4 of 10
Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond
Warren Beatty
Julie Christie
Rene Auberjonois
Shelley Duvall
Keith Carradine
Michael Murphy
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| McCabe and Mrs. Miller 4 of 10 |
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| Directed by Robert Altman Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond Warren Beatty Julie Christie Rene Auberjonois Shelley Duvall Keith Carradine Michael Murphy |
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| The more Altman I see, the more I respect him. And the less I like him. He has an extraordinary ability to blend sounds and images, and this film is no exception. All of Altman�s trademark sound work, overlapping dialogue, and quirky, incidental characters. But I seem to be having a hard time getting emotionally involved with Altman�s films. I love the audio/visual style, often. But they leave me cold in all the most important aspects. This one has been listed as a �hauntingly revisionist view of the Old West.� But its not �hauntingly� at all, although it is definitely revisionist. Instead, its just mean-spirited. And I hate that sort of thing. The story is still far too unfocused. Altman repeatedly takes breaks from important events and characters that are truly moving the story forward, and he does it simply to focus on something else that has piqued his interest. But there is an even more serious flaw than his occasional side trips: the complete and utter lack of any sort of likeable characters. Beatty is, in fact, unlikable. Christie might have eventually become likeable, but she simply wasn�t there enough to fill out the �hooker with a heart of gold� role. (I take it back. There was one likeable character: an old man who has almost no part, and gets killed fairly early on. Not an overwhelming endorsement, but I just felt I should mention him to be fair.) A few style things, real quickly: the film�s cinematography is legendary, but I was fairly unmoved by a lot of the diffusion work. It seemed to be too diffused, which made it look like they were using a dirty lens from time to time. The snow sequences towards the end of the film were absolutely gorgeous, though. I also find that I really dislike Altman�s use of the zoom; in fact, almost all zooms used by anyone. Zooms just seem so amateurish to me. I�ll take a dolly any day; don�t think you ever need a zoom. Or at least almost never. Its just lazy, seems to me. Oops. Getting a little carried away. All in all, a disappointment from a story standpoint, and a mixed bag technically. | ||||||