Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7385 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, Arabic, French, Italian, Romanian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
A haunting, poetic anti-Western based on the 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton, Robert Altman's MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER is a deeply moving motion picture concerning love and the pursuit of wealth in early America. John McCabe (Warren Beatty), a determined businessman with a mysterious past, settles in Presbyterian Church, a small Northwestern town, and opens up a saloon and a brothel. Soon after, the English head madame, Constance Miller (Julie Christie) arrives and forms a partnership with McCabe in order to manage the brothel's business affairs. McCabe soon has trouble expressing his true feelings to Mrs. Miller, with whom he has fallen in love; she, in turn, relies on opium to distract her from her own personal sorrows. After a powerful company arrives and offers to buy out McCabe's property, his stubborn refusal ends up jeopardising his life, resulting in a showdown with three hired killers in the middle of a freak blizzard. Vilmos Zsigmond's faded imagery--purposely manipulated by "flashing" the film stock before shooting--along with production designer Leon Ericksen's authentic town, brings to life a past world that is tainted with an underlying sadness. Beatty, as the lovesick McCabe, and Christie, who was nominated for an Oscar as the hard-nosed Mrs. Miller, deliver earnest performances that add an even greater despondency to the story, which is heightened by Leonard Cohen's melancholy soundtrack.

Customer Reviews

elegiac
This is a beautifully shot movie, full of elegant, sombre tableaux. The interiors all look dark and brooding (a little like chiaroscuro oil paintings) The film works so well with the Leonard Cohen songs used in the score that the music seems to have been written with the film in mind.

On another level, this film is a rather jaundiced vision of the old west. There are no tall blond cowboys riding off into the sunset (a la "Shane"), or illiterate but charismatic characters (as in Sergio Leone's movies) This is a snowbound West full of chisellers, sleazy opportunists and madmen. Bleary saloon-bound no-hopers. Altman's vision owes a lot more to the "streetwise" movies of the 1970s than to anything ever made by John Ford. Imagine if Tom Waits had been a scriptwriter rather than a musician and you'll get some idea of what this film is like.

Altman presents the ragged backside of America's Western myth but with a certain tenderness and love for his characters and their inability to communicate with each other which is missing in a lot of his later films. I wouldn't hesitate to call it a minor masterpiece.

Travelling so long...
"You who must leave everything that you cannot control, it begins with your family but soon it comes down to your soul".. and so Leonard Cohen's most haunting lines and ambigously beautiful melodies flow into this greatest of Altman movies.

This is a borderland America, a mystic new-born America, a brutal and tragic land in which life is cheap and full of strife.

The typical Altman charm is here, the melee of life spills from the screen, voices of extras treated with the same reverence as those of our heroes, Beatty and Christie.

These two stars are in their prime and portray a delicious frisson of romance. Beatty is full of lucky bravado, but retains a steadfast honour in love and as his life becomes at risk. Christie is at her cheekiest, cajoling her way through strife, a formidable character.

Which brings me to Leonard Cohen. A great songwriter and poet who peaked in the work for this film. The first time I saw this film I was blown away by the music, its enough to make a great film all by itself.

It is not all by itself though, it complements one of the great human Director's works. A brilliant piece of historical drama and a brilliant work of art.

It really is a 'Western'
One of the 6 films I'm taking to the desert island.

Films of the Western genre are morality-plays. This film is a morality-play - an enterprising gambler tries to set up a small-time gambling establishment (and whore-house), but after the arrival of Mrs. Miller the business expands. At that point the 'big boys' try to muscle-in. He refuses to sell and a battle of wits and bullets ensues.

The story unfolds in a quiet, low-key way. The filming seems to be done in available light with one microphone so you hear the dialog as if you're actually there - not quite hearing everything - I love McCabe And Mrs Miller because it's so 'real'.