Warren Beatty's Only Western Was Described As 'Perfect' By Roger Ebert

By 1971, Robert Altman was already a major celebrity and an awards darling. His 1970 war drama "M*A*S*H" was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and it became a cultural touchstone a few years later when adapted into a hit TV series. That same year, Altman helmed the acclaimed "Brewster McCloud," and his style was cemented. He was a naturalistic filmmaker, favoring overlapping, improvised-sounding dialogue and keeping his camera at a distance, giving his films a casual, realistic, yet defiantly craftsmanlike artistry that would change cinema in the 1970s. It won't surprise readers to learn that Altman got his start making documentary films in the 1950s. 

In 1971, Altman produced what many consider to be his earliest masterpiece, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," a Western starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" was only nominated for one Academy Award — Christie was up for Best Actress — but it's the one that film teachers regularly put on their syllabi. The reputation of "McCabe" was a long time coming, as it received a lot of negative reviews upon its first release. Rex Reed infamously lambasted the film as amateurish and shallow, and Vincent Canby of the New York Times felt its symbolism was tired and lacked intrigue. 

But other critics were ecstatic about the film. Pauline Kael felt it was a modern classic, and Roger Ebert instantly pegged Altman as one of the most important voices in modern cinema. Ebert's vintage four-star review is available to read on his website, and he later inducted "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" into his Great Films list. Curiously, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" stands as the only Western that Warren Beatty ever made. And even then, its genre can be debated.

"McCabe & Mrs. Miller" follows the relationship between an itinerant businessman (Beatty) and an enterprising madam (Christie) as they attempt to start a brothel/bathhouse in a remote Washington boomtown in 1902. Travelers pass through to have a drink and gamble, and McCabe hopes to provide the travelers with warm water and the company of a sex worker. He aims to get rich, but it's implied early in the film that he has failed in other enterprises before. At first, McCabe thinks he can run a brothel himself, but Mrs. Miller arrives from England, convincing him to hire her as a manager. Their paired business acumen soon leads their brothel/bathhouse to become the biggest business in town. 

McCabe and Mrs. Miller also develop something of a romantic regard, although, because this is an Altman film, their love isn't grandly expressed. Later in the film, an aggressive business consortium will arrive in town to buy out McCabe's brothel, and he refuses to sell. This leads to resentment, backstabbing, and a plan for blood revenge. 

Ebert noted that "McCabe" was different from other Westerns in a vital regard, writing: 

"Death is very final in this Western, because the movie is about life. Most Westerns are about killing and getting killed, which means they're not about life and death at all. We spend a time in the life of a small frontier town, which grows up before our eyes out of raw, unpainted lumber and tubercular canvas tents. We get to know the town pretty well, because Altman has a gift for making movies that seem to eavesdrop on activity that would have been taking place anyway." 

A Western about life. 

"McCabe & Mrs. Miller" may aggravate some modern audiences, as it's very slow-paced. Altman's use of naturalistic camera setups means he'll spend a lot of time watching people move from one building to another in the swirling snow. Yes, that is a realistic depiction of how people would travel in 1901, but it doesn't always spell out drama for an antsy, action-accustomed viewer. Ebert noted that these moments, however, fill out a sense of community in Altman's film. This wasn't just a drama about businessmen, but a fully-formed community, somehow captured on film, as if Altman were eavesdropping with a time machine. 

In 1999, Ebert was still ringing the bell for "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," including it as one of his Great Movies. Indeed, Ebert asserted that Altman's 1971 masterpiece was that rarest of animals: a perfect movie. He began his 1999 essay with:

"It is not often given to a director to make a perfect film. Some spend their lives trying, but always fall short. Robert Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller.'"

He says that all the film's most meaningful moments are small, quiet, and understated. McCabe says that he has poetry in him during a short, intimate moment with Miller. Miller, meanwhile, is resigned, uninvolved, long since given up on the romance of the world. The people of the small village are simple, happy to dance. A magical moment happens in front of a jukebox. And then everything ends in wistful death. But not in a nihilistic way. A way that emphasizes the loss of a valuable, enriched life.