McCabe And Mrs. Miller

Year: 1971

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Altman

Review

i suppose the most remarkable thing about this film is its visual style. released a year before godfather, mccabe and mrs. miller employs a faded and tinted (yellow, orange and brownish) look to achieve a dated, period look. vilmos zsigmond (deer hunter, psycho a go-go) does the cinematography. a young upstart town is the centerpiece of the film. in this sense it reminded me of “far country” which showed some of the more interesting goings-on of a newly formed town. beatty is a businessman who seeks to bring the new town a brothel/saloon. christie plays a street smart woman who ends up being his business partner and romantic interest. not much actually happens in the film until the last half hour of the film. most of the time it’s more about beatty’s romantic and business life. there are enough comic moments to keep the film balanced, especially given the ending. the film has a very musical (done by leonard cohen) sweep and tone to it. there are several musically driven sequences, not as a way of passing time, but more as a method of breaking up the film or providing punctuation. there are other sequences, which center around christie’s character, which feature two or more people talking in the foreground at first, but the camera follows christie, or some other action and the talking shifts to the background to create a sort of dreamy, musical effect. it’s hard to describe, especially when i don’t remember it that well. suffice it to say, it’s noteworthy and interesting. i respect the film, but i didn’t enjoy it enough to give it any more than a .