McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Reviewed by Gerald Clough

 

“He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.”  

So goes the intro song to Robert Altman's western masterpiece, McCabe and Mrs. Miller.   Eighteen years after my first of many viewings I'm still trying to figure out exactly how Leonard cohen meant to tie in Warren Beatty's John McCabe and the Biblical Joseph out there in the late 1800s Pacific Northwest .   McCabe and Mrs. Miller is one of those rare films that rewards multiple viewings for a number of literary and technical reasons.   The screenplay is an obvious allegory couched in the familiar western genre; the allegory is that of   post Civil War corporate takeover and the ensuing destruction of everything.   Everything.    Throughout the film nature (which of course is good) is destroyed by Nixonesque forces in the form of the modern corporation.   Even the stuff that is represented by Christian forces to be “bad” or nonmoral is subject to corporate takeover in McCabe.   On a technical level, the film is magnificent in its use of sound (many critics note the fact that the viewer comes in during the middle of the characters' conversations) and the film is noteworthy in its cinematography.   In addition to the classic the stranger song, Leonard Cohen scored the music to the film.   Everybody knows Leonard Cohen's work from Natural Born Killers   and Shrek .  

            The plot is fairly simple.   Seasoned poker player McCabe rides into town on his horse during the film's opening titles with the intentions of opening up a gambling hall and a whorehouse.   Things are running just barely okay until McCabe hooks up with Mrs. Miller who is a seasoned pro.   Being that this is post Civil War USA McCabe is going to have to deal with the forces spreading throughout the west at the time-- the ruthless spread of industrialization.   Basically after corporate America gets wind of McCabe's success they try to buy him out of the good thing he's got going out there in the woods of the Pacific Northwest .

            I liken McCabe to John Boorman's adaptation of James Dickey's Deliverance in its use of outdoor shots to bring us some of the classic American survival stories.   I've heard that Altman brought the actors in McCabe together on the location set for at least a month in order to get that rhythm of life method acting thing going.   The outdoorsy cinematography is one of the primary reasons to recommend this film.   The outdoors stuff is not gratutitous .   Obviously there are some gunfights in McCabe and Mrs. Miller; these gunfights are among the best ever shot due to their intensity, the setting and the way it all ties together thematically.

            Things to note, critically speaking, are Altman's use of the zoom lens a couple times in the film.   At a time in the early 70s when the zoom lens was being used to death—usually to convey a sense of urgency— altman does a great job of using the zoom to convey urgency just a couple times.   Also watch for Beatty's relationship with the earth itself.

            The gunmen sent to cause McCabe and the other townspeople problems are menacing, fairly psychotic and accurate enough that the viewer will remember them long after the film is over.

            If you are looking for one of those really cool films made in the 1970s McCabe and Mrs. Miller is one of those 1970s films that stays with you.   This film is very high on my all time favorite list and I watch it at least once a year.   I cannot rate a film higher than I rate McCabe and Mrs. Miller.