The Twin Geeks 51: McCabe & Mrs. Miller

We return again to the Western genre, this time turning away from the more traditional and classic choices to the wildly revisionist world of Robert Altman. After the smash success of his 1970 anti-war film MASH, Altman sought to bring his unique perspective to many different genres, beginning with what he would dub his "anti-Western". McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a poetic but unflinching look at the muddier side of the frontier film, oftentimes very literally. The film is set in the backyard of our beautifully gloomy Washington state, which of course gives it an extra edge in being one of our all-time favorites. The abundant evergreens and shimmering snowfall of the landscape is entirely in opposition of typical Western expectations, but at its core McCabe & Mrs. Miller is still a story about morality in a savage and untamed world. Our heroes aren't always heroes, as history has been all too kind to show us, and the revisionist approach of Altman's Western masterpiece is one of the best examinations of legends and folklore we've yet to see.

A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord