The History Of The Revisionist Western Film Studies Essay

The History Of The Revisionist occidental Film Studies EssayRobert Altman chronicled his own 1971 naturalist app arent move handst picture McCabe and Mrs. miller an anti- horse opera perhaps due to the fact that the film blatantly ignores or subverts a number of Western conventions. Westerns, a term that is used to withdraw the landmark mid-20th-century American film music genre, are nostalgic eulogies to the early days of expansion on the fantastic American frontier where fragments of civilization border on typically warm, expansive, open graces. McCabe Mrs. Miller, however, ignores this idyllic representation of the American frontier and, instead, Altman sets his story in the cold, murky, mountainous wilderness. Further more(prenominal), the protagonist in McCabe Mrs. Miller deviates strongly from the traditional gun-slinging, self-assured cowboy that characterizes the genre. With careful attention to hyper-realistic mise-en-scne elements (most notably elements of setting ) and naturalistic, largely non-obtrusive diagetic sound effects, Robert Altman crafts a successful revisionist western that, darn retaining many of the same themes and elements pertaining to the classic western genre, differs substantially in both tone and style in ways that promulgate Altmans revisionist approach to the established genre.Since the John Ford era of western cinematography, audiences of Western films had been primed to anticipate expansive, open landscapes, red-orange deserts and plains where a sweeping sense of freedom in interrupted only by the isolated smoke point or Native American scout. Ford often contrasted this expansive terrain with the insulated chaos of his towns, bars, and other interiors which tended to make the lone ranger protagonist claustrophobic. Immediately in the opening move scene of McCabe Mrs. Miller, John Fords idyllic frontier, perhaps one of the most adored staples of the Western, is challenged. In Altmans universe, the outdoors are cold , murky, rough, and unwelcoming. Any sense of freedom in this landscape has ceased to exist. Our hero John McCabe is burdened with trekking an uneven, rocky, meandering path through the snow-capped woods a path as restrictive and uncomfortable as the harshest of Fords interiors. The mise-en-scne elements Altman employs in this case serve to distinguish McCabe Mrs. Miller from the classic western formula by providing a stark contrast in setting (and, by extension, tone). It is not a complete contrast, however. As film reviewer and Altman scholar, Gregory Lallone writes, Altmans interiors are just as suffocating, his untamed towns just as dangerous and ruled by greed, brutality, and chaos. It is simply a little warmer inside.Thus we may begin to crush the lighting elements Altman employs in depicting McCabe Mrs. Millers interior locations as too untamed but significantly warmer than the surrounding, harsh outdoors. Altmans interiors are met with a profound use of low-key lighting to reflect this dim, foreboding, and even risqu nature of the towns bars, businesses, and brothels. Kerosene lamps are usually the only lighting sources that cast a warm orange light onto the cameras subjects a light that strongly contrasts with the drab whites and grays of the cold wilderness. Especially paramount during scenes at the bawdyhouse and during Mrs. Millers opium dreams, this orange light gives off a suitably warm, inviting, dream-like quality to the picture. While still dim and claustrophobic, the low-key indoor lighting reflects a similar push for period-authenticity (via the kerosene lamps) in conjunction with the pictures incredibly authentic set, while also serving to categorize interior sequences as warm and safeguarded (e.g. whorehouse scenes and opium dreams) or dangerous and foreboding (e.g. gambling tables and shooting hideouts).In conjunction with period-appropriate setting and lighting, naturalistic sound elements are used throughout the film to give a sense of uninterrupted continuity unusual to the medium. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert writes in his review of the film,The is the classic Altman style It begins with one fundamental given All of the characters know each other, and the camera will not stare at commencement one and then another, like an earnest dog, but is at home in their company. Nor do the people line up and talk one after another, like characters in a play. They talk when and as they will, and we visualise its not important to hear every word sometimes all that matters is the tone of the room. (Ebert, 1999)Rather than presenting only the vital bits of information and dialogue to the viewer to preceding the films narrative, Altman instead uses ambient sound and background conversation to embroider a profound sense of location that, oftentimes, favors realism over narrative efficiency. When John McCabe first enters a saloon and settles down at a table, everyone in the saloon is under the impression that he o nce shot a man The bloodline is tense and, all the while, somebody is vaguely heard in the background asking, Laura, whats for dinner?With the exception of the occasional, dreary Leonard Cohen folk tune (which, admittedly, I found distracting and out-of- manoeuver), McCabe Mrs. Miller makes no use of non-diagetic sound for outstanding effect. This is another clear departure from the traditional Hollywood string instruments (notably banjos, guitars, and fiddles), harmonicas, and bum-bum-BUMs that embellish dramatic moments in traditional western cinematography. As such, the