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McCabe & Mrs. Miller | Year: 1971 Classification: Western Directed: - Robert Altman Actors/Actresses: - Warren Beatty - Julie Christie One of the BEST Films Ever Made McCabe and Mrs. Miller is yet another brillant work from Robert Altman who along with Scorsese ranks as the two greatest filmmakers America has produced. Next to "Nashville", this is Altman's best film. One of Altman's devices is to take an established genre of filmmaking and turn it completely inside out and reexamine it. Here, Altman has made a Western (or is is an Anti-Western)like no other. This neither looks nor feels like any other film I've seen. Warren Beatty gives the performance of his career here(you would'nt know he and Altman were at odds the entire shoot) and I will forever remember the lovely Julie Christie as Mrs. Miller, the tough talking shrewd and business smart prostitute. Altman's sensational style of filmmaking perfectly suits the material, his remarkable use of overlapping dialogue demands multiple viewings, and Vilmos Zsigmond's incredible, ususual cinematography is endlessly fascinating to look at. And ,as with most of Altman's work, one can interpet the film a number of ways. Is it a tough look at achieving the American Dream, or is it a study of American frontierism/individualism vs. community/democracy? Is it (as one previous reviewer commented)an indictment of Capitalism and a look at the way Big Business encroached on the frontier and a simple way of life. Is it a study of loneliness and heroism? The answer is yes to all of these. To top it off, Altman's use of Leonard Cohen's songs to accompany the film adds to the overall sense of melancholy, it fits it beautifully. If I sound like I'm gushing, I am, great films have that effect. See this now! Not Much Plot, but Strong Documentary Feel Robert Altman's meandering, "we'll put it together in editing" directorial style lends an air of documentarian authenticity to this grim western, set in a snow-covered northwest mining town peopled by an aimless mob of mostly European immigrants. With no heroes to speak of, the film chronicles the downfall of an ambitious, if inept, entrepreneur (Warren Beatty) and his drug-addled prostitute partner (Julie Christie). Less about living than about survival, the film not surprisingly offers little in the way of plot, but it's nihilistic themes ring true with the moody acting of its leads and the dusty, sepia tones of its imagery. A particularly ironic moment of social commentary occurs when, after helping the town's whites save their church from a fire, an African-American couple just wanders away from the resulting celebration quietly, knowing they are no longer welcome. Leonard Cohen--less gravelly than usual but as hopeless as the guy with the guitar in "Operation Petticoat"--provides the soundtrack with a patina of sadness common to films of the early 70s. Worst Western Ever Made "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" is the worst western ever made. Warren Beatty and Robert Altman join up to destroy the whole western genre single handedly. This is not what the west was all about. Altman has it all wrong. There is no honor, dignity or glory to be found anywhere in this film. That's what the west was really all about. Sorry. Buy Mccabe And Mrs Miller at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Mccabe And Mrs Miller Search with the Priority Search Engine on Mccabe And Mrs Miller This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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