SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

JLRVancouver McCabe (Warren Beatty), ne'er-do-well gambler and future pimp rides into the town of Presbyterian Church and sets up a game, then a brothel. He's soon joined by Constance Miller (Julie Christie), who convinces him to take her on as a partner. Their businesses prosper, attracting the avarice of the local mining company, who sends in, first, negotiators and, when that fails, killers. The movie is beautifully rendered, with the town's cold, wet squalor counterpointed with the warmth and increasing comfort of the brothel. Typical of Altman's busy realist style, characters mumble and talk over each other, making it somewhat hard to follow at times, but still, the film makes compelling watching. The killings, especially of Keith Carradine's goofy but harmless cowboy, are cold-hearted and brutal, in keeping with the downbeat ending. Overall, an excellent neo-Western from one of the all-time great directors.

ma-cortes A braggart and wheeler-dealer called Mr Cabe (Warren Beatty) arrives a in a remote Old West mining town , and he opens a bordello . His ambitious enterprise thrives until a large corporation arrives on the scene . There then appears an ex-whore named Mrs Miller (Julie Christie) who offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits . Both of whom become business partners . Soon after , the mining deposits in the boom small-town attract the attention of a major enterprise , which wishes to buy out McCabe along with the rest . He refuses and then problems emerge .This stunning Western contains drama , thrills , a love story , wintry realistic vision , and shootouts at its ending . Life in the turn-of-the-century Northwest is given an awesome treatment in filmmaker Altman's visually splendid Western drama and including some brief touches of comedy . The biggest complaint against this film , as it seems to me , is that results a little bit boring , overlong and slow-moving . Being based on Edmund Naughton's novel titled ¨McCabe¨ and adapted by Brian McKay and the same Robert Altman . We meet a fantastic cast of roles, played by many of the best actors around giving marvelous acting . As top-notch acting by Warren Beatty as an ambitious small-timer businessman as well as two-bit gambler . However , Robert Altman's initial preference for the role of McCabe was Elliott Gould, whom the studio producing the film refused to accept . Nice performance from Julie Christie as as a prostitute with heart that beats to the jingle of gold . First-class support cast such as Rene Auberjonois , William Devane , John Schuck , Corey Fischer , Bert Remsen , Keith Carradine's film debut , Michael Murphy and Shelley Duvall , Altman's usual , in fact , this is second of seven films that actress Shelley Duvall made with director Robert Altman . Many of the people playing small parts, bit roles, and extras were allowed to create their own characters for the movie . Sensitive score plenty of wonderful as well as sad songs by Leonard Cohen . During post-production on this film, 'Robert Altman' was having a difficult time finding a proper musical score, until he attended a party where the album "Songs of Leonard Cohen" was playing and noticed that several songs from the album seemed to fit in with the overall mood and themes of the movie . Cohen, who had been a fan of Altman's previous film, Brewster McCloud (1970), allowed him to use three songs from the album - "The Stranger Song", "Sisters of Mercy" and "Winter Lady" . Colorful and evocative cinematography in Panavisión by classic cameraman Vilmos Zsigmond , giving a rich texture on the Western atmosphere .The motion picture was well directed by Robert Altman who offers an adequate image of Western period , as he deglamorizes ordinary mood with his realist sights . At the beginning Altman realized Shorts and he then went to Hollywood to direct Alfred Hitchcock's TV show . From here, he went on to direct a large number of television shows, until he was offered the script for ¨M.A.S.H.¨ (1970) in 1969 . This wasn't his first movie , but it was his first success . He was hardly the producer's first choice - more than fifteen other directors had already turned it down . Altman filmed another Western titled ¨Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson¨ starred by Paul Newman . After that, he had his share of hits and misses, but ¨The prayer¨ (1992) and, more recently, ¨Gosford Park¨ (2001) were particularly well . And this ¨Mr Cabe and Mrs Miller¨ that ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Western" in June 2008.

Ross622 Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller is unlike any western movie I have ever seen before with a much diverse story to other western movies that I've seen. The movie focuses on John McCabe (played by Warren Beatty) a businessman who is planning on opening a saloon and meets a prostitute during construction named Constance Miller (played by Julie Christie) who then end up being business partners with the gambler McCabe owning the saloon and Mrs. Miller owning the house of prostitutes portion of it. It was a surprise to find out that this movie was shot in Vancouver Canada when I really thought that it was shot somewhere in South Dakota.The costumes to this movie are brilliant, as well as the cinematography, makeup, acting, gunfight scenes as well as the gambling scenes, acting, and Robert Altman's direction for the film, and the casting . One thing I find to be funny about Beatty's performance is that whenever he has a cigar in his mouth he sounds like Jimmy Stewart when he is in a western movie. The movie is just brilliant including the other stuff I just mentioned as well as the very good storytelling

Donald Buehler I loved it in 1971 and I still love it. There is so much to like about McCabe and Mrs Miller: Warren Beatty is superb as the blow-hard, big shot - who has trouble adding in his head - has next to no business sense - but is smart enough to take Julie Christie (Mrs Miller) as a partner in the brothel business. Not a great fan of Mr. Beatty (Is Carly Simon's famous song about him? I think so), he is great in this role - showing that bluster and chutzpa can get you somewhere - although in the end of course it gets him killed.Julie Christie is beautiful, fiery, and mysterious as Mrs Miller. An opium addict, she tries to escape her quite sordid world through drugs ( sound familiar?) as she prods and cajoles McCabe to be what he pretends to be. One of my favorite scenes is when she is challenging him to "think big - you always think small." This is interesting as he always talks big, but in fact has a very limited vision of what can be.I love to see growth (both good an bad) in characters. Check out the progression of evil in Walter White in Breaking Bad. McCabe, although he is 90% bluff (he is a gambler) does rise to the occasion when threatened by the gunslingers at the end. It is great to see him step up when the time came - even thought the end is tragic and very poignant.But the best part of the movie for me is the ambiance and setting and the cinematography. The bleak scenery and town provide a perfect backdrop for what I believe life was like in the early days of Western expansion. Mud, cold, unwashed people, ugly women, uglier men - this is what I imagine life was like in the Old West. Loving snow scenes, the weather portrayed in the movie is excellent, especially the heavy snow at the end. The way the film was shot with the haunting Leonard Cohen music gives this film an atmosphere of dark intrigue.BTW Leonard Cohen is still at it - check him out on one of the tracks in Sons of Anarchy (Come Healing).Finally there is the mystery. Is Warren Beatty actually John McCabe - the gunslinger who killed Bill Roundtree? Or is that part of the disguise he is willing to assume to gain respect? You can point out to events in the movie which support either theory. I'm interested in your take on this - let me know what you think. Hopefully I have motivated you to see this classic film. It is in my all-time top ten (although my Mom and Dad hated it!).Thanks for reading the review of one of my favorites. DonB