McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Year: 1971
Genre: Western
Directed: Robert Altman
Stars: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, Willaim Devane, John Schuck, Corey Fischer, Bert Remsen, Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Michael Murphy, Antony Holland, Hugh Millais, Manfred Schulz, Jace Van Der Veen
Production: Warner Bros.

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.

Final Grade: B