McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

McCabe (Warren Beatty), ne'er-do-well gambler and future pimp rides into the town of Presbyterian Church and sets up a game, then a brothel. He's soon joined by Constance Miller (Julie Christie), who convinces him to take her on as a partner. Their businesses prosper, attracting the avarice of the local mining company, who sends in, first, negotiators and, when that fails, killers. The movie is beautifully rendered, with the town's cold, wet squalor counterpointed with the warmth and increasing comfort of the brothel. Typical of Altman's busy realist style, characters mumble and talk over each other, making it somewhat hard to follow at times, but still, the film makes compelling watching. The killings, especially of Keith Carradine's goofy but harmless cowboy, are cold-hearted and brutal, in keeping with the downbeat ending. Overall, an excellent neo-Western from one of the all-time great directors.

With the demise of the Hays code in the late 60s many movies took an anti-establishment tack. Altman called this movie not a western but an anti-western. But there is nothing here Deadwood doesn't do in spades. If the movie were to be released today it would labeled a typical western. The overall plots not bad. Small mining camp grows and shows enough potential profitability that a large mining interest wants to buy out everyone cheap. Weak hands fold. But the strong, stubborn and stupid decide to stay and fight. The two buyers who were sent in by the company do not have the patience to stay in town but are anxious to get back to the comforts of home. They go to plan B, bring in the hired killers. Realistic enough but the implication of a Plan B is that either McCabe's signature or his brains are on the sales contract. But Butler, the chief killer, says he's not there to make a deal (BTW, Hugh Millias plays the intimidating Butler to perfection and steals every scene he is in). There is no explanation how the company gets McCabe's holdings by killing him.Of course that's not what the movie is about. No western is about proper filings at the county clerk's office. This western, like many westerns, is about armed confrontation, the shoot out! The trio of bad guys are about as good as you'll find in any western. Butler, the swaggering leader, the silent "half-breed" who could kill with a stare and the crazy "kid" who goes off at the slightest provocation. On the other side McCabe is kinda an odd bird. He is savvy enough to earn his living as a gambler and enterprising enough to build as saloon and whorehouse. Otherwise Beatty plays the role like the village idiot. There are doubts as to whether McCabe can handle a gun much less has killed a man. No Al Swearengen here. The final shoot out is not bad. It's suspenseful enough with an ending similar to that in Hamlet.Otherwise the mood and setting were great. I pretty much was drawn in to the authenticity of a cold dank muddy mining camp far up the mountain from anything civilized. I put on my sweater just to take the chill off.

Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller is unlike any western movie I have ever seen before with a much diverse story to other western movies that I've seen. The movie focuses on John McCabe (played by Warren Beatty) a businessman who is planning on opening a saloon and meets a prostitute during construction named Constance Miller (played by Julie Christie) who then end up being business partners with the gambler McCabe owning the saloon and Mrs. Miller owning the house of prostitutes portion of it. It was a surprise to find out that this movie was shot in Vancouver Canada when I really thought that it was shot somewhere in South Dakota.The costumes to this movie are brilliant, as well as the cinematography, makeup, acting, gunfight scenes as well as the gambling scenes, acting, and Robert Altman's direction for the film, and the casting . One thing I find to be funny about Beatty's performance is that whenever he has a cigar in his mouth he sounds like Jimmy Stewart when he is in a western movie. The movie is just brilliant including the other stuff I just mentioned as well as the very good storytelling

I loved it in 1971 and I still love it. There is so much to like about McCabe and Mrs Miller: Warren Beatty is superb as the blow-hard, big shot - who has trouble adding in his head - has next to no business sense - but is smart enough to take Julie Christie (Mrs Miller) as a partner in the brothel business. Not a great fan of Mr. Beatty (Is Carly Simon's famous song about him? I think so), he is great in this role - showing that bluster and chutzpa can get you somewhere - although in the end of course it gets him killed.Julie Christie is beautiful, fiery, and mysterious as Mrs Miller. An opium addict, she tries to escape her quite sordid world through drugs ( sound familiar?) as she prods and cajoles McCabe to be what he pretends to be. One of my favorite scenes is when she is challenging him to "think big - you always think small." This is interesting as he always talks big, but in fact has a very limited vision of what can be.I love to see growth (both good an bad) in characters. Check out the progression of evil in Walter White in Breaking Bad. McCabe, although he is 90% bluff (he is a gambler) does rise to the occasion when threatened by the gunslingers at the end. It is great to see him step up when the time came - even thought the end is tragic and very poignant.But the best part of the movie for me is the ambiance and setting and the cinematography. The bleak scenery and town provide a perfect backdrop for what I believe life was like in the early days of Western expansion. Mud, cold, unwashed people, ugly women, uglier men - this is what I imagine life was like in the Old West. Loving snow scenes, the weather portrayed in the movie is excellent, especially the heavy snow at the end. The way the film was shot with the haunting Leonard Cohen music gives this film an atmosphere of dark intrigue.BTW Leonard Cohen is still at it - check him out on one of the tracks in Sons of Anarchy (Come Healing).Finally there is the mystery. Is Warren Beatty actually John McCabe - the gunslinger who killed Bill Roundtree? Or is that part of the disguise he is willing to assume to gain respect? You can point out to events in the movie which support either theory. I'm interested in your take on this - let me know what you think. Hopefully I have motivated you to see this classic film. It is in my all-time top ten (although my Mom and Dad hated it!).Thanks for reading the review of one of my favorites. DonB