Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Realism in Film -- Altman's vision of a wild and amoral West: "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"
The Western is often the most unrealistic and schematic of film genres in its plot and use of stock characters The film "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," as directed by Robert Altman, shows how this traditional genre of American film also has the potential, within its structure, create a sense of realism. Altman's direction invests the West with a sense of local color, multidimensional characters, and serious moral dilemmas. The muddy setting immediately shows the viewer that he or she will not be witnessing a vision of the American West that is filled with white-hat wearing cowboys shod in gleaming boots -- this is a West where men and women must sweat and toil simply to live.
Altman's photography avoids wide, panoramic shots of the main protagonists and instead focuses on close-ups of their unadorned faces. Even the musical score is not lush orchestral, and sweeping in its tone, but more akin to the actual acoustic music of the period. True, it is from the era of the film's production,...
It expresses the loneliness of the main character, McCabe.
Both main characters are lonely; yet find a point of common connection because of their shared economic interests and wit. The cinematic dialogue between McCabe and the brothel owner Mrs. Miller, lacks the canned moral qualities of usual Westerns, but has a terse wit and bite to it that 'feels' real, even though the characters may be more eloquent than the hustlers and whores they are based upon from Western historical reality.
But perhaps the most centrally 'realistic' aspect to the film is the predominance of money in the hearts of the protagonists, as opposed to the antagonists, as is traditional in the Western genre. McCabe is a gambler who attempts to establish control over his financial means of making a living. Mrs. Miller was formerly a prostitute and now uses the bodies of other women to make her money. The ethical dilemma McCabe faces is not the traditional moral qualms of a good-hearted defender of female virtue. The women of the…
Work Cited
"McCabe and Mrs. Miller." Directed by Robert Altman. 1971.
After he has faced so many struggles and foes, and fighting for his life against the "bad guys" while trying to hide the whole things from cops who might not appreciate him taking matters into his own hands, it is hard to say if Stranahan is really struggling against individuals or against society as a whole. Despite the fact that the book ceaselessly mocks all sorts of prominent, respectable professions
4) Both the Lovely Bones and Belle Prater's Boy could be very effective in teaching a Social Sciences course on the loss of a family member, and the effect that this has both on the family and the larger community. The sense of identity for the adolescent characters in these books is an essential element and conflict in the story. Family, especially at this age and developmental stage, is essential to
Fiction Messenger Economic Injustice in the Fictional Works of Dickens and Gaskell In his text on human commercial practices and economic behaviors, author James Black diverges from many of the dryer and less nuanced textual considerations of socioeconomic dynamics. He does so by couching his discussion in frequent divergences into iconic and modern works of fiction. These add a humanitarian consideration to many of his discussion points, helping to provide more complex
Warfare can change someone in a matter of days, as children were apparently transformed consequent to coming across conditions in Greece and as a result of the fact that their innocence and their child natures were virtually taken away from them once they were recruited. Even with the fact that Fritz struggled to stay a child, he did not manage to do so, as the Nazi system had changed
The massive mollusks still do seem fantastical. Several of the irrational elements of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea seemed more outrageous in the 19th century they do now. However, the novel continues to encapsulate the fantasy and science fiction genres because of its willingness to expand the boundary of what is real. Interestingly, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea did not stretch those boundaries much further than hard science has. On
narrators in Tracks shows that there is no unified Indian experience. Indian wise men like Nanapush can love their tribes and Indian identities give spiritual significance to their hardship and endure much and learn much from whatever life offers them. Other Indians, like Pauline, are torn asunder by the low value placed on Indian culture by Americans and feel jealous even of their own people, like Fleur, whom Nanapush