Review of McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) by Harry W — 12 Oct 2014

Said to be one of the greatest Western films ever made and featuring a leading performance from Warren Beatty, McCabe & Mrs. Miller sounded like it would be a nostalgic piece of cinema.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller was a lot different to what I was expecting. It had the sort of depressive atmosphere of the Sam Peckinpah western masterpiece Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, but it was more of an anti-western and did not submit to western conventions that much at all. Instead, McCabe & Mrs. Miller simply used a Western context to tell a story about business. It maintained a lot of the common western cinematic elements such as a grim atmosphere as well as convincing visual elements and the appropriately slow pace, but it was largely an Anti-western drama film. Director Robert Altman takes an innovative look at the west in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, capitalising on the wave of the early 1970's in terms of the counterculture movement. The themes in the story are not commonly explored in Western films, especially not in the way that Robert Altman does in McCabe & Mrs. Miller tackles the material, and so it is a Western film like no other. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is about both characters and context more than horse chases and shootouts, and it functions well because it subverts standard western themes into the story while giving it more depth than the average western.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is largely interesting because of its protagonist, John McCabe. He is a man with a hard-edged determined nature and a reputation for being a gunman, but as the film goes on we see that he is actually not the one-dimensional gunfighter that everyone expects him to be and that he is really a person with heart. Unlike many other western heroes, John McCabe is a man who has never killed anyone in his life and would rather talk his way around situations while trying to ensure that everything remains fair. He is a really compelling lead character, and he anchors the heart of the story really well to ensure that the film succeeds on a personal level. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a great western both in terms of characters and spectacle, and Robert Altman's screenplay ensures that it is a consistently intelligent film with strong characters and interesting situations. The story isn't always the most interesting due mainly to the slow pace of the film, but it is certainly a memorable western film with strong characters and powerful dialogue.

Visually, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is just spot on. The scenery for the film is perfectly convincing and the production design makes everything feel a lot more western, as does the strong costume design. There is a lot of colour in McCabe & Mrs. Miller which easily makes it a legitimate story with some nicely memorable imagery to it. The soundtrack in McCabe & Mrs. Miller is just beautiful thanks mainly to Leonard Cohen's musical pieces which give the film a really nice atmosphere which is a gentle touch of melancholy. In terms of contemporary western films, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a prominent example, and it is carried by Robert Altman's passion and the talents of a great cast.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller features one of the most restrained leading performances from Warren Beatty. His performance is great because he maintains the stoicism of a cowboy and the natural persona of a wise man. He sustains the role of John McCabe really easily by keeping his emotions internaly and expressing himself subtly through few tones of line delivery and an easy physical involvment in the material. He stands really strong in the role in a performance where he conveys an easy status of confidence and wisdom, and so he anchors the heart of the story really well. Like I said, the character John McCabe is one of the most important aspects of the film, and Warren Beartty nails the role with easy charisma. He is a seriously good lead in McCabe & Mrs. Miller because he changes his appearance and strips away his status simply to get deep into the character, and it is no surprise just how effective it becomes. Warren Beatty cements McCabe & Mrs. Miller as a memorable and great western film if for nothing else than strictly on the basis of his performance, so he is a very genial presence.

Julie Christie also does a nice job. Taking on the part of the titular Constance Miller, Julie Christie stands strong in her role but also projects a lot of natural stress that comes with her part. As the troubled Opium Addict, Julie Christie delivers all of her lines with a subtle sense of damage to them which always suggests that she has something to hide, and as the story goes on she develops beyond just that and we see many sides of her. She is very consistent in the role, and her chemistry with Warren Beatty is really nice because of the support that the two actors genuinely give to each other. The relationship they share between the two is great, and it is particularly key to Julie Christie's character. So her leading performance is another welcome one which is able to carry the material of the screenplay nicely.

So despite being a rather slow film, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is an engaging classic anti-western film with impressive visuals, strong work from Robert Altman and a powerful leading performance from Warren Beatty.