MCCABE AND MRS MILLER

  Robert Altman, one of the American masters of cinema, at least in my opinion, made a major impact on the Western genre by essentially grounding it in reality with McCabe and Mrs. Miller, taking several tired cliches, reverting them, and adding in a dose of realism. McCabe, an odd gambler and unconventional hero, attempts to build up a railroad town, bringing in prostitutes, gambling and pubs, turing the quiet snowy land into the quintessential wild west town, drawing eyes from major businesses. Mrs. Miller comes in with her own prostitutes to help McCabe, and the two embark on an ultimately doomed relationship.
        The film’s cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, using long takes and slightly overexposed film to give it a washed out, old-time sepia look. The film perfectly utilizes one of my favorite musicians, the incomparable singer-poet Leonard Cohen, using several tracks from his debut album. The rest of the sound, however, is the film’s greatest weakness. It seems Altman and his crew miked  every person, then decided to mix the track later, giving it a foggy, muddy noise.
       McCabe is essentially a dirt bag, unscrupulous and greedy, but falls for the opium addicted Mrs. Miller, who like-wise falls from him. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie are both fantastic, putting aside their real-life romance to portray two lovers who are completely incompatible.
       McCabe dooms himself by attempting to play hard ball with two representatives of a massive corporation, who resent his games and leave before he can accept their offer. The company sends a hulking man with two toughs to end McCabe, but unlike most brutes seen in Westerns, the huge man is sophisticated, intelligent, and suave, easily outsmarting and weakening McCabe psychologically and ruining his reputation in town. Now, McCabe is alone, and must defeat the enemies.
       But Beatty is no Gary Cooper, and does not march out into the streets to fight against his foes. McCabe is a weasel, and thus acts like one, or at least the audience would view him as cowardly if expecting a Western. Truthfully, it is just realistic. He shoots his enemies in their back, a major faux pas in Western lore, and sneaks in hide in the fresh falling snow.
       Christie, meanwhile, feeds her addiction, and smokes opium while McCabe defeats the leader of the posse, but dies in the process. Ultimately, the film is about the relation between the title characters, and its doomed, incompatible nature, having to end on the definitive note of McCabe dying alone in the snow.