McCabe & Mrs. Miller

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Movie
German title McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Original title McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1971
length 120 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Robert Altman
script Robert Altman
Brian McKay (writer)
production Mitchell Brower
Robert Eggenweiler
David Foster
music Leonard Cohen
camera Vilmos Zsigmond
cut Lou Lombardo
occupation

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is an anti-western by Robert Altman from 1971. It is based on the novel No Chance for McCabe (original title: McCabe ) by Edmund Naughton .

action

In 1902, McCabe, a professional gamer, was riding a horse and approaching a mountain town in the northwestern United States. The town has the unusual name Presbyterian Church and is still under construction; the weather is cold and wet.

McCabe arrives at Sheehan's saloon. He can win a larger number of men for rounds of poker. In the days that followed, McCabe took three prostitutes from a local pimp for a fee. Soon after, an improvised brothel operation starts in Presbyterian Church. McCabe is also busy building a saloon, which will also include a gambling den.

A tractor-like steam engine on wheels comes rolling into town. Passengers include Constance Miller and the " catalog bride " Ida, who has been requested by an elderly man.

Mrs. Miller suddenly turns to McCabe upon arrival. She came to town because she heard about his activities and because she wants to make him a business proposal. She wants to set up a brothel business and wants to act as an organizer. McCabe should only be responsible for the financing and be involved with fifty percent of the income.

McCabe has a habit of getting drunk before making important decisions. So in this case too. He feels taken by surprise by Mrs. Miller's demands and her resolute demeanor, but later agrees to her suggestions.

The brothel is set up according to Mrs. Miller's ideas. That means: prostitutes for higher demands are recruited in Seattle, and there is also a bathing establishment attached to the brothel. Constance Miller introduced herself as a prostitute after her arrival and is now pursuing her profession in the new brothel. While customers pay $ 1.50 for intimate encounters with their colleagues, the same service with Mrs. Miller costs five dollars.

McCabe can be seen walking down a street and uttering a lament that can be heard several times in the film in a similar form. The tenor is: "I always have to pay and pay and otherwise I have pain, pain, pain." It becomes clear that he has developed a strong affection for Mrs. Miller. However, he has to come to terms with the fact that, despite all the sympathy that Mrs. Miller has for him, his feelings are not reciprocated. Mrs. Miller lets McCabe into bed with her, but always demands (except for once towards the end of the film) that he pay the usual five dollars.

Mrs. Miller has a habit of preparing and smoking an opium pipe in the evening before going to bed. McCabe keeps this habit hidden.

Business is going well for McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Therefore the mining company becomes aware of them. Negotiators come to McCabe with the task of negotiating the sale of his property with him. Mrs. Miller warns McCabe that he could quickly get into a very difficult situation. Should the negotiations be broken off without a result, then the mining company will seek his life.

McCabe ignores Mrs. Miller's warnings and makes a serious mistake. During the negotiations, he indicates that instead of the offered $ 6,250, he has in mind a purchase price of $ 14,000. As a result, the negotiators are no longer willing to regard him as a serious business partner and leave. Mrs. Miller advises him to flee now. McCabe, however, continues to cling to the idea that the mining company people will still be willing to negotiate.

The former "mail order bride" Ida loses her husband and is accepted into the circle of prostitutes by Mrs. Miller.

Three strangers arrive who appear to have come to town because of McCabe. McCabe is still betting that an amicable agreement will be reached, but the boss of the trio explains that he has not come to town for negotiations.

A young cowboy arrives in town because he wants to let off steam in the brothel. His style is well received by Mrs. Miller's prostitutes. When his stay ends, the women say goodbye to him, but soon afterwards runs into a boy from the killer trio, who first provokes him and then shoots him.

McCabe seeks protection from a lawyer (William Devane). He strives for a political career and likes to use political speeches to gain trust. McCabe's simple hint "I just want me not to be killed" is ignored by him.

McCabe is pursued by the killer trio. He goes to the town's church and gets an overview from the church tower. The Reverend shows no understanding for his situation, threatens McCabe with his own rifle and drives him out of the church.

Shortly afterwards, Butler, the boss of the bounty hunters, comes to the church. He shoots the Reverend and starts a fire in the church. Soon after, McCabe succeeds in killing Butler's partner, but is hit in the stomach and leg himself. Butler later also shoots him. When Butler approaches the apparently dead McCabe, he gets a fatal shot from him.

It is no longer possible for McCabe to save himself. While the other residents of the city celebrate the successful fire fighting at the church, McCabe dies lying alone in the snow of his injuries.

That evening Mrs. Miller retired to the Chinese quarter belonging to the city and indulged in the opium frenzy. She does not notice anything of the dramatic events around McCabe.

Anti-Western

With the film, the director rejects all romantic notions about heroism in the conquest of the West. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is seen as a film with which Altman demythologized the Western and is therefore counted among the anti-Westerns .

