McCabe & Mrs. Miller Reviews

Kind of cute, naif, stupidly and selfconsciously heroic (Beatty is such a thing after speaking with lawyer William Devane); north west reveals some secrets (you can sell and if you don't want then the gunfigther´s come; its cheap to waste the life of a china man; it is manly to shoot looking in the yes, even if the victim doesn't understand what's all about)...

It had been a while since I saw a movie directed by Robert Altman and since this one is considered as one of his ultimate masterpieces, I was really eager to check it out. While watching this, I realized that Altman is actually a rather difficult director. I mean, it is not that his movies are really cryptic or difficult to follow like with David Lynch or Kim Ki-Duk for example, but he definitely has a very oblic approach concerning his directing which might explain why I have sometimes a hard time with his movies. Basically, he usually puts his camera in the middle of the scene and leave the characters do the talking but there is no real editing and, sometimes, you have 5 characters speaking to each other, sometimes improvising their dialogues which have nothing to do with the plot. It is like when someone gets into a room, normally, he would be presented to the audience somehow but, since the characters already know this person, they just skip this. As a result, you get something really realistic and this directing style definitely was Robert Altman’s trademark but, honestly, I think I find it rather alienating. I mean, there is something pretty mesmerizing about this directing style but I think it is also creates a gap between the audience and the characters. Still, even though this movie didn’t really blow me away, it looked quite terrific, the songs provided by Leonard Cohen were a perfect fit and it must be one of the gloomiest Western I have ever seen. To conclude, I think it is a really nice flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Robert Altman’s work.

McCabe & Mrs.Miller is an unforgettable masterpiece. It is beautifully photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond. The graininess of the images effectively transport the viewer to this particular period in American history. The story is told with such subtlety and at the same time it conveys so much depth beneath the surface. Hilarious at times and also melancholic. Great lead performances from Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. A poetic Western and love-story and a landmark of American cinema.