It is a performances centric movie

best movie i've ever seen.

Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Right from the first shot of 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller', Robert Altman leaves no stone unturned to subvert, toy with and deconstruct every trope of the conventional Western. Warren Beatty's Mccabe turns up in a town as the mysterious stranger. He has the reputation of being a gunslinger. But unlike, the badass characters of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood of past Westerns, Mccabe is revealed to the viewer to be a bit of an insecure schmuck. Altman shakes up the gender politics by making Julie Christie's character of Mrs. Miller(Constance) a strong, independent woman who is clearly intellectually superior to Mccabe. She is the main reason why Mccabe achieved success as a businessman in the town of Presbyterian Church. The relationship between Mccabe and Constance throughout the film remains professional. Even though there are moments where the viewer can sense a bit of affection simmering beneath the surface in the way they behave with each other and talk to each other, but they never allow the professional wall standing between them to get breached(especially Constance) which mirrors the cutthroat nature of the surroundings and time. The film is also a commentary on capitalism and a deconstruction of the individualism which is exhibited by the lead characters of the classic Western. It offers a fatalistic attitude on the inevitable future that awaits anyone who refuses to sell out or assert his/her independence in a cutthroat economy. However the ending also offers a socialist and hopeful attitude to the strength and power of a community when everyone collectively put their forces together to achieve something. The entire ending can again be seen as a subversion of the ending to 'High Noon'.What enriches the film is the way Altman and his cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond capture the Pacific Northwest and simulate the feel, the visual essence and atmosphere of the Old West. The flashing technique used on the print gives the visuals a very hazy, murky look which is so perfect to underline the gritty, dirty nature of the surroundings. This is a town where civilisation in its conventional form is still nothing but a distant echo. The dynamics between the church, the small time capitalists, the general public and the oncoming industrial progress(the steam engine is used as an overt symbol of progress) is really fascinating. Altman uses his characteristic technique of overlapping dialogue to create the Renoir-esque inclusive style to simulate and properly conjure up the feel of a community. All the supporting characters of the town look, sound and feel authentic. The interior scenes of the renovated brothel stand out from the rest of the film due to the beautiful reddish hue/glow that can be found ornamenting the scenes. Leonard Cohen's beautiful songs lend an air of appropriate melancholy to the Altman's atmosphere.Warren Beatty is brilliant. He is not playing the quintessential hard man in a Western. He beautifully sells the insecurity, the vulnerability and tentativeness of Mccabe. On the other hand, Julie Christie plays the character of Constance Miller with a sense of gravitas and steely conviction. The dynamics between these two characters plays out brilliantly.Highly Recommended.

