McCabe & Mrs. Miller
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Movie Reviews of McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Movie Review: McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Summary: 5 Stars
In the opening shots of Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," we follow John McCabe (Warren Beatty) making his way on horseback through the hills of the Pacific Northwest. As the camera shifts to the side, it picks up the credits, hanging in the rain-soaked air. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, delights with beautiful plush cinematography.John McCabe,a determined businessman with a mysterious past, settles in Presbyterian Church, a small Northwestern town, and opens up a saloon and a brothel. Soon after Constance Miller (Julie Christie) arrives and strikes a deal with McCabe to manage the brothel. McCabe loves Mrs. Miller and gives in to most of her wishes, she however uses opium and it's unclear how much she feels for McCabe. The money and power mining folks want to buy out McCabe's holdings in town and he bargains too long foolishly imagining the cards he was holding to be alot better than they were. The Mining company sends their killers and McCabe deals with them as the church burns and snow falls.
In The New York Times Magazine, Aljean Harmetz wrote of Robert Altman's films: "He wants to catch the accidents of life and fling them on the screen hard enough to knock the breath out of the audience. He wants to weigh the screen down with vulgarity, pleasure, pain, ugliness, and unexpected beauty". In " McCabe and Mrs. Miller" Altman has painted with these very brush strokes a still, quiet masterpiece.
Movie Review: True starkly real western
Summary: 5 Stars
Many years ago when I first saw this movie I, like many others, was full of the false impression of the west in the 1800's that was propogated by Hollywood. The good guys always wore white, always won the battle, and always got the girl.
This movie put a different perspective on what the west, in fact the era, was really like. R. Altman created the backdrop for that stark reality using a combination of music and imagery of dismal winters weather and mud lined streets. The characters were not heros but just people doing the best they could to survive in a harsh world.
In the case of Julie Christie's character survival included disappearing from reality through the use of opium. Other characters portrayed are Shelly Duvall as the mail order bride turned prostitute when her husband is killed and Kieth Carradine as a cowboy who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The final shootout is not a "meet in the street and shoot it out" gunbattle but rather a game of hide and seek with survival at stake. Even the final ending has a starkness surrounding it with the bodies probably frozen and hidden by snow until springs thaw and Julie submerging herself in the opium pits to forget the man you think she may actually have feelings for.
This movie is a true reality check on what the west was probably really like and the first of its time to portray a realistic version of it.
Movie Review: Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this film when I saw it when it first came out. The combination of Beatty and Christie, who were an item at the time, assured its success with a lot of people. I wondered how I'd react to it now, so many years later. I was happy that, although it didn't have the huge emotional impact that it did on my first viewing, I still enjoyed every moment and was again genuinely moved by it.
The story is relatively simple. The enjoyment, I think, for me, is largely visual. The cinematography is gorgeous; there's something magical about shooting in the snow. (Remember that other spectacular Julie Christie film, Dr. Zhivago.) The two stars, of course, are in their prime and both beautiful to watch. They both inhabit their roles perfectly. The secondary characters are well defined and well played;
Altmann keeps them from falling into stock types.
The music, from Leonard Cohen's smash first album, which came out prior to the film, perfectly enhances the magical, bittersweet, terribly sad but beautiful mood of the film. The combination of Cohen's voice and the snow falling on the rough wooden buildings makes a kind of poetry not often seen in film.
The High Priestess of Film Reviewing, Pauline Kael, has called this film a classic and I totally agree.
Movie Review: heck yeah! very stylized, but realistic western.
Summary: 5 Stars
this movie rips!! but i should say you won't necessarily love it if you love leone or spagettis, and you definitely won't necessarily like it if you like westerns. you'll probably like it if you like robert altman's "good" period, i.e. mash, nashville, brewster mccloud and the long goodbye.
this movie with it's leonard cohen songs and wet grimy muddy set and 19th century freakshow cast seems like it could be right in the heart of 70s psychedelic noir style...but it also occured to me that it was one of the most realistic western movies i've seen. we get to see the town, not a cheesy looking fake ghost town, but a place that looks under construction...and don't forget around 1900 most western towns should look like a construction site. i thought that was such a great touch. the rain and mud is so evocative and the struggle of the residents against the elements is played out very well.
don't be fooled by reviews that say this is slow or boring. this is not ingmar bergman or fellini. this is a very lush and rich charactor study done in a fantastic setting set to a very hip and appropriate musical score.
the ending really did not let me down at all. it's a very valid way to leave those charactors.
please see movie this if you love 70s cinema.
Movie Review: My Favorite Western!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's Altman at his best, with a cast that clearly believed in him and relished the opportunity to be directed by him. This movie is as close to cinematic poetry as you're ever gonna get. Altman demonstrates his gift and mastery at mood, texture and tone, while skillfully adding rich layers of nuance and wit to this somewhat simple tale of a complex man -- or is McCabe a simple man in a complex tale? Beatty and Christie are nothing less than inspirational, and Carradine makes me cry (his earnest commitment the character and the haunting believability that results should be studied by every wannabe actor seeking the true goods). Such confident, restrained, detailed and thus moving filmmaking from an American master -- Altman never made a more beautiful film. Oh, to have been at least a background player in this experience (for Altman even approached their roles with a thoroughness that adds to the piece's overall realism and sense of actual community); a dream job for any performer. And Cohen's music works wonders with the film's atmosphere; I can't think of anyone else who coulda pulled it off more compatibly -- Neil Young maybe? Willie Nelson? Overall, I can't say enough about this one. I watch it each year, and it never fails to enhance my love for it in new ways every time.