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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Bros. Pictures
Salesrank: 3658
Released: June 4, 2002 |
| Our Price: $5.79 |
| Used Price: $6.79 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
With winnings from a small-time card hustle, McCabe buys three girls and sets up a makeshift whorehouse and casino. A madame talks him into backing a real bordello complete with professionals from Seattle.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: R
Release Date: 4-JUN-2002
Media Type: DVD
Description of McCabe & Mrs. Miller:
Iconoclastic director Robert Altman (Nashville, M.A.S.H.), deconstructs and demythologizes Hollywood's typically romantic vision of the Old West in this haunting, breathtaking masterpiece. A stranger, McCabe (Warren Beatty's best performance), the film's nonheroic protagonist, rides into a dead northwest mountain town (to the mournful sounds of Leonard Cohen), possessing ambitious entrepreneurial dreams of expansion. As the town grows, Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie's finest role, as well), a tough madam, arrives and convinces McCabe to join her in a partnership. Neither are typical Western archetypes: McCabe's an insecure braggart, bumbling lover, and horrible businessman, while Mrs. Miller, hardly a whore with a heart of gold, favors her opium pipe to her partner's romantic advances. Altman, meanwhile, buries these central characters within the town's complex, richly detailed tapestry of characters, preferring to eavesdrop on their overlapping conversations and study the bleak, harsh conditions of their lifestyles. At its core, the film addresses the sacrifices of individualism needed in order to build a community, an American concept that the independent Altman views with skeptical irony. The inevitable final shoot-out underscores the theme. Because McCabe refuses to sell the town he built to a corporation, hired bounty hunters are sent. Instead of a showdown at high noon, the finale--one of Altman's most beautiful set pieces--takes place in the snow, guerilla warfare style. As McCabe runs and hides for his life, the town he created preoccupies itself with saving a burning church instead of their creator, while Mrs. Miller, stoned and grinning, detaches herself from either concern. Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond captures the town's brutal textures in luminous Cinemascope. --Dave McCoy
McCabe & Mrs. Miller Reviews:
Altman Agonistes 
2009-02-08 - If you like Altman, you may like this, but Christie is horribly miscast as the female lead and Beatty, as the male lead, might as well have "mailed in" his performance. With Altman, it's not so much about the actors as it is Altman.
This was agonizing, although possibly not as agonizing as Buffalo Bill and the Indians.
As usual, Altman takes two hours to express his cynical view of the world. So tiresome . . . .
Strong performances can't really save this messy and uninteresting film... 
2009-02-06 - Robert Altman is an acquired taste for me. It never fails that I either love or hate his work. I am a firm believer in the idea that `Short Cuts' is one of the greatest films of all time, and I truly adored `The Player' and to a lesser degree `Gosford Park'. I thought I liked `A Prairie Home Companion' until it got about halfway through and the script fell to pieces and I now practically loathe it (aside from Streep who was all kinds of superb there). He has a very unique brand of filming (I guess I should say `had'...RIP) and that style works sometimes and then fails others.
`McCabe and Mrs. Miller', in my opinion, is one of those failings.
I know that my opinion is not the popular one, but honestly, this may be my least favorite of his work that I've seen so far. I struggle with this and `A Prairie Home Companion'. At least `A Prairie Home Companion' was genuinely entertaining is most parts, even if the script was utterly ridiculous come it's closing, but whatever. Here I found myself detached and uninterested most of the time. I liked the gritty texture to this film, but found that the grit became nothing more than surface when there is no genuine feeling attached to it.
The film tells the story of John McCabe and Constance Miller, two very different individuals with the same dreams; wealth. Together they build a town from the ground up, and their success becomes something much bigger than either of them can truly handle. Grounding their town in prostitution, they become quite popular, but when McCabe allows his own arrogance and stubbornness to move him to turn down a business venture he realizes that wealth does not make you infallible.
Technically, I don't like the way the film was constructed. I don't think that Altman's style fits this type of film very well. Altman is known for making is mere observers; taking us in and out of conversations and allowing us to come to know everyone through subtle touches. That just doesn't work right here. It almost gives the film a feeling incoherency that can cause one to become frustrated or even bored, wondering just why they should be watching this film. I abhorred the use of song throughout the film as well. I didn't feel it necessary and I felt rather haphazard. It just didn't flow and made the film appear rather choppy. The grittiness of the film, while welcomed by me (I love grit), was not always advantageous. It made certain scenes hard to grasp or focus on, and while that texture complimented the subject well it didn't serve Altman's style right.
