Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Spikeopath McCabe and Mrs Miller is directed by Robert Altman and Altman co-adapts the screenplay with Brian McKay. It's adapted from the novel McCabe written by Edmund Naughton. It stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, John Schuck, Keith Carradine, Rene Auberjonois and Bert Remson. Music is by Leonard Cohen and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond.A gambler and a prostitute become business partners in the remote mining town of Presbyterian Church, as their enterprise booms it comes to the attention of a large mining corporation who want to buy the action.Altman's grim and dirty slice of the Old West (Northwestern here to be precise) is a divisive picture in Western fan circles. In fact it's been said that it's more beloved by none Western fans and Altman acolytes than actual Western lovers. Put up as a flag bearer for the Anti-Western splinter, a mud and rags Oater for terminology purpose, there is no denying the quality on show across the board.Set in bleak winter time, Altman and his crew pour on the atmospherics in practically every frame, with the director using his familiar film making trademarks (overlap conversations, realistic movement of characters in framing shots etc) for maximum impact. With Cohen warbling his plaintive tunes at each story juncture, there's a haunting beauty on offer that belies the narrative thrust fronted by losers and dreamers. While Zsigmond brilliantly photographs the extreme difference between the homely feel of the interiors, with that of the cold snowy wilderness outside the doors, where the muted colours ooze period flavour.Purposely built for the film, the town of Presbyterian Church is a sea of mud, snow and timber, where the weather is perpetually dank, the surroundings enveloping chief protagonist McCabe like an unearthly portent. There are no great pyrotechnics here, and the story is being told in slow and deliberate time, which goes a long way to explaining why it is a divisive film, so any newcomers should be forewarned of this. Beatty and Christie in the title roles are superb, both defrocked of their star status beauty, they perform skilfully for realistic portrayals.Not an easy watch, but always riveting and fascinating, it for sure is a piece of art. A picture worthy of revisits when the mood is set for total immersion. 8/10

jimprideaux2 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.

charlywiles Let me start out by saying that I am a fan of director Robert Altmam and have enjoyed many of his films. "MASH," "Nashville," and "The Player" are absolutely brilliant pictures and there is much to enjoy in many of his other films, including "The Prairie Home Companion," "The Company" and "Cookie's Fortune." However, he has also made his share of turkeys. Among these I would include "Short Cuts," "Popeye" and "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." His two worst efforts, however, are probably his two Western films, "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" (quite possibly the worst Western ever made) and this incredibly overrated film."McCabe" does have some good points, which include terrific attention to detail in art direction-set decoration and Julie Christie's excellent performance, but these are not enough to overcome poorly lit photography, the annoyingly unclear overlapped dialogue, Beatty's poor acting and Leonard Cohen's insipid musical score. The downbeat story, depressing mood and the slow pace of the film really made it a chore for me to sit through as well.It's mind-boggling how anyone could place this on their list of favorite Westerns (unless you really don't like them to begin with), let alone place it on their list of favorite films, period ("Citizen Kane" or "Casablanca" or "Lawrence of Arabia" anyone!).

popcorninhell Near the end of the film, a bounty hunter known as Kid (Schulz) perches himself on a rickety suspension bridge blocking the path of a good-natured cowboy (Carradine). After a brief exchange Kid shoots the cowboy; his body falls limp into the frozen lake below. The events that put these two minor characters towards a path of destruction are sadly mundane. It's the type of spat that could happen at a supermarket or while in traffic; it's senseless, it's disheartening and it's frighteningly real. There are plenty of intricately melancholy moments in the meandering McCabe and Mrs. Miller that resemble the cowboy's death, and all are taking common western genre traditions and putting them on their head.Our titular protagonists are John McCabe (Beatty) and Constance Miller (Christie), two time-ravaged souls willing themselves to the ends of the earth for greener pastures. When we first meet McCabe he's a gambler who is rumored to have shot a man in a poker game. He shows up to the only saloon in the small mining town of Presbyterian Church and promptly wins a few hands before cashing out. Instead of spending his money on booze, he buys three whores from a nearby town and brings them to Presbyterian Church to start himself a racket. His luck improves with the arrival of Mrs. Miller a former cockney prostitute who bets she can make McCabe's budding business much more profitable.By the sounds of it, director Robert Altman is constructing a western in the mode of Man of the West (1958) or The Far Country (1954) (albeit with a brothel involved). Yet given the idiosyncratic nature of Altman's entire filmography, McCabe and Mrs. Miller should never be mistaken for anything resembling a John Wayne vehicle. Altman gingerly picks apart story elements and purposely bastardizes them for the sake of revisionist experimentation. What was once noble is made cowardly. What was once legendary is made human. Iconic scenes of heroes gunning down bad guys against the noon day sun, are now early morning hide and seek games; the townsfolk none- the-wiser.Altman once again imbues the film with his signature style. The camera never cuts back and forth between snippets of dialogue. It rather glides through the scene, taking in everything and everyone as people audibly converse amid the action. Life just goes on and on. Those who have seen and love Robert Altman films will enjoy his straightforward ensemble staging and complex sound design. Those who hate his films will only find more of the same though with a rebellious flair similar to his debut MASH (1971).The major difference between McCabe and Mrs. Miller and the auteur's other works is a permeating sadness throughout. Shot in the cold, misty forests of British Columbia, there's nary a scene where flecks of precipitation aren't falling through the air. The town itself is a product of the surrounding wilderness; cobbled together from whole timber and resembling a work site started by amateurs without a blueprint. Then there are the frames of the film lovingly crafted by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond which echoes the dusty, dimly lit photos of our past; faded and ashen, drenched in sepia. All these little details conjure the idea that the film is consumed from the living past and the denizens of Presbyterian Church might as well be souls in purgatory. We feel for their plight, even if we know we can't help them.Much like Godard's animus towards cinema du papa, Altman seems to be picking apart the western genre with the voracity of an angry child. There is a muted energy behind the camera. Small moments where you can catch a glimpse of the director's modus operendi; a larger set prostitute laughs gleefully at a gaggle of bathing women; Shelley Duvall's Ida comes to terms with becoming a whore after the death of her husband etc. Those moments strike the viewer as impassioned to be sure. I am personally torn between the films very purposeful demystifying of the old west and at times forceful indignation towards it.McCabe and Mrs. Miller is certainly not for everyone, the least of all unabashed fans of the western genre. The film is an anti-western hitting the same notes as Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) though with a plodding, contemplative pacing that's makes it uniquely and wholly Robert Altman's. The film leaves the audience to discern what is true about McCabe and what is hogwash. Yet the character of McCabe sees himself as a dreamer; a man with the heart of a poet yet lacking the vocabulary or the agency to express himself. His relationship with Mrs. Miller is a cynical one. It's a cold, unforgiving, even a mean- spirited partnership at times that leaves the film with its one sour note.Yet within the confines of its own cynical world, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a superb film. It showcases beautiful and unique cinematography, solid period accurate art direction and some brilliant acting on the part of Warren Beatty and especially Julie Christie. The film certainly ranks among one of the best westerns if for no other reason than it singles out some of the common concepts embedded in the genre and mixes it with post-1960's sensibilities and cynicism. Finally, while those who were never fans if Robert Altman's oeuvre will find nothing new to really gravitate towards, there's no denying McCabe and Mrs. Miller is bar-none one of his best films.