MovieChat Forums > McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Discussion > Liked this film a lot but it looked gros...

Liked this film a lot but it looked gross

posted 8 years ago by Benergy
4 replies | jump to latest

I was a bit of skeptical at first, but I must say this movie won me over and absorbed me into it's world with it's rich characters.

I'm wondering however who also felt that film looked, frankly, gross or disgusting. Certainly some of this comes from its commitment to authenticity which worked quite well, but it moved into territory that was almost painful to watch. Everything looked like a cocktail of mud, sweaty armpits and dirty long johns.

The Omaha Beach sequence in Saving Private Ryan is about as persuasive and authentic as contemporary movies can get, and it looked dirty and grimy. But never did it feel gross or disgusting in the same way that McCabe & Mrs. Miller did, which frankly made my skin crawl. It made me want never to go anywhere within 100 miles of that ugly little town...

Anybody agree with this? Have other thoughts?

(Again: I liked the film a lot. Not criticizing the film as a whole)

[–] !!!deleted!!! (63057267) 8 years ago

Yeah, it's the only Western I've seen where I actually smelled feces throughout, both animal and human. I've seen it many times (it's my favorite Altman film, and I love Altman films), and each viewing stinks of feces, more so when we're outside with the characters. It definitely makes me grateful that I missed the Old West.

[–] schubej-1 8 years ago

It's called realism. We take for granted our current living conditions which for most (unfortunately not all) are far nicer and cleaner. But with that said it is still far grittier than the HBO Western Deadwood starring Timothy Olyphant which also painted a fairly nasty lifestyle.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (5958) 4 months ago

Shaving Ryan's Privates was faux grimy. A hyperreality.

[–] rnmboon (376) 4 months ago

I very much dislike the camerawork in this film. It looks unpleasantly soft and faded. Apparently that was the intention but I don't think it works too well. It would have been a better film with more traditional cinematography imho.

Vilmos Zsigmond gave an interesting interview about it a few years ago: https://filmmakermagazine.com/87150-old-faded-pictures-vilmos-zsigmond-on-mccabe-mrs-miller/#.ZZHTnHbMLb0