Directed by Robert Altman, McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) remains one of the most interesting and atmospheric revisionist westerns of the New Hollywood era. The film stars Warren Beatty as John McCabe, an entrepreneur and reported gunslinger, and Julie Christie as Constance Miller, a madam turned successful business owner. When the two partner to run a brothel in a Pacific Northwest frontier town, they come up against the competing financial interests of a powerful corporation. In the company of The Wild Bunch, Bonnie & Clyde, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, this film explores the challenges to traditional authority that became a central part of the conversation in the anti-westerns in the 1970s.  

The seminar will explore these themes along with the genre-bending qualities that give the film its unique aesthetics and make it stand out amongst its peers. The haunting music of Leonard Cohen pairs with the stunning cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond (The Long Goodbye; The Deer Hunter) to challenge audience expectations of the western genre. While initial audiences were unenthusiastic about the film, the seminar will address how this assessment has shifted over time with the help of positive reviews from critics like Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael.