Transcript: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1981)
Transcript of 70mm’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1981) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday, I sit down and record with my dear friend and artist Danny Haas.
DANNY [Danny laughs for 5 seconds] Oh no.
SLIM And our own spiritual advisor, Protolexus.
PROTO Yeah to me, the way I’ve I feel about it is that if like the human I could zoom, life would look like an Altman movie.
SLIM And together as friends forever, we discuss recently watched movies. In the second half of this episode, we’re talking about an oft requested movie from none other than Robert Altman — McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Does this flip the western genre on its head? Or is the audio quality in this thing too weird for us to care? Enjoy!
[70mm theme songs ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Ghostbusters.
DANNY Excuse me!
SLIM Can we get into this right now? You just came back from a viewing. You went to some big Hobnob viewing of Ghostbusters.
DANNY I did.
SLIM Can you explain what this event was, please?
DANNY I just have good friends who rents out theaters and invite me to come along. That’s the that’s the story. That’s all it is. We got bags of Stay Puft marshmallows as we walked in. I was probably the only one of maybe two people not dressed as Ghostbusters. I felt… I felt naked. I needed my get up and proton pack. But yeah, I just got out of seeing it. And let me just preface this real quick.
SLIM Uh oh.
DANNY I’ve said in previous episodes, I’m new to the Ghostbuster franchise. So I have zero nostalgia with it. I didn’t grow up with it. I’ve enjoyed watching the new ones. First one’s better than the second one. I agree with everyone on that statement. I do enjoy the second one though. So anyway, this movie, it is a five star good time.
SLIM Ohhh!
DANNY I couldn’t get enough of this cast. These kids. Mackenzie is incredible in this film! I couldn’t get over her! She’s so much fun. I don’t know, just something about her and her presence and she just commanded this entire movie. I forgot Paul Rudd was even in it. She was doing such a good job.
SLIM Is Mackenzie —
DANNY The kid, the girl. She’s awesome. There’s moments in this film where I think if I had nostalgia I would probably be even more through the roof with it. It’s just there’s a couple months or even I got the chills. So I had a great time. It’s a really fun movie.
SLIM Are we doing an emergency episode on Ghostbusters Afterlife? We saw the numbers on Dune.
DANNY Listen.
SLIM Proto. Are we doing this, Proto?
DANNY I’m just saying it’s fun. I don’t think a lot of people are going to agree that’s a five star movie. I don’t even know that I’ll Letterboxd it at five but I really had a great time.
SLIM Oh my!
DANNY I really did have a good time.
SLIM Pre-Letterboxd five star that might devolve into a four and a half star.
PROTO A veiled star rating right now? [Slim laughs] It’s never been done!
DANNY There’s two credit scenes.
SLIM Wut?
DANNY It’s also fun being in the theater with a bunch of Ghostbusters fans. Like that felt cool again, like you’re back with Star Wars fans.
SLIM Did he give it five stars?
DANNY I would say — so it’s Trader Brandon. He was on our Waterworld episode. He was the one that hosted it all. He said he had a couple complaints but he had a great time. I mean he’s the biggest Ghostbusters fan that I know personally.
SLIM You guys probably like sat together and he sits down he’s trying to sit down that proton pack on his back and he’s like making a lot of noise and he’s like uncomfortable.
DANNY Yeah, I was like please don’t put your phaser on me bro. And he’s like, it’s not a phaser man. [Slim laughs]
SLIM It’s like spelling Doctor Who ‘Dr.’ to Doctor Who fans.
DANNY I think you’ll really dig it, Matt. I don’t know about Proto. I don’t know Proto’s pulse on Ghostbusters.
SLIM Me neither. That’s a black spot we don’t know anything about.
DANNY But yeah, now I’m kind of in. I’m in for the ride. I hope they make more with this cast. They were they were a lot of fun.
PROTO When you say Mackenzie, are you talking about Mackenzie Davis?
DANNY No, no, no, no, no, no, no no. Mackenzie Grace. Or excuse me — McKenna. McKenna Grace.
PROTO Oh my God.
DANNY She was in I, Tonya. Is that the same girl? I think she was in the Bly House stuff. I think is what most people know her from.
