Altman's famous (anti-) Western film, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is another showcase of the director's extraordinary talent to make a certain genre completely his own, while also giving it a very interesting, refreshing and often haunting atypical spin. He is one of those directors that could easily put many different important themes into one nicely flowing movie and he very much does that here.
The film starts with the image of a typical loner. Infamous cigar smoking gambler John McCabe (played perfectly by Warren Beatty) enters a town and visits a local saloon. He has come to the place with a vision, with a plan. He's determined to start a luxurious whorehouse. Soon he starts the constructions, but the "whorehouse business" seems more complex than he thought at first. An experienced professional prostitute, called Constance Miller (played by the always gorgeous Julie Christie), passes by and she offers him her help in exchange for a share of the profits. McCabe accepts the business deal. Everything starts going well for their business and we learn more about both of our main characters. A special chemistry starts to develop between them, but it's not at all the typical romantic chemistry one would expect. It's much more complex and dark and our characters suffer because of it. Meanwhile a major corporation offers to buy McCabe out, because they have their own plans with the town. When McCabe initially refuses and starts playing hard to get, the darker meanings of the uncontrolled and "free" West become clear...
The reason I like this film so much is because it's able to flawlessly balance poetry with brainy intelligence. The film shows emotions and portrays feelings, but it places them in a realistic and sometimes rather pessimistic environment. Human values and romanticism don't get a safe conduct in this film. Falling in love with a prostitute who has lost hope isn't matter of course and owning a thriving business isn't all that romantic, but at least it feels real and that's the strength of this film.
Now, some people would think that this sense of 'realism' would make a film rather boring, but that's definitely not the case here. Yes, it offers a more believable and intelligent take on the Old West, but it's still full with stuff that makes a film great! The characters are interesting, the script can be funny, tensive and haunting, the directing is Altman at his best, the film has a warm, heartfelt core and the story is very interesting and entertaining to follow.
So yeah, be sure to check this out before the '70s list starts. As you can see, for me, it's still one of the most satisfying film experiences I've ever had and I'm sure many of you will love it as well (or already love it).
3:40 - At the beginning of the film, there is a shot of McCabe lighting a cigarette before crossing the bridge. According to Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick loved that shot and called him up asking him: "How did you know you had it?" -------------------------------------------
i need to rewatch mccabe for the 70s list, because i know i missed a lot of great stuff when i first watched it. great to see it get some recognition, because too many people overlook it, including me.
The Coens already showed interest in the noir genre in some of their films that preceded this one, but in The Man Who Wasn't There, they (finally) fully pressed the gas pedal! With its gorgeous black and white cinematography, engaging noirish plot and stellar cast portraying a whole list of interesting and obscure characters, this film is - for me - up to now THE summit of neo-noir films of the 21st century!
Of course the Coens wouldn't be the Coens if they didn't add their own twist to the typical genre elements and as you can expect, they very much do that here too. The most notable thing is the Coenesque subtle humor that is woven into the script. The film has the atmosphere of a film noir and everyone talks like they're in a film noir, but in essence this really is a deliciously cynical dark comedy (in the most subtle sense of the word). The Coens typically let banal situations cause severe consequences and some of the dialogues are just straight faced comedy gold! The beauty of this film is that, even though it is undoubtedly comical, it never loses its seriousness and it never makes us less engaged with the actual plot. We still get genuine suspense and effective depressed voice overs, even though it's a story about a barber who blackmails his wife's boss and lover because he wants to invest in dry cleaning. It's a relatable story about a man who is probably as alienated from the world and his surroundings as one can be. He observes everything in an extremely apathetic, but passive manner.
Another main reason why I adore this film so much, is its fantastic cast! Frances McDormand is great as always, Scarlett Johansson is convincing in one of her younger roles and James Gandolfini is simply badass! The true star of the film is Billy Bob Thornton, though. He was made to play the cynical, depressive, chain smoking guy who's out of luck! His voice and facial expressions are simply SPOT ON! He really IS that character. I'm also a huge fan of the film Bad Santa in which he plays a role with a similar tone (even though he also has a few other extreme character elements in that one).
So, if you're in the mood for some pitch-black comedy with a delightful touch of melancholy and world-weariness (realised by the sadness of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas and Roger Deakins' deliciously somber cinematography), you should definitely watch this remarkably well crafted piece of cinema (it's one of the Coen Brothers' most visually impressive films, in my opinion). The Man Who Wasn't There is one of those films that will stay a firm personal favorite of mine for a very long time!
A lawyer uses the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle (or Heisenberg principle) in a pretty cool way to explicate the essence of his case to his client.
