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Product Description
1902: John McCabe (Warren Beatty) turns up in a northwest mining town called Presbyterian Church, starts gambling and sets up a successful brothel with his girlfriend Constance (Julie Christie), an opium-addicted madam. They refuse an offer from the mine operators to buy them out, but the mine bosses refuse to take no for an answer.
Product Description
audio in italianoai primi del secolo, in una zona mineraria del nord america, john mccabe - avventuriero, giocatore e pistolero di fama usurpata - impianta un bordello con annesso saloon. qualche tempo dopo - attratta dalle prospettive di sviluppo del villaggio sorto intorno alle miniere - gli si associa la prostituta constance miller, che lo persuade a trasformare la sua miserabile "casa" in un ritrovo di maggior classe. gli affari della coppia vanno a gonfie vele e quando i delegati di un grande compagnia mineraria gli offrono di acquistare tutte le sue proprieta', john mercanteggia, sperando di strappare loro un prezzo piu' alto. anziche' cedere alle sue richieste, la compagnia ritira i delegati e invia al loro posto dei killer con l'incarico di uccidere mccabe. invano constance - che gli vuole bene - lo scongiura di andarsene: john e' deciso a dimostrarle di non essere quel buono a nulla che lei ritiene. affronta percio' in duello i sicari della compagnia: riesce ad ucciderli, ma cade mortalmente ferito. mentre i minatori sono in festa per aver salvato dal fuoco la chiesa del villaggio e constance si inebria di oppio in una fumeria cinese e john muore silenziosamente nella neve.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
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.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By J. E. Holden
Format:DVD
"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.
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.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A lot of people tend to forget that Robert Altman's career started in TV, where with the likes of Sam Peckinpah he gained a good grounding in westerns. He directed episodes from "Bonanza", "US Marshall", "Maverick" and "Tenderfoot". These were all very traditional western offerings, but when he revisited this ground again in 1971, he decided as they say, to do something completely different. What he gave us was a very realistic, mud and rags vision of the west. I have seen many photos taken from that western period, and it is clear that Altman has done the same. The little settlement of Presbyterian Church, is an absolutely authentic looking ramshackle mining settlement, of the type that boomed and bust so often. Altman deliberately shot during the rains that are so prevalent in the far north west, to enhance the bleak look. He also cleverly pre fogged and filtered much of the film, to give it an aged and melancholy look. The final result is a most unusual and very fine film indeed, which simply shows the west for what it really was, and not the highly mythicised Hollywood version. Altman described it as an anti western, but far from debunking the traditional western, it merely shows us how it was 'warts and all'. Whether or not you want the warts is a matter of personal taste!
The story concerns McCabe a drifter/gambler, played by Warren Beatty, who rides into a one horse mining community in America's wild and wet far north west at the beginning of the twentieth century. It does not take him long to sniff out a business opportunity, employing some rather shopworn looking ladies of ill repute. He is soon joined in this business adventure by the feisty madam Mrs Miller, who has a few more women with her and a head for business.... Read more ›
The story concerns McCabe a drifter/gambler, played by Warren Beatty, who rides into a one horse mining community in America's wild and wet far north west at the beginning of the twentieth century. It does not take him long to sniff out a business opportunity, employing some rather shopworn looking ladies of ill repute. He is soon joined in this business adventure by the feisty madam Mrs Miller, who has a few more women with her and a head for business.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By S. Hyde
Format:DVD
This is a quiet, sad, fatalistic western and one of the best things Warren Beatty ever did. Loosely based on a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton, which Altman said contained all the standard western clichés which allowed him to "destroy all the myths of heroism." If you're looking for the usual western conventions then look elsewhere.
The film is set around the turn of the 20th century in the American Northwest. It opens to a washed-out wintry landscape and the music of Leonard Cohen. We see a stranger riding into a muddy mining town, he is McCabe (Beatty) and as he approaches the town he changes his clothes into something more dignified and gentlemanly. He has a reputation for killing a man, we never know if it's true, but it's enough to get him his own way with the simple town-folk. McCabe is a bit of a conman who sees himself as an entrepreneur and views this growing settlement as an opportunity for making money. He plans to build a casino and a brothel, and wants things his own way but he's a terrible organiser and when he tries running his operation from tents it proves chaotic.
In walks Julie Christie with her tough business sense and her conviction that his brothel needs her management. McCabe doesn't like alliances but he relents, she's so persuasive he really has no choice, but this is the only time in the film that lets anyone through his defenses. He's believes in old fashioned things such as honour and virtue but makes terrible business decisions in trying to keep his independence. He doesn't really have a vision so much as muddles through rejecting all relationships with others.... Read more ›
The film is set around the turn of the 20th century in the American Northwest. It opens to a washed-out wintry landscape and the music of Leonard Cohen. We see a stranger riding into a muddy mining town, he is McCabe (Beatty) and as he approaches the town he changes his clothes into something more dignified and gentlemanly. He has a reputation for killing a man, we never know if it's true, but it's enough to get him his own way with the simple town-folk. McCabe is a bit of a conman who sees himself as an entrepreneur and views this growing settlement as an opportunity for making money. He plans to build a casino and a brothel, and wants things his own way but he's a terrible organiser and when he tries running his operation from tents it proves chaotic.
In walks Julie Christie with her tough business sense and her conviction that his brothel needs her management. McCabe doesn't like alliances but he relents, she's so persuasive he really has no choice, but this is the only time in the film that lets anyone through his defenses. He's believes in old fashioned things such as honour and virtue but makes terrible business decisions in trying to keep his independence. He doesn't really have a vision so much as muddles through rejecting all relationships with others.... Read more ›
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4.2 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very dated and poor cinematography
I bought this movie after an online review as the score was written by Leonard Cohen. Unfortunately the movie was so badly directed and poorly filmed that I never made it to the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Julie Searle
2.0 out of 5 stars
not my cup of tea..
I gave it a try, considering the director and the actors, but I was never captivated .. way too talkative characters and a disappointing shoot-out
Published 4 months ago by konk
1.0 out of 5 stars
Poor DVD
We had to abandon watching the film as the DVD did not work. We tried to watch it on two different players but helas, to no avail.
Published 4 months ago by Kevin J. Kearney
5.0 out of 5 stars
Altman's Innovative Take On The Western
Robert Altman's 1971 film McCabe And Mrs Miller is just about as far away as you can get from any accepted norm of the Hollywood western film. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Keith M
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film
This is the first time I have reviewed anything on Amazon, such is the impression I had of this film. Read more
Published 22 months ago by I. Milatovic
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mud puddles and company troubles
There is a magnificent scene in Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" where the only lighting is provided by candles. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Room For A View
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Sombre and eloquent Western
This film i have just purchased due to the good reviews by Amazon reviewers and i am pleased to add this to my Western Collection. Read more
Published on 10 May 2011 by B. D. Compton
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gorgeous, unique 'Western' that turns a genre upside down
A beautiful tone poem of a film. The story is a bit thin, but the cinematography, the Leonard Cohen songs, the style of the acting creates a western unlike any other, at once... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2010 by K. Gordon
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two stars circling each other - while outside it snows
This would have merited five stars but for the ending, which disappointed me horribly. But perhaps that's just a measure of how much I was into the characters and the incredibly... Read more
Published on 4 April 2010 by Four Violets
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful movie!
Take a chance and buy this very "old" film.
Robert Altmann's third movie and such a joy
for the eye. Read more
Robert Altmann's third movie and such a joy
for the eye. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2009 by Torben Hellborn
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