The History Of The Revisionist Western Film Studies Essay

The History Of The Revisionist westbound sandwich sandwich Film Studies EssayRobert Altman chronicled his own 1971 naturalist motion picture McCabe and Mrs. Miller an anti-western perhaps due to the fact that the pip blatantly ignores or subverts a number of western conventions. Westerns, a term that is used to suck up the landmark mid-20th-century American film genre, be nostalgic eulogies to the early days of expansion on the cruel American border where fragments of civilization border on typically warm, expansive, open landscape paintings. McCabe Mrs. Miller, however, ignores this idyllic representation of the American frontier and, instead, Altman sets his story in the cold, murky, mountainous wilderness. Furthermore, the protagonist in McCabe Mrs. Miller deviates strongly from the traditional gun-slinging, surefooted cowboy that characterizes the genre. With c atomic number 18ful 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, opus retaining many of the same themes and elements pertaining to the classic western genre, differs substantially in both tone and fl are in ways that promulgate Altmans revisionist approach to the effected 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 fitful only by the isolated smoke signal or Native American scout. Ford a good deal 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 porta 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 avenue 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 act 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 revueer and Altman scholar, Gregory Lallone writes, Altmans interiors are however as suffocating, his untamed towns just as dangerous and ruled by avariciousness, brutality, and chaos. It is simply a little warmer inside.Thus we may begin to collapse the open-eyeding elements Altman employs in depicting McCabe Mrs. Millers interior postures as alike 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 prevalent during scenes at the whorehouse and during Mrs. Millers opium dreams, this orange light gives take out a suitably warm, inviting, dream-the likes of 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 share to categorize interior ages as warm and safeguarded (e.g. whorehouse scenes and opium dreams) or dangerous and foreboding (e.g. gambling tables and wound hideouts).In conjunction with period-appropriate setting and lighting, naturalistic sound elements are used throughout the film to pose 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 assumption All of the characters know each other, and the camera give not stare at first one and then another(prenominal), 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 understand its not important to hear every forge 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 in the lead the films chronicle, 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 saloo n is under the impression that he once shot a man The style is tense and, all the while, somebody is vaguely heard in the background asking, Laura, whats for dinner?With the exception of the occasional, saturnine Leonard Cohen folk tune (which, admittedly, I found distracting and out-of- bewilder), McCabe Mrs. Miller makes no use of non-diagetic sound for dramatic 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 rupture of silence becomes vitally important. Each footstep, each passport of a wooden plank, and each breath McCabe takes might very well give away his jell and result in his death. Thus we se e that the intentional absence of non-diagetic sound can be just as effective 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 formal western hero, John McCabe is actually not besides far removed. His fight is largely the same defending 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 ask for profit, instances of clumsiness, and displays of outright cowardice. John McCabe is not a cowboy, a homesteader, a sheriff, or of some honorable barter he owns a whorehouse. McCabes non-traditional picture show is further evidenced during the final showdown where the s hootout 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 straight Western hero might denounce McCabes tactics as cheating and cowardly. He shoots two of the triple gunmen in the back from a concealed hiding place and he overcomes the third by acting 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 warm, 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, wrong indicates a safe haven or retreat.And finally, the sequence displays the following effective usages of non-diagetic sound techniquesThe unfocused enter 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 hollow, 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 achieve 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 several(a) 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 fo ught and won by good 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 fight over profits like fleas over rotting flesh. However, one must not be excessively quick to conclude that McCabe Mrs. Miller exists solely as an attempt to challenge or ridicule the complete 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 context 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 e lements both propagate parallels to established conventions while, at other times, delineate clear departures from the genre that serve to effectively categorize the film as none other than a revisionist western narrative and a cinematographic work of art.________________