Still, as much as this film left me unimpressed, there are some facets of the film that do work. For one, the acting on the part of both leads is really impressive. I am not one who thinks Warren Beatty is an exceptional actor, but he really nailed McCabe, layering him with genuine emotions and a real sense of character. Even better though was Julie Christie who balanced Miller's frailty with a hardness that was phenomenally understated. Robert Altman also handled the films finale scenes with a brutal restraint that was very engaging. It is one of the moments where the films grit paid off and made for a phenomenally crafted and ultimately thrilling scene.
I can't really recommend this film, but nearly everyone else here does so hey, see it and judge for yourself. I don't think that it fits that wonderfully together, but that may just be me. Maybe I should watch it again. Like I said, Altman is an acquired taste, so maybe you like his style more than I do. When he nails it he really nails it (`Short Cuts') but when he misses the mark it comes across almost sloppy with no real sense of direction. That's how I feel about this one.
Warning: Poor Image Quality 
2009-01-14 - A five star film for story, cinematography and music. However, the image quality fo the transfer is very problematic. There is a "grain" on many of the shots which is not film grain. Film grain constantly changes instant by instant as the individual silver halide particles in each frams differs. By contrast, on this trsnsfer, the "grain" is unchanging, static and persists between shots. It is almost as if the film was processed through a screen when striking the final master (which may be true, but I have never read about this post-production technique being used). Also, in the opening sequence, when the titles are running, ther is a noticable dust mote (really, a hair-like curling line) on the left side of the frame, which finally is cleared out opf the gate after about 10 seconds or so). There is also noticable softness of the entire image on some shots, to be followed by other shots where the image is clear, which I find detracting.
Finally, the sound wuality on the analogue tracks is very poor. I don't have a Dolby digital decoder, so I cannot comment on the digital tracks.
However, even with these caveats, I am so very happy to have this film (finally) in my collection. Watching it a day after Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (Crtierion Collection DVD) is also very enlightening. Whether or not Altman was influenced by Kurosawa, there are elements of the story, the production values (e.g, rain in Seven Samurai, snow in McCabe to highten tension in the final showdown), and camera work which are common to both films.
My Favorite Western! 
2008-11-19 - It's Altman at his best, with a cast that clearly believed in him and relished the opportunity to be directed by him. This movie is as close to cinematic poetry as you're ever gonna get. Altman demonstrates his gift and mastery at mood, texture and tone, while skillfully adding rich layers of nuance and wit to this somewhat simple tale of a complex man -- or is McCabe a simple man in a complex tale? Beatty and Christie are nothing less than inspirational, and Carradine makes me cry (his earnest commitment the character and the haunting believability that results should be studied by every wannabe actor seeking the true goods). Such confident, restrained, detailed and thus moving filmmaking from an American master -- Altman never made a more beautiful film. Oh, to have been at least a background player in this experience (for Altman even approached their roles with a thoroughness that adds to the piece's overall realism and sense of actual community); a dream job for any performer. And Cohen's music works wonders with the film's atmosphere; I can't think of anyone else who coulda pulled it off more compatibly -- Neil Young maybe? Willie Nelson? Overall, I can't say enough about this one. I watch it each year, and it never fails to enhance my love for it in new ways every time.
Brilliant!
2008-09-01 - I loved this film when I saw it when it first came out. The combination of Beatty and Christie, who were an item at the time, assured its success with a lot of people. I wondered how I'd react to it now, so many years later. I was happy that, although it didn't have the huge emotional impact that it did on my first viewing, I still enjoyed every moment and was again genuinely moved by it.
The story is relatively simple. The enjoyment, I think, for me, is largely visual. The cinematography is gorgeous; there's something magical about shooting in the snow. (Remember that other spectacular Julie Christie film, Dr. Zhivago.) The two stars, of course, are in their prime and both beautiful to watch. They both inhabit their roles perfectly. The secondary characters are well defined and well played;
Altmann keeps them from falling into stock types.
The music, from Leonard Cohen's smash first album, which came out prior to the film, perfectly enhances the magical, bittersweet, terribly sad but beautiful mood of the film. The combination of Cohen's voice and the snow falling on the rough wooden buildings makes a kind of poetry not often seen in film.
The High Priestess of Film Reviewing, Pauline Kael, has called this film a classic and I totally agree.
