Dark Highways

A western for people who don’t like westerns. 

McCabe is a slick operator who, with the help of a woman who is too good for him, builds a brothel and becomes one of the leading men in a town that is slowly establishing itself in the frigid wilderness. 

Except for McCabe being an unapologetic pimp I was amused at how much of the structure of this closely matched any traditional western. 

The difference, perhaps, is in how poor and rough everything looks. You can feel the squalor and desperation in the west. You know, if that’s your kink. 

The film takes plenty of time to let its characters interact with each other and play little slice of life scenes. It’s fun if not particularly action packed. 

The movie picks up when Mrs. Miller comes on the scene and becomes the brains behind McCabe’s business. Here again the movie is satisfied just to give you character work. 

McCabe’s ego is as puffed up as the giant coat he wears. Miller has dreams that are too big for the society in which she lives. 

When he foolishly tries to bargain with the mining company trouble comes calling. 

This is the set up for a fairly traditional western. And, in some ways that’s exactly what it is.

Folks, Warren Beatty gives the 70s mumbly version of a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do speech to Miller in this thing. 

And (Spoilers) he takes a gun and goes to confront the bad guys. One of the bad guys kills an innocent man for no reason so that you know he’s bad. 

Meanwhile, like most Altman movies there are whole worlds happening at the edge of the frame. 

I like how the movie establishes through two vignettes that this is a lawless society. At one point McCabe meets with a lawyer to get some help for his troubles. 

The lawyer offers him a fine speech about justice, the law and America. And it’s all hokem for the rubes. This is cinema from the 70s man and we’re all on our own. 

Anyway, I thought it looked good. I was annoyed as I almost always am by Altman’s decisions around sound. And there was entirely too much Leonard Cohen in this. 

But, but, but those are just minor complaints , this is still clearly a classic and fine filmmaking. If it’s not a revelation in 2024 that may only be because Deadwood explored every theme here in depth over three seasons and movie. 

But Altman and company got there first.