Are you watching the TV series Fargo? If you're not get on it right away, Billy Bob Thornton is at his best in my opinion and the whole thing is fantastic.
Are you watching the TV series Fargo? If you're not get on it right away, Billy Bob Thornton is at his best in my opinion and the whole thing is fantastic.
I didn't even know BBT was in that series!
Just put it on my watchlist. Thanks for telling me!
I didn't even know BBT was in that series!
Just put it on my watchlist. Thanks for telling me!
You idiot, how did you miss something like that!
But yeh watch it right away, there's been four episodes so far and I absolutely love all of them. Perfect film to tv adaptation in my eyes, similar settings and elements but fresh storyline and interesting subplots/characters, Billy Bob Thornton is absolutely brilliant and I guarantee you'll love it. The Coen Brothers are on board as exec producers and approved the script, the whole thing has a great Coen Brothers sensibility to it, the writer is clearly a fan, with many elements from lots of their films.
Django Unchained is the third Tarantino entry on my list. This epic modern western is in my opinion one of the most entertaining and memorable films of the current decade so far. It's plenty of cool moments and it contains a rich amount of well constructed characters, sharp dialogues and all the other stuff you would expect from Quentin Tarantino.
Django Unchained mainly is a film about slavery, although the theme is displayed in a twisted, Tarantinoesque manner. It shows the horrors of slavery in an exploitative way (which is fine by me) and it responds to those horrors very agressively. In the world of cinema, violence is a valid and often satisfying way to showcase emotions (in my opinion) and Tarantino is one of those directors who's able to transfer those emotions in his scenes very effectively. It doesn't matter if it's two black men fighting eachother to the death, Django killing one of his former abusers or a slave getting tattered by dogs, we always feel touched in a certain way. In my extra classes of Moral philosophy (which is an optional subject that I attend in my university), I learn about violence and how it's always been part of human's moral instincts throughout history. It's a part of humanity that's been looked down upon during modern years (and with good reason), but I personally think it's still a very interesting aspect of ourselves to think about and to be confronted with. Tarantino very much does that in his films and I strongly appreciate that. His violence is not just mindless, even though it sometimes has very entertaining and even glorifying results. He obviously has fun with his action-based scenes and he has no problems with going severely over the top, but you can feel that there's still a certain 'gravitas' to them.
Isolated from its themes and obvious social commentaries on history, this is also just a film with a very exciting and tensive plotline. A slave, called Django, gets freed by Dr. King Schultz, a very likable, sly German bounty hunter, to help him find three brothers that are wanted by the law and that he can earn money with. They start bonding and when Schultz hears about Django's wife, Broomhilda, still being captivated somewhere, he decides to help his new friend to free her. They come up with a plan and they approach her eccentric and notorious owner, Calvin Candie, and try to obtain Broomhilda from him with a con...
The first two thirds of the film I personally like best. In the first third, our two main characters meet and they travel together. We get some cool dialogues, we witness them realizing a few bounties and having a few adventures (one of them features an early form of the Ku Klux Klan). The pace is amusingly laid back (with the exception of a few more intense moments) and Tarantino creates a very effective atmosphere. He lets us absorb the environment of his film. In the second part, we meet our main villain. Our two main characters throw themselves in a very risky plan. The dialogues are more cutting, the stakes are higher and the story gets darker. We are treated to some very entertaining and suspenseful moments and slowly move towards a major climax! In the last third of the film, everything kind of gets reduced to a revenge plot. It's still entertaining and engaging, but it's not as subtle and perfectly toned as the first two thirds and everything makes place for more cliché and typically heroic plot developments. It's still a lot of fun to watch (and the very ending is just plain awesome), but it does lack the sophistication of what preceeds it. Still, as you can see, it was no reason for me to not enjoy the overall film immensely and add Django Unchained to my all time favorite films.
I could write about this film for ages and get into many other aspects of it, such as the cool hommages to other classic (spaghetti-western) films, the splendid sense of humor, the brilliant acting performances by Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio (whose villain is one of the most memorable and enjoyable villains in modern cinema, in my opinion) and a bunch of other stuff, but I've expressed my very positive feelings towards this film many times already on these forums, so I won't bother you people with it any further.
This film has been at the top of my 2010s decade list since it came out, but after a third rewatch of another favorite film a few months ago, it has been surpassed (I guess most people will know by which film). Tarantino's Western epic still proudly ranks as my second personal favorite of this decade so far, though, and I strongly recommend it to every cinephile who hasn't seen it yet! It's truly a great piece of modern mainstream American filmmaking!
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