McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1971, 120 min
Section: New Hollywood II

Synopsis

It’s 1901 and a stranger called John Q. McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives in a rain-drenched mining town at the foot of wooded hills. The former gambler opens a brothel in the inhospitable-looking settlement that turns into prosperous business when seasoned prostitute and later a business partner, Constance Miller (Julie Christie), is brought in. One day, however, representatives of a large mining company take an interest in buying McCabe’s fulfilled dream. The proud entrepreneur refuses, and it is only a question of time before unscrupulous hired guns arrive. The conventional theme served as Robert Altman’s starting point for his now legendary overhaul of the western genre. While the emphasis on the psychology of the characters follows up on Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, the melancholy hero is reminiscent of Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or Jarmusch’s Dead Man. Leonard Cohen’s captivating ballads and cinematography recalling the photography of the period amplify the elegiac tone of this “autumnal” western, while panoramic long shots of characters blending with their environment and multilayered sound heighten the realism of this, one of the most significant films of the 1970s.

About the director

Robert Altman (b. 1925, Kansas City - 2006, Los Angeles), entered public consciousness with his black comedy M.A.S.H. (1970). One of his most successful films is a sarcastic criticism of Hollywood machinations, The Player (1992). He is the creator of more than three dozen feature films, important among which are his “group portraits” with star-studded casting such as Nashville (1975), A Wedding (1978), Short Cuts (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Kansas City (1996) and Gosford Park (2001). Altman’s revisionary takes on film genres were made primarily during the New Hollywood period, such as the gangster film Thieves Like Us (1974), the westerns McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976), and the Chandleresque crime noir The Long Goodbye (1973). Altman was nominated five times for the Oscar for Best Director, and in his final years was presented with the Academy’s Honorary Award.