McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

This film is a perfect example of director Robert Altman being Robert Altman. It's a meandering tale, more interested in characters and moments then traditional narrative. Based on a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton titled simply McCabe, I can't help but wonder how much of the original novel made it to screen, as Altman seem like he's so organic a director that the source material would be little more then a seed, I know Stanley Kubrick was notoriously that way. Anyway the film stars then lovers at the height of there popularity Warren Beatty (as McCabe) and Julie Christie (as Mrs. Miller), interestingly even with these two staring, and Altman fresh off of the success of M*A*S*H, this movie was not a hit.

Set in Washington state circa 1900 the films takes place mostly in a zinc mining boom town at the beginning of its boom. The town is named Presbyterian Church in honor of the structure at its center, which will end up playing an important part in the story. A small town was actually constructed for this movie up in the Canadian Rockies, it starts out with just a few structures but more get built over the course of the film, which I would estimate is suppose to cover a period of around  9 months. McCabe is a gambler who comes to the town to essentially to take it over and build himself a little empire. Part of this empire is a whore house he builds, and which he eventually puts an experienced prostitute Mrs. Miller in charge of. However McCabe gets so successful that he attracts the attention of a business syndicate who attempts to buy him out now that he's really gotten the town started, McCabe refuses and this results in on the most atypical 'show down' sequences that I have ever seen in a film, one which makes it so that this movie is worth seeing for its last 25 minutes alone.

I just must point out this films astounding supporting cast, many of them at there beginnings of what would prove to be long careers, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Murphy, Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, William Devane and John Schuck all appear in this film. Altman tends to make product that very much isn't for everyone, and this "anti-western" certainly isn't, but its an almost heartbreakingly beautiful looking film, with an unusual sense of  verisimilitude. McCabe and Mrs. Miller doesn't so much feel like a western movie story as it does like a real story from the old west. Though fictional I could totally buy this as really happening, the kind of tale that might warrant a historical plaque for visiting tourists. I thought it was a movie well worth visiting. ***1/2