Robert Altman’s anti-Western from 1971 stars Julie Christie as a steely madam (Mrs. Miller) and Warren Beatty as an enterprising gambler (McCabe) that go into the brothel business in the Wild West town of Presbyterian Church. Only this west isn’t so wild; this is a film that has the shape of a Western but is filled with a poetic, mumbling vapor. Its snowy, grimy mining town soundtracked by the murmurs of Leonard Cohen and Altman’s signature incoherent dialogue undercut any swashbuckling the rough inhabitants of the Wild West might be doing. It’s an unsentimental elegy for something capitalism and the cruel side of human nature killed – in short, it’s very Altman, and very American. – Lina Fisher
