with Altman, I find you always begin with boredom which can either curdle into dissociation or slip you into a kindof trance where at some point, whether it be at the halfway mark, or even later, you find that a spell has been cast upon you—drawing you into the world of the film with rare immersion.
This is one where, even an hour in, it was a coin flip--but then Altman's incantations began to affect me--- first-- the blown out, exposed, 'pre-fog' look has no right to work that well. Every frame had me ogling--- in that respect the film is up there with Days of Heaven and Barry Lyndon. Add to this a craven hero--a dog with a tail between the legs caught in the middle of larger forces. Altman wanted this to be an anti-western, as has been oft written. We're not in Texas, or riding around on horses——we are in the middle of a snowstorm in Washington State; there is no marshall or sheriff, our main characters are a crib boss and a madame--- even if one wanted to slot the capitalism-/community vs. individual theme into the film and compare it to OUATINW-- you would have to contend with the complete apathy of the main character to any sense of principle; the scene with the lawyer who brought up William Jennings Bryan displayed how completely foreign anything but self-interest was to McCabe who then came home and began to pretend he was some reformist---no, McCabe was just another poor bastard on the frontier looking out for his own skin-- and for better or for worse, he at least took down a few other bastards on his way down.
What a brilliant third act, I like Altman when he doesn't forget about the audience in crafting his naturalist cinema.
with Altman, I find you always begin with boredom which can either curdle into dissociation or slip you into a kindof trance where at some point, whether it be at the halfway mark, or even later, you find that a spell has been cast upon you—drawing you into the world of the film with rare immersion.
This is one where, even an hour in, it was a coin flip--but then Altman's incantations began to affect me--- first-- the blown out, exposed, 'pre-fog' look has no right to work that well. Every frame had me ogling--- in that respect the film is up there with Days of Heaven and Barry Lyndon. Add to this a craven hero--a dog with a tail between the legs caught in the middle of larger forces. Altman wanted this to be an anti-western, as has been oft written. We're not in Texas, or riding around on horses——we are in the middle of a snowstorm in Washington State; there is no marshall or sheriff, our main characters are a crib boss and a madame--- even if one wanted to slot the capitalism-/community vs. individual theme into the film and compare it to OUATINW-- you would have to contend with the complete apathy of the main character to any sense of principle; the scene with the lawyer who brought up William Jennings Bryan displayed how completely foreign anything but self-interest was to McCabe who then came home and began to pretend he was some reformist---no, McCabe was just another poor bastard on the frontier looking out for his own skin-- and for better or for worse, he at least took down a few other bastards on his way down.
What a brilliant third act, I like Altman when he doesn't forget about the audience in crafting his naturalist cinema.