ambient, diagetic soundtrack plays an especially central role in establishing tone and dramatic tension. During the final shootout, silence dominates so much of the audio track that every click of silence becomes vitally important. Each footstep, each crack of a wooden plank, and each breath McCabe takes might very well give away his office and result in his death. Thus we see that the intentional absence of non-diagetic sound can be just as powerful as (if not more so than) its inclusion.Just as the frontier landscape is modulated, made somehow more truthful with the insertion of a bit of dirt and realism, the protagonist himself is similarly transformed.While differing in many respects to the established western hero, John McCabe is actually not too far removed. His fight is largely the same defend what is rightfully his against outlaws and big business. He differs in that he lacks the toughness, the braggadocio, and the super-human courage of the Gary Coopers and Henry Fondas. Any shred of idealism and heroism McCabe claims to embody is counteracted by a narrow-sighted avocation for profit, instances of clumsiness, and displays of outright cowardice. John McCabe is not a cowboy, a homesteader, a sheriff, or of some honorable profession he owns a whorehouse. McCabes non-traditional characterization is further certify during the final showdown where the shootout is more accurately described as a slow and anxious game of cat-and-mouse. McCabe hops from one hiding place to another knowing that winning a gunfight out in the open Gary Cooper-style is unrealistic. A true Western hero might denounce McCabes evasive action as cheating and cowardly. He shoots two of the three gunmen in the back from a concealed hiding place and he overcomes the third by compete dead. Departing from the larger-than-life nature of classical western heroes, director Robert Altman injects a darker realism into his protagonist that reflects the revisionist nature of the film.McCabe Mrs. Millers final twenty minute sequence, the climactic shootout, serves as an effective microcosm for how the aforementioned mise-en-scne and sound elements contribute to the protagonists characterization and the films overall narrative themes. Beginning with setting, the scene displays and features all of the followingThe harsh, unforgiving, cold wilderness that serves to contrast with the conventional w arm, expansive Western landscape.The authenticity of the towns still-in-progress wooden infrastructure that serves to accurately encapsulate the harshness and resource-conscious realism of the period.Regarding lighting, the sequence displaysThe low-key hideout interiors that signify danger and dramatic tension.The warmly-lit opium den, tragically contrasting with the bitter outdoors, which in this case, falsely indicates a safe haven or retreat.And finally, the sequence displays the following effective usages of non-diagetic sound techniquesThe unfocused transcription of background chatter during the moments surrounding the burning church which serves to further Altmans push for realism over narrative efficiency while simultaneously contrasting with belowThe dramatic silence during McCabes cross-cutting shootout sequence interrupted by the occasional dramatic footstep, creak, breath, or gunshot sounds that increase dramatic tension.The ambient snowfall which eerily serves as a holl ow, bitter replacement soundtrack throughout the sequence that increases in amplitude as McCabes body is swallowed by the elements.These mise-en-scne and sound elements work seamlessly together to discover what I believe was Altmans ultimate goal in the making of McCabe Mrs. Miller to approach the Western genre with a non-traditional sense of realism and authenticity that, while retaining some of the same conventional themes and elements of the genre such as the pursuit of justice and the championing of order on the American frontier, re-envisions the two most fundamental staples of the genre the setting and the protagonist.By making particular, non-traditional use of various mise-en-scne and sound elements in McCabe Mrs. Miller, director Robert Altman, refutes the conventional narrative pioneered by the classic Western that the American frontier was a sort of idyllic paradise. Ford depicted the frontier as the quintessential American arena where battles were fought and won by go od men who, because of their very nature, triumph over the bad. Altmans western frontier is simply no more than a showcase of lawless capitalism and greedmen and women mercilessly arguing and chip over profits like fleas over rotting flesh. However, one must not be too quick to conclude that McCabe Mrs. Miller exists solely as an attempt to challenge or ridicule the established themes and conventions of the western genre. For while Altman does in fact transcend a number of expectations and subverts a number of established norms, the archetypal structure remains the same. The audience remains sympathetic towards the heroic gunslinger, even though the scope of that heroism is somewhat narrowed. John McCabes role as the gunfighting goodie struggling against an oppressive force of injustice and greed stems directly from the Western genre. Rather than conceding to define McCabe Mrs. Miller as an outright anti-western, we can analyze how Altmans stylistic elements both propagate parall els to established conventions while, at other times, delineate clear departures from the genre that serve to effectively categorize the film as no(prenominal) other than a revisionist western narrative and a cinematographic work of art.________________