McCabe&Mrs Miller: Robert Altman's classic anti-western from the '70s

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan

McCabe&Mrs Miller (1971) is the second straight Warren Beatty film I watched recently. Though Beatty impressed me with his performances in Parallax View and McCabe, he wasn't the reason I watched McCabe&Mrs Miller--it's for Robert Altman, the maverick director.

Before starting to talk about the revisionist western McCabe and Mrs Miller, I feel impelled to look at the style and vision of Altman.

The first Altman movie I ever watched was The Long Goodbye(1973). I bought the DVD thinking it's a detective movie. Yes, It was a detective movie, but I didn't get the kind of pleasure that I was expecting from a detective movie. It doesn't  mean The Long Goodbye disappointed me, but I got a different kind of enjoyment out of it.

Director Robert Altman

This first experience with Altman precisely sums up what to expect when you go to watch an Altman movie , "EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED." If you give a script of a genre movie for Altman to direct, he will subvert all the conventions of that particular genre and give you back a final cut entirely different from what you envisioned. And they call his style of subversion 'Altmanesque'.

Let's go back to McCabe. McCabe is an out and out anti-western. The movie reflects Altman's criticism of America and aversion for Hollywood conventions.

On a molecular level, McCabe and Mrs Miller is about a business proposition gone wrong that finally results in murder.

McCabe, a lonely gambler, reaches a town named Presbyterian Church. The town is inhabited by mining community. We don't see much progress in the town. There's no big establishments in the town.

Warren Beatty as McCabe in McCabe&Mrs Miller

When McCabe arrives in the town, rumors spread that he's actually a gun shooter. He plays along the rumor as it gives some advantage. He enjoys the fake 'hero' image he's given.

McCabe starts a brothel in the town with three women he bought from nearby town. The women aren't attractive but he thinks they are enough for the simple-minded folks in Presbyterian Church.

McCabe's business gets a good start when Mrs Miller (Julie Christie) arrives with a wagon of prostitutes. She says she can be a great brothel manager. With Mrs Miller's  expertise, McCabe's business prospers. He becomes a person of importance in the town.

As the town prospers, a big mining company develops an interest n buying out the properties in  Presbyterian Church. They send two executives to talk deal with McCabe. However, McCabe's incompetence in talking deals make the proposition go haywire.

Check out another classic from the '70s here: THE PARALLAX VIEW: ONE HELL OF A CONSPIRACY THRILLER FROM THE '70S 

The mining company decided to kill McCabe to own his properties. Three hired killers arrive in the town to kill him. Now, it is revealed that McCabe is not a shooter and he never killed anyone.

McCabe starts fearing for his life. He goes to the killers to renew the business proposition put forward by the company. But the killers are just hired hands, they don't talk business deals for the company.

One of the most interesting aspect of the Altman universe it let us listen to every one of its characters. It doesn't concentrate on a single character. In McCabe, two characters often engage in a conversation about 'beards.' One of them asks the other's opinion on whether he would look good if he shaves the beard off. The conversation has progress climaxing in the guy shaving the beard off.

The folks in the town

It actually looks like a subplot within the movie, which have no relevance to the plot. You can still enjoy the movie if you opt not to listen to the conversation. But it opens a door to the characters that populate the town. And that is one of the characteristics of an Altman movie. The town itself seems like a character.

Another important aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed in the movie is the songs by Leonard Cohen. The lyrics and music by Cohen seems like they were specially written for the movie.

There are three songs in the movie 'The Stranger Song', 'Sisters of Mercy' and 'Winter Lady.' The songs were written and released much before the movie was made. And the songs have a key role in elevating the movie into a masterpiece.

'The Stranger Song' perfectly fits as a  theme for McCabe's arrival in town. The line 'He was just a Joseph looking for his manger' perfectly describes the anti-hero.

McCabe&Mrs Miller is undoubtedly a masterpiece from Robert Altman. It's a sad romantic tale and a revision on the frontier myth. It stands out from the typical Westerns of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood and shows us a Western that is more humane and artistic.