McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) - Altman

The Hype -

No. 169 on the TSPDT 1,000 Greatest Films.

AFI No. 8 Western of all Time:

Roger Ebert -

"It is not often given to a director to make a perfect film. Some spend their lives trying, but always fall short. Robert Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is McCabe and Mrs. Miller(1971)"

Pauline Kael -

"A beautiful pipe dream of a movie: Robert Altman's fleeting vision of what frontier life might have been, with Warren Beatty as a cocky small-time gambler and Julie Christie as an ambitious madam in the turn-of-the-century Northwest. Delicate, richly textured, and unusually understated, this modern classic is not like any other film. Altman builds a Western town as one might build a castle in the air--and it's inhabited."

The Reality - McCabe and Mrs Miller is a pretentious, revisionist "Western" for people who don't like Westerns. A Small town hustler (Beatty) sets up a bordello with his drug addled Madame (Julie Christie) in a Northwest lumber town . Not really a "Western" more of a costume drama filled with 1971 dialogue and attitudes. The sound was badly recorded with half the dialogue being uttered out the corner of people's mouths or in remote corners of the set. The indoor photography is also poor and looks like a badly shot 16mm film.

There is no real plot - only a series of vignettes, and the acting ranges from poor to adequate. Beatty wears a beard and does his usual charming, alpha male as puppy dog act. Neither McCabe nor Mrs. Miller are particularly likable or interesting. Like most Altman films the movie is pointless - but has a few great scenes in the last 30 minutes, namely the shootout at the bridge and McCabe death.

The Real Reason Its Rated Highly -

1. Cinemaphiles love Robert Altman. Why? I don't know - but they do.
2. They also love Warren Beatty - I guess 'cause he's so "dreamy".
3. The movie is "revisionist" or according to the New York Times: "McCabe and Mrs. Miller re-imagines the American West as a muddy frontier filled with hustlers, opportunists, and corporate sharks -- a turn-of-the-century model for a 1971 America mired in violence and lies" 
4. Westerns are too popular to leave off any "Great Films" list, but most film critics dislike the Genre. Given their love of Altman, choosing McCabe as a "Great film" is a win-win for them.

Re-watch Postscript - I was struck by how absurdly unrealistic the last part of the film is, including the shootout.

First, the Big Corporation sends 3 hit-men to kill McCabe - no matter what. Isn't the whole point to get him to sell out and only kill him if necessary?

Second,  McCabe owns most of the town and is worth $6,000 - a small fortune in those days,  yet has no "hired gun" or "Muscle"  to protect him or to keep order at the whorehouse and saloon. All the miners are just sweethearts.

And there's the indifference to the killers.  The town marshal who never appears, and none of the townspeople care that 3 killers with guns are wandering about town looking to kill McCabe.  No one tries to help him, and when the killers murder the Churchman in the Church, no one even notices!  However, when the Church is set afire they all come out to put it out.  And none of his whores even act as lookouts.