonard Cohen. I can't really imagine this film without them. Most of the songs here appear on Leonard's album Songs of Leonard Cohen album. The Stranger Song, the song that plays over the opening credits, sets the mood so perfectly for the entire film. The look of the film is one of the more unique in cinematic history. It was achieved through various filters at the time. Vilmos Zigmond, the cinematographer, didn't get the look in the lab, but in the camera, which made it look as good as it does. Dreyer's Vampyr has a similar other worldly look like this film, except that film had a light leak in the camera. In other words, that was a happy accident. This film was a deliberate attempt at a new cinematic look, and it succeeds in spades. This is great filmmaking. The performances are astounding as well. Beatty and Christie are wonderful, and Keith Carradine is superb in a small, but tragic role. This is one of Altman's greatest films, a film that you can watch over and over again.