Altman takes up all kinds of clichés in the film that are known from other westerns. The film begins with a stranger riding into a city to look for happiness there. The film is also not lacking in the final showdown, which is indispensable for a western . One can also say that Mrs. Miller fulfills the stereotype of the "prostitute with the heart of gold". McCabe & Mrs. Miller is still not the first film to feature a killer trio.

Despite these clichés, the film as a whole differs greatly from the classic westerns. The carpenters shown at work in the film didn't just work for the camera, they built houses where people actually lived. Under these production conditions, a film was created that seems more realistic than the westerns of the previous period. When it comes to characterizing people, the film goes into more depth than was previously expected from a western.

Here are the points where Altman moves away from Western stereotypes:

  • Male dominance is no longer given. Constance Miller is on a par with McCabe.
  • The heroic detachment of the protagonist is missing. McCabe is someone who gets drunk a lot and talks to himself a lot. You see a McCabe who tries to look like a whole guy, but complains a lot and finally gets caught up in his own wishful thinking when dealing with the mining company.
  • The film is not suitable to strengthen the belief in "Law and Order". In this film, power rests with the corporations, and the powerful corporate masters have made their own laws. The lawyer McCabe turns to is politically ambitious; one can see him as a budding representative of state power; however, he cannot help him.
  • Usually guns are used earlier in westerns. A dramatic escalation that leads to the use of weapons only occurs towards the end of this film.

It can also be seen as unusual for a western that the viewer gets the opportunity to feel smarter about McCabe: While McCabe puzzles over the behavior of Mrs. Miller in one of the scenes of the film and comes to no conclusion, the viewer knows that she previously smoked an opium pipe.

Melancholy mood

Some reviewers have noted that McCabe & Mrs. Miller looks like a dream. Overall, the reviewers agree that the film conveys an atmosphere that has something melancholy (something "floating") about it. Here is a collection of points that add to the atmosphere of uncertainty and melancholy:

At & Mrs. Miller McCabe 's unusual that important questions remain unanswered. So it is never fully clarified what the rumors about McCabe's background are. Sheehan portrays him as a gunslinger; however, this assessment is rejected by the boss of the killer trio. ("This man never killed anyone.")

The motives for the behavior that Mrs. Miller shows towards McCabe remain unclear. What makes you shy away from him? Does she think that she is in a very harsh environment and that one has to keep showing one's feelings for times when the overall situation is more relaxed?

The songs by Leonard Cohen contribute in a special way to the slightly floating mood conveyed by the film . It remains unpredictable for the viewer when the songs will be heard. You hear Cohen when one of the protagonists has experienced something moving; the singing can also join in if there has just been a scene in which people wallow in the street, scuffling.

Melancholy comes into the film through the basic theme. If there is the basic theme of “unfulfilled love” in a film, then it goes without saying that there will be a whole series of melancholy scenes.

You are presented with a society in which people come together to work together and also to have fun; However, it is also a society in which the solidarity of people with one another has clear limits. For example, in one of the later scenes in the film, a young cowboy is shot by another young guy on a whim. This does not lead to an outcry among those standing by; one turns away rather embarrassed.

The final scenes of the film can be seen as scenes in which the themes of "melancholy" and "isolation" are taken to extremes. It shows how the protagonist of the film struggles with death while lying in the snow, and scenes were cut in between in which the other residents of the city are happy about a successful fire fighting. The viewer is once again struck by the fact that in Presbyterian Church solidarity among people is limited and that in such a society everyone remains lonely.

Making the film

The screenplay was written by Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, and Brian McKay, based on the McCabe novel by Edmund Naughton.

The film was shot in Vancouver, Canada. The scenes were shot almost entirely in the same sequence in which they were later seen in the film.

All of the buildings that can be seen in the film were built specifically for the filming. These are buildings that were actually habitable and were actually occupied by the crew members.

Some of the carpenters who came to work came from the local area and some were young men who had escaped being called up for military service in Vietnam. They wore clothes from the old days and also used the tools that were in use then. The carpenters could go about their work in the background while the action was taking place in the foreground.

Awards

Julie Christie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role .

In 2010 McCabe & Mrs. Miller was included in the National Film Registry as an American film that is particularly worth preserving .

Reviews

"Robert Altman's atmospherically dense westerns with differentiated characters is a disillusioning description of the American pioneering days."

- Lexicon of international film

"" [...] a demythed western showing opportunistic bad guys in a shabby environment; Settling with the American dream that whoever is right is right when it comes to a lot of money. "(Rating: 3½ out of 4 possible stars = exceptional)"

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV"

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Kupillas: Leonard Cohen gave Warren Beatty a helping hand at kupillas.wordpress.com, accessed on November 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ Library of Congress press release , December 28, 2010 (accessed January 1, 2011).
  3. ^ McCabe & Mrs. Miller. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 521