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The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It's the turn of the century. John McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives in the remote settlement of Presbyterian Church. Sheehan (René Auberjonois) runs the saloon. McCabe gambles and drinks with the gruff locals. There isn't much else to the place. He goes over to the next town and buys three prostitutes for $200. He sets up a low rent whorehouse. Constance Miller (Julie Christie) comes to town and convinces McCabe to join in partnership. She brings in more girls and classes up the joint. As they gain success, a mining company offers to buy up their properties with threats against refusing their offer. Miller is an opium addict and pushing to sell.Director Robert Altman brings a naturalistic feel to this story. I expected him to make Alma a bigger character but she kind of disappears. There is also the slightly muffled nature of the sound. Altman left everything very natural. I wish the dialog could be clearer. It's a well-made revisionist western. It takes the genre into a less-heroic and more complicated world. Even the climatic shootout is unlike the traditional affair.

Don't expect a typical western in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Shootings are limited, no unprotected town needs to be liberated from their villains. Welcome to the real Wild West.The film makes a lot of efforts to make the background to the story as credible as possible. The firetruck is impressive, bars are real, tents are as you expect them, and we haven't talked yet about the costumes.The setting is even more impressive as one can see the town expanding. The different seasons portrayed suggests it has been a tremendous effort to make it as realistic as possible.The story in itself is multi-layered. Not everything is revealed, which increases the interest in the characters. Many scenes are suggestive, leaving room for interpretation. There are not so many twists in the story, but those that are present will keep you watching.The camera work, with many close-ups, fits the story and almost forgets the excellent background. Leonard Cohen's music adds to the drama.Some scenes may have inspired 'Once Upon a Time in America' from Scorcese, and for those who loved the movie I'd highly recommend the series 'Deadwood', which has the same sense of real as this movie.A very good movie. Especially for history-lovers and those who enjoy non-Hollywood drama.

Near the end of the film, a bounty hunter known as Kid (Schulz) perches himself on a rickety suspension bridge blocking the path of a good-natured cowboy (Carradine). After a brief exchange Kid shoots the cowboy; his body falls limp into the frozen lake below. The events that put these two minor characters towards a path of destruction are sadly mundane. It's the type of spat that could happen at a supermarket or while in traffic; it's senseless, it's disheartening and it's frighteningly real. There are plenty of intricately melancholy moments in the meandering McCabe and Mrs. Miller that resemble the cowboy's death, and all are taking common western genre traditions and putting them on their head.Our titular protagonists are John McCabe (Beatty) and Constance Miller (Christie), two time-ravaged souls willing themselves to the ends of the earth for greener pastures. When we first meet McCabe he's a gambler who is rumored to have shot a man in a poker game. He shows up to the only saloon in the small mining town of Presbyterian Church and promptly wins a few hands before cashing out. Instead of spending his money on booze, he buys three whores from a nearby town and brings them to Presbyterian Church to start himself a racket. His luck improves with the arrival of Mrs. Miller a former cockney prostitute who bets she can make McCabe's budding business much more profitable.By the sounds of it, director Robert Altman is constructing a western in the mode of Man of the West (1958) or The Far Country (1954) (albeit with a brothel involved). Yet given the idiosyncratic nature of Altman's entire filmography, McCabe and Mrs. Miller should never be mistaken for anything resembling a John Wayne vehicle. Altman gingerly picks apart story elements and purposely bastardizes them for the sake of revisionist experimentation. What was once noble is made cowardly. What was once legendary is made human. Iconic scenes of heroes gunning down bad guys against the noon day sun, are now early morning hide and seek games; the townsfolk none- the-wiser.Altman once again imbues the film with his signature style. The camera never cuts back and forth between snippets of dialogue. It rather glides through the scene, taking in everything and everyone as people audibly converse amid the action. Life just goes on and on. Those who have seen and love Robert Altman films will enjoy his straightforward ensemble staging and complex sound design. Those who hate his films will only find more of the same though with a rebellious flair similar to his debut MASH (1971).The major difference between McCabe and Mrs. Miller and the auteur's other works is a permeating sadness throughout. Shot in the cold, misty forests of British Columbia, there's nary a scene where flecks of precipitation aren't falling through the air. The town itself is a product of the surrounding wilderness; cobbled together from whole timber and resembling a work site started by amateurs without a blueprint. Then there are the frames of the film lovingly crafted by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond which echoes the dusty, dimly lit photos of our past; faded and ashen, drenched in sepia. All these little details conjure the idea that the film is consumed from the living past and the denizens of Presbyterian Church might as well be souls in purgatory. We feel for their plight, even if we know we can't help them.Much like Godard's animus towards cinema du papa, Altman seems to be picking apart the western genre with the voracity of an angry child. There is a muted energy behind the camera. Small moments where you can catch a glimpse of the director's modus operendi; a larger set prostitute laughs gleefully at a gaggle of bathing women; Shelley Duvall's Ida comes to terms with becoming a whore after the death of her husband etc. Those moments strike the viewer as impassioned to be sure. I am personally torn between the films very purposeful demystifying of the old west and at times forceful indignation towards it.McCabe and Mrs. Miller is certainly not for everyone, the least of all unabashed fans of the western genre. The film is an anti-western hitting the same notes as Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) though with a plodding, contemplative pacing that's makes it uniquely and wholly Robert Altman's. The film leaves the audience to discern what is true about McCabe and what is hogwash. Yet the character of McCabe sees himself as a dreamer; a man with the heart of a poet yet lacking the vocabulary or the agency to express himself. His relationship with Mrs. Miller is a cynical one. It's a cold, unforgiving, even a mean- spirited partnership at times that leaves the film with its one sour note.Yet within the confines of its own cynical world, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a superb film. It showcases beautiful and unique cinematography, solid period accurate art direction and some brilliant acting on the part of Warren Beatty and especially Julie Christie. The film certainly ranks among one of the best westerns if for no other reason than it singles out some of the common concepts embedded in the genre and mixes it with post-1960's sensibilities and cynicism. Finally, while those who were never fans if Robert Altman's oeuvre will find nothing new to really gravitate towards, there's no denying McCabe and Mrs. Miller is bar-none one of his best films.

