McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
88%RT Audience Score: 86%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
1 win & 4 nominations total
McCabe & Mrs. Miller offers revisionist Western fans a landmark early addition to the genre while marking an early apogee for director Robert Altman
McCabe & Mrs. Miller is like a cowboy movie, but with a twist. It’s got all the classic themes – love, death, and capitalism – but with a non-heroic twist. Warren Beatty plays McCabe, a doomed gambler who’s both boastful and shy, making him altogether lovable. And Julie Christie runs the bordello, adding a touch of class to the wild west. The film’s got a refined visual style, but don’t let that fool you – it’s still got plenty of grit. Plus, the anachronistic use of Leonard Cohen tracks is just plain cool. So saddle up and get ready for a poetic vision of the American frontier.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
Warner Bros.
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Squamish, British Columbia, Canada
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1972
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:2.40 : 1
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Runtime:2h 1m
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Language(s):English, Cantonese
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 24, 1971 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 4, 2002
Genre(s)
Western
Keyword(s)
starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, John Schuck, Bert Remsen, Keith Carradine, directed by Robert Altman, written by Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, Brian McKay, Edmund Naughton, Western, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Jake Wilson, Jessica de Grazia, Paul D Zimmerman, Variety Staff, Dave Kehr, Derek Malcolm, Yasser Medina, Nicholas Bell, Mike Massie, Brent McKnight, Michael Blake, MPAA rating R, gambling, prostitution, mining community, brothel, powerful company, revisionist Western, Vilmos Zsigmond, Leonard Cohen, Warner Bros., Mitchell Brower, David Foster
Worldwide gross: $31,558
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $250,477
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,892
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 27,315
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Julie Christie – Constance Miller
Rene Auberjonois – Sheehan
John Schuck – Smalley
Bert Remsen – Bart Coyle
Keith Carradine – Cowboy
Director(s)
Robert Altman
Writer(s)
Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, Brian McKay, Edmund Naughton
Producer(s)
Mitchell Brower, David Foster
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
1 win & 4 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (56) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (9)
Robert Altman’s wintry 1971 anti-Western gives Warren Beatty one of his best roles as the doomed gambler McCabe: boastful, shy, foolish, altogether lovable.
November 2, 2018
Jake Wilson
The Age (Australia)
TOP CRITIC
One of the best of Altman’s early movies, using classic themes — the ill-fated love of gambler and whore, the gunman who dies by the gun, the contest between little man and big business — to produce a non-heroic Western.
August 9, 2016
Jessica de Grazia
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
A fitfully fascinating failure.
November 1, 2007
Paul D. Zimmerman
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
A period story about a small northwest mountain village where stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie run the bordello, the production suffers from overlength; also a serious effort at moody photography which backfires into pretentiousness.
September 4, 2007
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Still Robert Altman’s best moment, this 1971 antiwestern murmurs softly of love, death, and capitalism.
September 4, 2007
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Altman’s capacity for fashioning an oddball romance without defeating the tough political implications of the story make this one of the greatest of all westerns and a key work in American cinema.
May 4, 2007 | Rating: 4/5
Derek Malcolm
London Evening Standard
TOP CRITIC
As a revisionist western it offers an austere view of life on the American wild frontier, with a refined visual style, but I’m afraid even that can’t reverse the effects of a narrative as empty as a Colt without bullets. [Full review in Spanish]
March 3, 2021 | Rating: 6/10
Yasser Medina
Cinemaficionados
Firmly defining the landscape is Altman’s famed anachronistic use of three Leonard Cohen tracks which solidifies McCabe and Mrs. Miller as a poetic vision of a culture struggling to pull itself out of nature’s chaos — a cold-hearted and cruel hell.
September 30, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
Despite the subject matter, which is inherently coarse, the characters are largely unlikable, even when they’re not behaving crudely or speaking boorishly.
August 30, 2020 | Rating: 5/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
A different kind of western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller makes the framework its own-an experimental genre exercise seen through an opium dream.
July 2, 2020 | Rating: A-
Brent McKnight
The Last Thing I See
McCabe and Mrs. Miller soars to the outer limits of excellence in film-making.
January 9, 2020
Michael Blake
Los Angeles Free Press
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) was iconoclastic and offbeat director Robert Altman’s acclaimed revisionist western (or “anti-western” according to some) about the American frontier. It was the first of his two myth-busting westerns…
September 29, 2019 | Rating: A+
Tim Dirks
Filmsite…
Plot
Set in winter in the Old West. Charismatic but dumb John McCabe arrives in a young Pacific Northwest town to set up a whorehouse/tavern. The shrewd Mrs. Miller, a professional madam, arrives soon after construction begins. She offers to use her experience to help McCabe run his business, while sharing in the profits. The whorehouse thrives and McCabe and Mrs. Miller draw closer, despite their conflicting intelligences and philosophies. Soon, however, the mining deposits in the town attract the attention of a major corporation, which wants to buy out McCabe along with the rest. He refuses, and his decision has major repercussions for him, Mrs. Miller, and the town.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie in leading roles.
Robert-Altman.jpg
