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Less a western than a Pacific Northwestern,
Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" is a grim treatise on
the rollover of the American entrepreneur, the little man. The
film is both bleak and beautiful, gritty and luminscent. If you
like your golds and browns, it is a feast for the eye.
Warren Beatty is McCabe, a fraud of a man who
sets up a whorehouse in a mining town. Soon, he is joined by
Julie Christie (she appears from nowhere with whores and better
business practices) and they become an awkward yet succesful
economic (if not romantic) duo. At core, however, they are weak,
he only marginally canny and living on a fake gunfighter's
reputation, she an opium addict. Still, they sort-of flourish.
But Altman insists on making even his fledgling anti-heroes
corrupt. Their trade kills honest husbands and makes whores of
their wives. It attracts death and murders the young.
The Company comes to town and they want to buy
McCabe out. Here, Altman's broad themes are best depicted.
Business (Michael Murphy) is alternatively disgusted and
dismissive of McCabe. He is a chump, a rube to be proven out of
his depth or worse, some lower order of man. When McCabe doesn't
fold (more out of stubborn ignorance than principle),
negotiations are halted, killers summoned. McCabe seeks safety
next from the law and politics (William Devane). He is offered
death at the aggrandizement of power, or (and I laughed) a
lawsuit. In the end, religion fails McCabe in a direct fashion
and he is swallowed up by inexorable progress.
Beatty and Christie make this languid journey
go, and their chemistry is palpable as they play the role of
losers on a brief roll. Each del;ives a performance that cleary
burnishes well-worn losers who have, on occasion, hot moments.
The film has a minor parallel to "High
Noon" only Altman's towns folk are either distracted or
disinterested in his fate. They know the score, and a fool such
as McCabe does not really merit their attention. Fear does not
drive them, as it did the citizenry of "High Noon."
Instead, acceptance is their watchword.
Problems: a laughable Leonard Cohen ditty that
accompanies McCabe in the first part of the film, giving him a
lame Simon and Garfunkel ("Homeward Bound"?) rip-off as
minstrel accompaniment. Also, Altman regularly zooms-in
inexplicably on peculiar objects (a musical instrument, Julie
Christie's food, someone's face), and the effect is cheesy (Altman
has yet to shake this problem - he did it a lot in "The
Gingerbread Man").
I like this movie some, but it is dour and one
can get caught up in the symbolism, unfortunately, because that
is most of what Altman has to offer.
Comments on Review:
23833
. CalGal - June 2, 1999 - 11:18 AM PT
Niner,
...
I think McCabe actually comes off rather well;
had he not that final scene with Christie I would agree with you.
Mrs. Miller, on the other hand, is further proof (to me, at any
rate) that Altman is unkind to women.
23835
. 109109 - June 2, 1999 - 11:25 AM PT
Cal
Well, the West (even the Pacific Northwest) was
unkind to women. After all, horses were $50, and he got three
whores for $200.
McCabe is a loser, and, as I said, he has some
moments, but his victories are pyhrric. He was finished the
moment he counteroffered, and Christie knew it.
Which reminds, the scene wherein he meets the
"bear hunter" is the finest of the film. Altman
belittles Beatty from the get go and starts him on his slow
descent.
..
23838
. CalGal - June 2, 1999 - 11:36 AM PT
Niner,
Oh, please. You can't imagine I'm referring to
the fact that Mrs. Miller is a whore. No, I mean she is
ineffectual. She *does* know that McCabe has missed the boat--and
yet when the men come to the whorehouse for a miraculous last
chance, she doesn't go down with him but rather lets him fuck up
again. She pretends to toughness, but she leaves her fate in the
hands of McCabe and does nothing but bitch about it.
I don't even think Altman sees this as unusual
and I doubt he set it up this way on purpose. It probably never
occurred to him that there was a better way to do it. But it
would certainly have been in keeping for her character to have
either taken over--or make it even more brutal and have her sell
him out. Since she recognized that he was done for, her self-preservation
would have been entirely logical. But no, she resigns herself to
her fate and drifts away in a cloud of opium. Hardly the woman
who showed up at the beginning of the movie.
23840
. 109109 - June 2, 1999 - 11:52 AM PT
Cal
"No, I mean she is ineffectual. She *does*
know that McCabe has missed the boat--and yet when the men come
to the whorehouse for a miraculous last chance, she doesn't go
down with him but rather lets him fuck up again. She pretends to
toughness, but she leaves her fate in the hands of McCabe and
does nothing but bitch about it."
She is a woman of her times, a $5 fuck, and an
opium addict at that. Having her Linda Hamilton-like pick up a
weapon may have been satisfying, on some level, but rather
ridiculous. Moreover, McCabe is - at heart - a numbskull. She is
smart enough to know he is beyond help.
"But it would certainly have been in
keeping for her character to have either taken over--or make it
even more brutal and have her sell him out."
How? The Company could have killed her easier
than him. Simply put, her station gave her even less bargaining
power than a chump like McCabe. So, cat-like double-cross of
McCabe not only would deny their slow-evolving affection, but it
would have been a major symbolic reversal of Altman's themes (and
historically inapt to boot).
"Since she recognized that he was done for,
her self-preservation would have been entirely logical. But no,
she resigns herself to her fate and drifts away in a cloud of
opium. Hardly the woman who showed up at the beginning of the
movie."
Addicts have their ups and their downs. She
thought McCabe was her ticket, a dumb man with money who could be
managed. She couldn't overcome his stupidity.
23853
. CalGal - June 2, 1999 - 12:50 PM PT
Niner,
I'm not thinking of Linda Hamilton, but rather
a brutal sellout. Going to the Company men and informing them of
her value, and so on.
I think your depiction is right on. There were
a number of other ways to complete the story that would have
spoken better of her strength and still kept the story intact.
Instead, he chose for her the character you describe.
Like I said--Altman is not kind to women, at
least in the movies I've seen thus far. It is an oblique
unkindness, and it provides wonderful roles for actresses. So no
one complains.
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