There is nothing that I would change in this. Nothing could have been done better. Spielberg, Scorsese, even Lean or Ford could not have made this movie better than Robert Altman. Robert Altman is one of the best directors in the history of cinema and this was his first crowning achievement and it remains my favourite of his. The year before he did M*A*S*H and Brewster McCloud, the former of which was his breakout film. But McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a visual and social marvel that almost never gets topped.Robert Altman has always loved exploring cinema. He always wanted to go above and beyond basic conventions. This led to him making anti-films. M*A*S*H was anti-war, The Long Goodbye was anti-film noir, 3 Women was anti-friendship, The Player is anti-Hollywood, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is anti-western. The most American movie genre has been given a twist: the costumes look different and the location is so muddy and wet and cloudy and snowy. I haven't read the book which this is based on, but I guarantee the whole anti-western aspect was Altman's idea. The massive change in the genre's look is the first thing people notice when they see this. Regular westerns such as The Searchers and Rio Bravo are colourful, taking place in dusty deserts with the sun beating down on the village. McCabe & Mrs. Miller was filmed in a small Vancouver town where it snows and it would be much easier to capture the look that westerns are not.McCabe & Mrs. Miller starts out with businessman John McCabe (Warren Beatty) travelling through and making a stop at the tiny mining community of Presbyterian Church (named after its only significant building). Legend has it that he is a violent gunslinger who recently killed a man. Is he really who people think he is? Presbyterian Church has literally nothing to it. When McCabe arrive and has some beers, it is so dark and damp. The village is presented like a cave. But McCabe has an idea: make prostitution the driving force for the town. McCabe's idea works as Presbyterian Church grows from nothing into something. Buildings are being built, and Altman got real construction workers to wear costumes as they build in real time. And it is great to see Presbyterian Church evolve thanks to driving force of John McCabe. He is a pimp who often wears the fur coat that 70s pimps wear. But he is very complex, something Beatty successfully tackles. Not far into his ventures, cockney Constance Miller (Julie Christie) offers to help McCabe's whorehouses grow as only she knows. McCabe doesn't want partners, but he reluctantly agrees. It is thanks to Mrs. Miller that prostitution empire grows into such a big deal. She is smarter than McCabe, but can he accept any of that? The main plot of the film (the first half is the titular characters building a community) happens about halfway through when McCabe is offered to be bought out by successful businessmen. The money is huge, but McCabe's personal pride shoots them down. Mrs. Miller tries to talk him into accepting the offer, but he disagrees with her. More businessmen come to Presbyterian Church and McCabe's ego may be the end of it all.Aside from the murky look of the film, the movie centring on prostitution may also put people off. The women in this film are treated as low-class people only good for one purpose: sex. While McCabe is the driving force, it is the hookers that provide the satisfactory. And it is Mrs. Miller who was the smart one of the titular characters. This movie shows that women actually ARE powerful, sometimes more than men. If women were in charge, Presbyterian Church would not have turned upside down. Altman's themes of pride and women and rumours are all phenomenal, and the anti-western shtick is great, but it is Altman's filming that gets this such a high honour. Despite such a reclusive place, the viewer is immersed in this tiny town just a few acres. And the the general look is surprisingly exquisite. It may not be as beautiful as Barry Lyndon or Dances With Wolves, but Altman is able to make many scenes look like paintings from National art museums. The whorehouses look like palaces. The cinematography is A-1. Each shot is carefully framed and set up. His lens choice packs everything needed for a scene and the zoom lens very effective in each shot. Some bits of dialogue are muddled (such as McCabe talking to himself), but it worth seeing why some bits are heard and some aren't. It is worth seeing all of Atman's cinematic choices.Lastly, Leonard Cohen makes a haunting soundtrack. There's only three songs used to perfection. I wish I could go on about this, but I can only write so much on this site.

McCabe (Warren Beatty), ne'er-do-well gambler and future pimp rides into the town of Presbyterian Church and sets up a game, then a brothel. He's soon joined by Constance Miller (Julie Christie), who convinces him to take her on as a partner. Their businesses prosper, attracting the avarice of the local mining company, who sends in, first, negotiators and, when that fails, killers. The movie is beautifully rendered, with the town's cold, wet squalor counterpointed with the warmth and increasing comfort of the brothel. Typical of Altman's busy realist style, characters mumble and talk over each other, making it somewhat hard to follow at times, but still, the film makes compelling watching. The killings, especially of Keith Carradine's goofy but harmless cowboy, are cold-hearted and brutal, in keeping with the downbeat ending. Overall, an excellent neo-Western from one of the all-time great directors.

"McCabe and Mrs. Miller", with its frontier mountain town setting and inclement weather, seems to subvert the common notions of the Western. No pretty vistas or noble gunfights in the dusty streets here, just rain and snow and mud. It's mildly off-putting in the film's beginning, but it actually sets up some nice atmosphere. I really liked Julie Christie, who was really the movie's bright spot. Her scenes schooling Warren Beatty on how to run his town were a treat. She's got a terrific English wit with a salty tongue. I was disappointed that she virtually disappeared during the third act, but it's in the service of the tense cat-and-mouse shootout. This movie is memorable for being different, sure, but there's also the bittersweet ending. It strikes me as a cynical comment on capitalism, but at least Beatty gets the last word when the fat cats try and take his business by force.7/10