McCabe Mrs. Miller | | Cast : | Warren Beatty, Julie Christie | | Director : | Robert Altman | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 24, 1971 | | DVD Released Date : | June 04, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Japanese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 22, 2005 | | Summary | Two shared loneliness! | Content
 | This western is absolutely unusual until you realize Robert Altman is the camera eye. The world of two outsiders, who eventually meet one each other to become a common society. To instal a bordhel in the West.
Robert Altman has been one of the most intelligent and enigmatic directors in any age. He works out with the camera was a true scalpel and disects the human nature from all the angles: difuse, violent, oscure and metaphoric.
Through the years, Altman has not got back every single inch in this approach. He likes to work in the insanity's frontiers, surrounded by the febrile anguish and desperation: in this sense, he is very closed to Werner Herzog, despite Altman is more urban than him.
Warren Beaty grow up as any other actor working with Julie Christie, one of the most remarkable female icons of the stardom in those ages.
Go for this cult movie, so many times forgotten for a broad audience. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 08, 2005 | | Summary | Greatest Western | Content
| M & M is the best Western ever made. Altman has a wonderful sense of theater(he's filmed plays) - and setting (in this case the town is a stage). I love the scaling of money - in five stud poker, a 15 cent bet was probably one or two hours wages. A gunfight between a pro and country bumpkin (Keith Carradine) was probably like most actual gunfights - legal murder(one guy didn't have a chance). The final duel, Warren Beatty vs the main bad guy, is more fair. And a little legend within the big story turns out to be true! And there's a very special woman. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 28, 2005 | | Summary | A lifetime favorite | Content
| This film stunned me when I first viewed it in 1971. I was 20 and living dangerously in L.A. No attachments, evenings spent riding a Norton on Malibu Cyn Hwy, and seeing how much I could cram into everyday's experience.
Three things in this movie stopped me in my tracks. The music, by Leonard Cohen, the cinematography by Vilmos Szigmond, and the precise control of Robert Altman.
Now, 34 years later, this film still arrests me. The fact that the filmed town 'grew' as the movie developed, that the cast members lived the life in the environment that they portrayed, the willful but gentle portrayl of human weakness, warmth, and prejudice, causes me to consistantly appreciate the salvation that people seek, in whatever form, to make them whole somehow. I'm sure a lot of little criticisms can be made for the film effects, the sparse storyline, the staid pacing, but this is an 'old' film.
Looking at it now and again, I still can feel the rain turning to sleet, I can smell the lousy interiors of the buildings, I can feel the damned mud under my boots, I can feel the isolation of McCabe as he faces his murderers in the end. They surely do not make movies like this anymore, nor have for a long time. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 04, 2005 | | Summary | Turns the Western genre on its ear | Content
| The Old West as depicted in most movies consisted of heroes and villains, cowboys fighting indians and outlaws to protect a tiny rural town. Well, needless to say, the Western genre does not generally provide an accurate portrayal of the Old West. McCabe & Mrs. Miller turns the Western genre on its ear with its gritty, realistic portrait of a Western town where there are no heroes or villains, only people struggling to survive and live their lives uninterrupted.
McCabe (Warren Beatty) comes to a one-horse town called Presbyterian Church in the Pacific Northwest, where he stresses to the local gentleman that he is a businessman, though they have heard whispers that he killed a man. McCabe's intention is to build a saloon-slash-whorehouse that will make him some money and provide the men in town with some jollies. While the construction is underway, Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) makes her way into town and strikes up a partnership of sorts with McCabe. She figures he's not too bright and she can help him run a successful business. McCabe develops a liking for Mrs. Miller and her, urrmm, assets, but she does not return his affections; she gets her kicks from opium, not sex.
Before long, business is booming, and a large corporation sends a few representatives to buy out McCabe's properties in town. McCabe balks at the offer, hoping to hold out for more money, but instead the men just walk away entirely, leaving McCabe confused, until he finds out that bounty hunters have been sent to eliminate him. He fashions himself as a spokesman for the small businessman standing up to the large corporations, but his time is becoming precious.
The late '60s to early '70s was a time when some brilliant filmmakers were allowed to be daring and make the kinds of films they wanted to make. Directors like Mike Nichols and Martin Scorsese flourished, as did Robert Altman, the director of McCabe & Mrs. Miller. The visual style has hints of Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, but also adds a sepia tone quality to give it the look of old photographs, which is perfect.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller moves at a languid pace, and is less concerned with telling a compelling narrative than it is with exploring its characters. Warren Beatty brings McCabe to life with an aw-shucks approach, creating a character who so desperately wants to be a successful businessman that when he's doing something foolish he doesn't even notice. His heart, while in the right place, does too much of the decision-making.
Also, the film is very sly in its commentary on business practices, which resonates to this day. It shows the small business struggling to retain its identity outside the scope of the corporation trying to destroy it for its own benefit. Overall, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a worthy film that stands the test of time. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 12, 2005 | | Summary | heck yeah! very stylized, but realistic western. | Content
| 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.
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