With the demise of the Hays code in the late 60s many movies took an anti-establishment tack. Altman called this movie not a western but an anti-western. But there is nothing here Deadwood doesn't do in spades. If the movie were to be released today it would labeled a typical western. The overall plots not bad. Small mining camp grows and shows enough potential profitability that a large mining interest wants to buy out everyone cheap. Weak hands fold. But the strong, stubborn and stupid decide to stay and fight. The two buyers who were sent in by the company do not have the patience to stay in town but are anxious to get back to the comforts of home. They go to plan B, bring in the hired killers. Realistic enough but the implication of a Plan B is that either McCabe's signature or his brains are on the sales contract. But Butler, the chief killer, says he's not there to make a deal (BTW, Hugh Millias plays the intimidating Butler to perfection and steals every scene he is in). There is no explanation how the company gets McCabe's holdings by killing him.Of course that's not what the movie is about. No western is about proper filings at the county clerk's office. This western, like many westerns, is about armed confrontation, the shoot out! The trio of bad guys are about as good as you'll find in any western. Butler, the swaggering leader, the silent "half-breed" who could kill with a stare and the crazy "kid" who goes off at the slightest provocation. On the other side McCabe is kinda an odd bird. He is savvy enough to earn his living as a gambler and enterprising enough to build as saloon and whorehouse. Otherwise Beatty plays the role like the village idiot. There are doubts as to whether McCabe can handle a gun much less has killed a man. No Al Swearengen here. The final shoot out is not bad. It's suspenseful enough with an ending similar to that in Hamlet.Otherwise the mood and setting were great. I pretty much was drawn in to the authenticity of a cold dank muddy mining camp far up the mountain from anything civilized. I put on my sweater just to take the chill off.

Let me start out by saying that I am a fan of director Robert Altmam and have enjoyed many of his films. "MASH," "Nashville," and "The Player" are absolutely brilliant pictures and there is much to enjoy in many of his other films, including "The Prairie Home Companion," "The Company" and "Cookie's Fortune." However, he has also made his share of turkeys. Among these I would include "Short Cuts," "Popeye" and "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." His two worst efforts, however, are probably his two Western films, "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" (quite possibly the worst Western ever made) and this incredibly overrated film."McCabe" does have some good points, which include terrific attention to detail in art direction-set decoration and Julie Christie's excellent performance, but these are not enough to overcome poorly lit photography, the annoyingly unclear overlapped dialogue, Beatty's poor acting and Leonard Cohen's insipid musical score. The downbeat story, depressing mood and the slow pace of the film really made it a chore for me to sit through as well.It's mind-boggling how anyone could place this on their list of favorite Westerns (unless you really don't like them to begin with), let alone place it on their list of favorite films, period ("Citizen Kane" or "Casablanca" or "Lawrence of Arabia" anyone!).

"McCabe and Mrs. Miller", with its frontier mountain town setting and inclement weather, seems to subvert the common notions of the Western. No pretty vistas or noble gunfights in the dusty streets here, just rain and snow and mud. It's mildly off-putting in the film's beginning, but it actually sets up some nice atmosphere. I really liked Julie Christie, who was really the movie's bright spot. Her scenes schooling Warren Beatty on how to run his town were a treat. She's got a terrific English wit with a salty tongue. I was disappointed that she virtually disappeared during the third act, but it's in the service of the tense cat-and-mouse shootout. This movie is memorable for being different, sure, but there's also the bittersweet ending. It strikes me as a cynical comment on capitalism, but at least Beatty gets the last word when the fat cats try and take his business by force.7/10

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