McCabe & Mrs. Miller

I watched "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" on the Encore Western channel. You might not initially think of "McCabe" as a western; it features no tumbleweed, shootouts at high noon or bloodthirsty injuns.

That's because "McCabe" is a western for realists. The action is set in a frontier mountain town in the Pacific northwest. It may not look like the standard western settlement, but it's every bit as lawless. Onto the scene steps McCabe (Warren Beatty), a successful poker player looking to move on to bigger things. He sets up a saloon with little knowledge or experience of how to run one. Luckily, a mysterious Brit named Mrs. Miller (the lovely Julie Christie) comes into town and offers to help manage the business. She effectively turns the saloon into a profitable whorehouse.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller are both first and foremost capitalists, looking to make a buck by hook or by crook. But their cynical exteriors can't entirely hide the burgeoning love they share for one another. This may sound like a few million other movie love affairs, but thankfully Altman doesn't overplay his hand.

The conflict doesn't arise so much as it creeps up on you. McCabe's property happens to have significant mining potential. A company offers to buy him out, but he puts them off, hoping to use his poker skills to bluff them into a higher offer. The firm responds by sending men to kill him.

Whether McCabe is up to the challenge is an open question. He initially projects himself as a classic cool customer, but the film goes back and forth about whether this is truth or just masculine bluster. The uncertainty gives "McCabe," which ambles in its first half, some impressive tension in its second.

The film is directed and co-written by Robert Altman. His trademark overlapping dialogue is in abundance here. While this technique adds a touch of realism, it makes it damn hard to hear what's being said at times. Likewise, Altman doesn't like to spell things out, which gives the viewer opportunities for discovery but can also make events a bit incoherent.