Director Robert Altman spanned great lengths of symbolism to bring audiences a tale of an unlikely pairing in life on the frontier. The tale of "a savior for everyone" lays as a backdrop for the 1971 film. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie join forces to bring a sense of civilization to the town of Presbyterian Church, which has little civilization and no church. A heavy western dealing with themes of isolation and redeemers, McCabe and Mrs. Miller came off a touch thematically weighed down.Upon his arrival to the town of Presbyterian Church, gambler John McCabe (Warren Beatty) quickly learns that the town of God is nearly God-less, as the church remains under construction. McCabe then designates himself to be the town's savior, the first nod to this enduring theme. He wants to bring his brand of civility to a township that, is, well, lacking. Deciding to build a brothel, McCabe is soon joined in his exploits by Mrs. Miller, a shrewd business-minded woman who seems to believe that she acts as a savior to the girls she "employs". Soon, as their mutual business thrives, so do budding feelings between the entrepreneurs. Competing moral compasses keep McCabe and Mrs. Miller apart, as each walk among the desolate winter scene McCabe traverses reminds the viewer that the only certainty in life is solitude; we enter, and leave this world, alone. Soon, a battle erupts as the business is challenged by corporate interests who have invaded the town. The choice McCabe makes was perhaps the only one he could live with, but it holds desperate consequences for everyone else involved. The forever in solitude, John McCabe was played well by Warren Beatty who was able to execute the competing dualities of McCabe's character, who both wanted to be alone, but also wanted to be loved and needed. Julie Christie plays Mrs. Miller well also as the gruff, shrewd business woman, yet angel to the girls she employed. Personally, I get pulled into a movie's lighting. If the lighting is not right for the mood, the story is not being told properly. The lighting in McCabe and Mrs. Miller was overly dark, which fit the mood well, but was not contrasted enough with brightening during the lighter parts of the film. Another compelling aspect of the film was the cinematography. Shots of trees and mountains slated against the unfruitful harsh winter that was being endured were a true treat to the viewer. The shots were also pivotal to illustrate the deeper themes of the film. There's not much that photographs lonelier than a bare tree in the middle of winter. The audience learns that McCabe is like this tree, alone, yet seeking the cover of its familiarity. The audience eventually starts rooting for McCabe, in hopes that someday find his leaves.All-in-all, I applaud Robert Altman for providing audiences with such a deep film, and bringing such allegory and theme to the western genre. That being said, it was a little symbolism heavy. The Jesus-like moment in this film was not executed as well as the one in say, Raging Bull (1980), nor was it necessary to prove that theme to the audience. If only the director had more faith in his audience to reach the conclusions he was intending, rather than weighing down the film with so much symbolism, McCabe and Mrs. Miller could have risen to "Classic" status outside of the western genre. We will never know what could have happen, and even though I found the thematic elements over the top, I would recommend this film to any fans of great westerns, or Warren Beatty.