Throwback Thursday: ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’

Robert Altman is a director that almost entirely polarizes me. Â  I either really love his films or I am utterly bored by them. Â  My love or hate for an Altman film is pretty far from the norm, as well. Â  I’m not a fan whatsoever of ‘Nashville,’ yet I absolutely adore ‘Popeye’ and ‘Quintet’ (just don’t try to understand the rules of the game in that one).

With Altman’s passing in November of 2006, we can sit back and look over the man’s entire career, choosing the best and worst from that bunch. Â  In my eyes, the absolute best film Altman’s filmography has to offer is ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller.’

Warm and cold at the same time, heartbreaking and jovial, ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ was one of Altman’s first films. Â  Set in a small, Northwestern town during the old west, John McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives in town to set up a saloon and brothel. Â  Julie Christie plays the brothel’s madam, Mrs. Miller, whom McCabe quickly falls in love with. Â  Soon after, a company arrives in town to attempt to buy out McCabe, but he refuses. Â  The refusal escalates into violence.

The story is very simple.   It’s based on the 1959 novel, McCabe, by Edmund Naughton, but what makes this film damn near perfect is Altman’s direction and the performances of the two leads.   Altman’s revisionist style fits in perfectly with the film’s dark themes, and scenes of violence become beautiful through their composition.   Through Altman’s direction, every character within the film is given an importance, even a weight to a scene they appear in.   This was done through Altman’s decision to allow many of the people playing smaller parts, even extras, to create backstories for their character.

From Altman’s direction comes the performances given by Beatty and Christie, the latter of which earned an Oscar nomination for her role. Â  William Devane, Rene Auberjonois, and Shelley Duvall all give memorable performances, as well. Â  Keith Carradine, as simply, the Cowboy, made his debut with ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller.’

Altman’s steadiness when framing and shooting scenes, with help from cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond (‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’) gives the film the power to stand up after all of these years.   The film’s soundtrack, made up entirely of songs by Leonard Cohen, is equally brilliant.

Three Cohen songs (“The Stranger Song”, “Winter Lady”, and “The Sisters of Mercy”) appear in the film. Â  “The Sisters of Mercy” appears on a number of occasions throughout the film, and it is riveting every time we hear the single, lonely guitar string start the song off. Â  The songs are incredibly appropriate for the themes and story found within the film, and it is amazing to think that the songs were not written for the film. Â  Altman did not hear the songs until the film was in post-production. Â  After attending a party where Cohen’s album “Songs of Leonard Cohen”, Altman decided the three songs fit his film perfectly. Â  Altman was later upset to hear that Cohen did not like ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller.’ Â  Years later, Cohen phoned Altman saying he had changed his mind about the film after having seen it with an audience.

Haunting, powerful, and poetic, this film couldn’t be any better.   I’m quoting Roger Ebert here, but he said it perfectly when he said, “Rober Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is McCabe & Mrs. Miller.”   Seek this one out.

‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ can be purchased at Amazon.   It is also a part of the TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Western Adventures along with ‘The Wild Bunch,’ ‘Jeremiah Johnson,’ and ‘The Train Robbers.’   A Blu-Ray is not yet available for the film.   A hardcover book, Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West by Robert Self  about the film’s production and its place in American cinema is also available.