Review of McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) by Tim H — 10 Jul 2008

Golly, I'm getting tired of writing reviews. I just gotta get past this hump and keep this kind of attitude going.

This is what the real world is like. Outside of M*A*S*H, Robert Altman has a very keen eye for reality and manages to reproduce it with such a natural beauty that I have to just sit in awe of him. I haven't seen a ton of his movies, but I have seen my fair share. This might be my favorite out of the bunch. (I'm still on the fence because I really, REALLY dug M*A*S*H.) What I'm talking about in this movie, when it comes to capturing reality, can really be summarized in the opening sequence in the bar with all of the dialogue. I just talked to my friend, Jeff, and he said that the mixing on the movie is infamous for being terrible. I believe that, but I am leaning more towards the fact that it has that "barlike atmosphere" where is is noisy, but unintelligable noise. It is so overwhelming with personal problems and interests that you really can't determine what is going on. I think that it really is effective.

The music is the one thing that really irks me. Cohen does the music, but it isn't like there are multiple songs going throughout the movie. It's one song throughout the movie. I don't think it's awful, but I didn't like the song as it was, but I guess, to some extent, it is fairly effective. So as much as it irks me, I can think of worse things to happen in this movie than the music.

The look of the film is very different than anything else that I've ever seen come out of a Hollywood Western. While the imagery is clearly based in the 1800's style of display (signs screaming "traditing post" still are displayed from rooftops, so it's not completely new), but this is the first movie where nothing really looks like a set. Jeff mentioned that the cast and crew built the town and lived in it. That's completely different than what I'm used to seeing in any of those budget, classic Hollywood Westerns. Also, the setting in the snowy mountains seems almost foreign to me. I am so accustomed to seeing desert life and the yellowish tint to everything that I can't even begin to wrap my mind around something with a natural grey to it. It really is a new experience and I really approve for what it did for this movie. I have to especially bring up the fact of how the snow plays into the movie...

The last fifteen minutes of this movie are the best fifteen mintues of a film that I've seen in a long time. Different from what I described in Mister Roberts, the entire film kept my interest, but there was a driving force at the end that really sold the movie for me and made it absolutely perfect. (Minus the music, which I think is more of a personal hangup than anything else.) That scene with him on the run from the killers is scary and real enough. There's nothing overly dramatic about the entire thing. There's no great plot to beat the bad guy or any valiant heroics, like in High Noon. Rather, we see the cowardace of a man hiding out, hoping to evade his killers and mentally wishing these men away. Add to that the cuts to the church burning. It's really effective because he truly is alone in this town. While he is being hunted to his death, his friends and town has abandoned him to fight a fire. MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD. Then the final shots of the movie. Mrs. Miller's eyes starting out. I could have sworn that she would have stood up and ran to McCabe's rescue. But she was honestly that far gone. She was in another world altogether. But there's McCabe, sitting in the snow. I hope to God some of that was fake snow because I have no idea how that would have been filmed otherwise. I was almost in pain watching McCabe's upright body being buried in the harsh environment.

There's one actor that I really have to give credit to in this movie. The actor who plays the young psychopath. Most of the movie is fairly light and fun. After all, I think that this movie borders more on romance than it does on Western. But then Altman introduces this dark dark moment on the bridge. I don't want to ruin it for you, but it is actually a little scary. You know what is going to happen, but when it does, you freak out. It's a really solid moment.

This movie was just a flat-out win for me. I know that not all of the Westerns I'm going to watch will have the same effectiveness, but this one definitely did something new and I really applaud that.