Last week my husband and I watched McCabe and Mrs. Miller - first time for him (and he really loved it), probably second or third time for me.
I first saw it in 1972 or 1973, not sure which. Not long after I got off the streets and got legal. So when I saw it, it punched a hole in my gut for so many reasons. The Leonard Cohen soundtrack especially: I went straight out and bought that album and played it over and over again. Especially The Stranger Song:
It′s true that all the men you knew were dealers
Who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter
I know that kind of man, it's hard to hold the hand of anyone
Who is reaching for the sky just to surrender...
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger
And (back then) I realized that yes, that was exactly what my life had been for a very, very, very long time – and was probably instrumental in finally, a year later, dumping my "Joseph looking for a manger". Because that was him. And I didn't want that kind of man or that kind of life any more.
But enough of that meandering down very old paths, I want to talk about the dynamics of McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Meet wandering gambler McCabe (played by Warren Beatty) who comes to what is barely a town (Presbyterian Church) in the wooded mountains of Washington State. He gambles, drinks, and opens up its first whorehouse, but he has no idea how to run it. Not that he'll admit that when he's confronted by Mrs. Miller (Julie Christie) telling him to hire her as the madam because she knows what she's doing:
"What do you do when one girl fancies another? How do you know when a girl really has her monthly or is just taking days off? What about when they don't get their monthlies? Cause they don't. What do you do then? I suppose you know all about seeing to that? An what about the customers? Who's gonna skin 'em back and inspect 'em? You gonna to do that? If you don't, this town will be clapped up inside of two weeks, if it's not already. What about when business is slow? You just gonna let the girls sit around on their bums? I'll tell you something, Mr. McCabe, when a good whore gets time to sit around and think, four out of five times she'll turn to religion 'cause that's what they was born with. And when that happens, you find yourself fillin' the bloody church down there, instead of your own pockets. Now, I haven't got a lot of time to sit around and talk to a man who's too dumb to see a good proposition when it's put to him. Do we make a deal or don't we? Well?"
No, McCabe doesn't know how to do any of that, he didn't even know about any of that, so he hires her. She also handles the bookkeeping because McCabe's arithmetic is about as good as his grasp of the business. Any business.
The result is, instead of damp tents by a muddy road, Mrs. Miller gets the whorehouse built, complete with a bathhouse and regular inspections for all, girls AND their clients. It is hugely popular, the men of Presbyterian Church are clean and fairly happy, and word spreads throughout the territory.
Basically, it's the women – the "sisters of mercy" - who literally clean up the town.*
*I will bet money that Altman's fictional town was based on Pendleton, Oregon, who back in the 1800s was a mining town with lots of Chinese workers, bars, and whorehouses, much of it (literally) underground.
The truth is, antihero McCabe is a Dunning Kruger idiot, who knows he's the sharpest card in the deck, babbles bullshit, and can never admit he's wrong about anything. (Sounds terribly familiar, doesn't it?) The only thing he's really good at is gambling. And drinking. And going along with anything that might make him look good. Including being mistaken for "Pudgy" McCabe—a supposedly dangerous man who once killed someone named Bill Roundtree.
And then there's the stuff he says that's supposed to prove him smarter than the average bear. One line he repeats over and over is
"If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass so much, follow me?"
That kind of patter works with the men of Presbyterian Church, sort of, but it cuts no ice with Mrs. Miller, nor with the mining company that wants to take over his businesses, and especially not with the gunslingers they send after him when McCabe stupidly refuses to sell his "businesses" for the whopping price of $5,500 (worth the equivalent of $150,000 in today's money).
Sigh... We've seen one too many McCabes (social media and television have a lot to answer for) but it is a brilliant performance, probably Beatty's best.
BTW, the sisters of mercy like McCabe - but they don't count on him. They count on Mrs. Miller, who does indeed know what she's doing. And that dynamic reminded me of 3 Women, which I've blogged about before. One thing about Altman, he knew how to write and direct women. Pinkie, Millie, and Willie are each unique, strange, powerful. Edgar thought he had all the power, but he never had a chance. Same with McCabe.
Mrs. Miller, Lily, Kate, Alma, Ida... they all know how to survive in a man's world. Stay alert. Stay aware. Know the difference between nice guys like Cowboy (an unbelievably young Keith Carradine) and most of the townsmen... and stone cold killers like Butler, Kid, and Breed. McCabe doesn't, and doesn't think he has to.
John McCabe: I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing.
Constance Miller: What's he [Butler] carrying around that bloody blunderbuss with him for?
John McCabe: I don't know. Maybe he come up here to hunt possum.
Much later, McCabe says, "I just don't want to get killed."
Well, nobody does, my friend. But in a world of cutthroat businessmen and guns for hire... you have to pay attention and just once in a while, believe the sisters of mercy, not your own bullshit.
As one reviewer put it on IMDB, "the next time someone tells you that Clint Eastwood reinvented the western with his masterpiece Unforgiven, remember: 21 years before, Altman had experimented and succeeded on that with his McCabe & Mrs. Miller."
"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 (1971)." - Roger Ebert.
I agree.
I love that movie, saw it in college not long after it came out. Have you noticed that the three songs in the movie are the first three songs on Leonard Cohen's first album? Like Altman just picked the first few he heard... although they fit the movie perfectly. My college roommate, a musician, was not a fan of Cohen and was surprised when I told him there were three songs in the movie. They all sounded the same to him...
ReplyDeleteYes, I recognized that long ago. I know that first album pretty much by heart. Also, Kris Kristofferson was once asked what song by someone else he wished he had written, and he replied, "Bird on a Wire by Leonard Cohen."
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, your college roommate must have been tone deaf... Poor guy.
Very grateful we live today, when women have more choice of career. This show was before my time, but oh, just hearing about it gives me the creeps, Eve.
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