The Pacific Northwestern: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (35mm)
Opens February 24, 2026
A feckless gambler and cockney madame become successful business partners in the burgeoning town of Presbyterian Church, WA, but trouble arrives in the form of a monopolizing corporation in Robert Altman’s quintessential dream western. Presented on 35mm courtesy of the Chicago Film Society.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2026
“Wet enough for ya?”
Inverting many of the standard expectations associated with the genre, American master Robert Altman’s “anti-western” follows feckless gambler John McCabe (Warren Beatty) as he enters into business with cockney madame Constance Miller (Julie Christie) on building a high end brothel in the burgeoning town of Presbyterian Church, Washington. Representatives of a powerful mining corporation arrive soon enough with their sights set on monopoly, but McCabe’s casual rejection of their buyout offer sets everyone hurtling down a dangerous path of blood in the snow. The real-time set construction of the town, Altman’s signature overlapping dialogue, the naturally changing seasons, Leonard Cohen’s funereal soundtrack, and Vilmos Zsigmond’s damp, muddy, fluid cinematography all combine to create a dreamlike verisimilitude of turn of the century Pacific Northwest life entirely unmatched in the cinema.
“'McCabe & Mrs. Miller' is like no other Western ever made, and with it, Robert Altman earns his place as one of the best contemporary directors.”—Roger Ebert
- Director: Robert Altman
- Principal Cast: Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, Willam Devane, Shelly Duvall
- Country: USA
- Year: 1971
- Running Time: 120 min.
- Producer: Mitchell Brower, David Foster
- Screenplay: Robert Altman, Brian McKay, from the novel by Edmund Naughton
- Cinematographers: Vilmos Zsigmond
- Editors: Lou Lombardo
- US Distributor: Warner Brothers