I've finally decided to class this place up. There's another film I had in mind for this spot, but it shall wait for another day. This week, I'm going with Robert Altman's revisionist (if there is such a thing) western, McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
Before I get started, I feel like I'm in the minority of people who neither loves nor loathes the works of Altman. I've been on all points of the spectrum, but it seems most fall on one side or the other. He's done films I'll never see (A Prairie Home Companion, mainly because I don't like the radio show), films I hate (Nashville. I know, it's a crime) and films I love (MASH).
McCabe and Mrs. Miller started out in the Nashville category, rambling and rather dull. The only thing of note was the excellent use of Leonard Cohen's music. At about the halfway point, the McCabe started hooking me in. A plot began to form and a started noticing the performances, particularly Warren Beatty's. I kind of admire him for taking his fair share of leading man roles where he has a fairly large and emasculating character trait. His "I've got poetry in me" soliloquy is pretty fantastic, too.
Altman does little to make the West look appealing. I put a sweatshirt on while watching looking at all of those people bundled up in giant fur coats walking around 3 foot high drifts of snow (OK, my house was pretty chilly, too). The mud practically cakes on the screen and one wonders why anyone bothered dressing nicely back then. And, of course, you've got the crazy people just itching to shoot you for any reason (there's one particularly gut-wrenching moment in mind, both for it's cruelty and I was sad to see the actor go).
The ending is perfect. Emotions run high and low. Altman's old West isn't about good guys and bad guys. It's about a town that goes on regardless of anyone's big plans. He hints at a hundred different stories that could've been told in this same town (OK, maybe a bit less than a hundred), but he told about McCabe and Mrs. Miller. And it's a bittersweet tale.
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