McCabe & Mrs. Miller

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McCabe & Mrs. Miller

R

1971

2h 1m

Western

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

85%

Tomatometer

62 Reviews

86%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Charismatic gambler John McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives in a mining community and decides to open a brothel. The local residents are impressed by his confident demeanor and fast talk, but crafty prostitute Constance Miller (Julie Christie) sees through McCabe's words and realizes he isn't as sharp as he seems. For a share in his profits, Mrs. Miller agrees to help plan and run McCabe's establishment, but soon a powerful company threatens to destroy what they have built up.

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Critics Consensus

McCabe & Mrs. Miller offers revisionist Western fans a landmark early addition to the genre while marking an early apogee for director Robert Altman.

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Troy Patterson

Entertainment Weekly

Feb 7, 2025

A

As John Q. McCabe, another blustery hustler out of his depth, he projects — with comically furrowed brow and tragically boyish eyes — first a terribly magnetic charm and then a terror at the knowledge that charm alone will never suffice.

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Jake Wilson

The Age (Australia)

Nov 2, 2018

Robert Altman's wintry 1971 anti-Western gives Warren Beatty one of his best roles as the doomed gambler McCabe: boastful, shy, foolish, altogether lovable.

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Jessica de Grazia

Time Out

Aug 9, 2016

One of the best of Altman's early movies, using classic themes -- the ill-fated love of gambler and whore, the gunman who dies by the gun, the contest between little man and big business -- to produce a non-heroic Western.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Feb 10, 2024

3.5/4

Here's a revisionist Western that strips the genre bare: Instead of gallant heroes and beautifully choreographed gunfights, there are only stupid men and sloppy shootouts, nothing worth turning into the stuff of legend.

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Noah Gittell

Washington City Paper

Aug 5, 2023

The story moves so briskly to its inexorable conclusion that it’s easy to miss how little actually happens in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, but we’re here for the mood more than the matter.

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Zita Short

InSession Film

Feb 2, 2023

McCabe and Mrs. Miller sticks to its guns and resists the temptation to turn Warren Beatty into a traditional hero.

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ed M

@RT80499164 Aug 24, 2026

Pretty good. Warren Beatty is actually quite good. Worth watching.

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Tim M

@tgmacman Aug 3, 2026

Finding Robert Altman taking the majesty out of the Western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller and its grounded nature will chill your bones.

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Kyle M

@RT77296778 Mar 13, 2026

Altman achieved in supposedly deliver an unconventional western only through societal functions with noted transitional modernism, then later remarking his uninteresting vision’s accumulated scenery in the more polished climax that still blurs indistinguishably characterized traits minimally elevated by Beatty’s piquing performance. (B-)

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Drew M.

@Stonehands211 Feb 25, 2026

This ruled. My favorite Altman film to date from what I’ve seen so far. Surprisingly bleak in the end. I dug it!

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Nicholas B

@RT55131437 Jun 6, 2025

Much like the self-indulgent, maudlin soundtrack that accompanies it, McCabe and Mrs Miller is poetically provocative but flawed. Robert Altman's meditation on the brutal machinations of frontier industry only churn out the little that such an underdeveloped and minuscule story can offer. Some nice establishing shots, interesting characters, and good performances aside, there's not really much going on here.

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Russ G

@RT78760655 Nov 27, 2024

New Hollywood BS. Give pretty boy Warren some credit for taking the role, but the film drags and the dialog is unintelligible in places. What makes it worse is that Altman apparently wanted it that way but when audiences and critics panned it he blamed the sound guy - shameful. Wiki also states that Altman basically poisoned the film stock so the studio could never print it without the washed out color - another dumb ego trip. I had seen this decades ago but I couldn't get past 38 minutes this time. It just left me giving Zero Forks about the resolution, if any. OK, I scanned through the last half and it's clear that McCabe was going to meet his end, but why did Mrs. Miller end up in a filthy opium den? So, is the story just "Crap Happens Then You Die?" We already knew that.

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Robert Altman

Director

Warren Beatty

John McCabe

Julie Christie

Constance Miller

Rene Auberjonois

Sheehan

John Schuck

Smalley

Bert Remsen

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Synopsis

Charismatic gambler John McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives in a mining community and decides to open a brothel. The local residents are impressed by his confident demeanor and fast talk, but crafty prostitute Constance Miller (Julie Christie) sees through McCabe's words and realizes he isn't as sharp as he seems. For a share in his profits, Mrs. Miller agrees to help plan and run McCabe's establishment, but soon a powerful company threatens to destroy what they have built up.

Director: Robert Altman
Producer: Mitchell Brower, David Foster
Screenwriter: Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, Brian McKay, Edmund Naughton
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Production Co: Warner Brothers
Rating: R
Genre: Western
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 24, 1971, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 22, 2015
Runtime: 2h 1m
Sound Mix: Mono

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