SLIM What?
DANNY Is that what it’s called? The Haunting —
SLIM I’ve never heard of this actress.
PROTO I don’t know who you’re talking about.
SLIM I’m clueless. I’m so out of the loop. She’s in Handmaids. She’s small Captain Marvel. I did ask Amanda and James if we’re gonna have a family movie night this weekend.
DANNY I think is a good choice for that. It’s a good choice.
SLIM Get some popcorn, get some Butterfingers. Maybe we’ll splurge and get like a large Coca Cola from the fountains, the fountain machine.
PROTO Three straws in that bad boy.
DANNY Oh my gosh. Get 10 straws and have like a little connection going.
PROTO Big gulp.
SLIM Sheesh.
DANNY Gulp it.
SLIM Yeesh. So I’m excited. Proto, did you watch any movies this week?
PROTO I watched a documentary and this was a good one. It’s called For All Mankind, came out in 1989. This is on the Criterion. I popped it on. Jenna fell asleep, we were watching something. I think we’re trying to finish the Impeachment show. I put this on and man, you know, we’ve all seen footage of NASA, Apollo missions, space. This though is something special. It’s all the footage from the Apollo missions with astronauts interviewed with their interviews voiceover, the footage. And seeing it the way it’s put together was just really incredible. I gave this five stars. I mean, I’m a space nerd. One of my ultimate wishes — you know, Make-A-Wish Foundation, if you’re out there — a Ken Burns documentary on the Gemini and Apollo missions —
DANNY Oh baby.
PROTO That would satisfy my soul. I would love that. But this is as close as I think I’m gonna get maybe to that. And some of the footage was just on believable. Whenever you watch stuff like this, it it’s so weird because you know there’s people don’t believe that, you know, we ever went to the moon. And the more you the more footage you see the more you start to agree with them because it just seems impossible and it looks insane. There’s a shot of the rocket taking off. And just the way it was shot, it was so up close to the rocket, it was just like incredible. So I’d recommend anybody to watch this. It really kind of just — I was in all of what they were able to accomplish but then just some of the imagery is just really amazing as well.
DANNY Yeah, I saw your five star Letterboxd come through and I’m like, gosh, I gotta get on this. And I agree when I watch I felt that same feeling watching First Man. Watching the runs that they were checking just to get up. I’m like, how the hell did we do this? It’s like a tin can! How did anyone survive this? It was fascinating. So now I gotta watch this documentary.
PROTO Yeah, you could totally just like throw it on in the background too. It’s like one of those, yeah.
DANNY Oh, nice.
SLIM Paul in chat saying ‘Love First Man.’ Didn’t you both have five bang First Man? Is that real?
DANNY Who can say at this point?
PROTO [in creepy voice] Did you both five bang? [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Phrasing was a little suspect but that’s just the way it came out.
PROTO Spoilers, I almost picked First Man for fall vibes.
SLIM Ohhh! Cinenauts did an episode of First Man. I had to shut it off when I got to the roundtable because I still want to watch it. You guys were like losing your minds at the 4K, weren’t you? I was about to use a different euphemism but you were both losing your minds at that 4K, weren’t you?
DANNY Let’s move on.
SLIM Let’s move on. [Slim laughs]
DANNY Things are getting unwieldy.
SLIM Sorry! Proto, what is the deal with this Impeachment show? How is that? Is that over?
PROTO Oh, yeah. Oh, I do have to issue an apology. So the Impeachment show is a part of that American True Crime FX series where they did the OJ trial. The most recent one was the Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky scandal called Impeachment. So it kind of covered it and Monica Lewinsky was a producer on it. So it had more I guess if you know her influence, and you know, her story to tell. Really fascinating, and my apology is I saw the movie I think Glass.
PROTO Yeah, Glass, which was an M. Night Shyamalan movie. And Sarah Paulson was in that. And I destroyed Sarah Paulson in that movie. [Slim & Danny laugh] It was one of the worst performances I’ve seen in a long time. But I now realize that it must have been all of M. Night’s directing because she is in the Impeachment show and she is amazing. I think she should win whatever they give awards for TV shows.
DANNY Emmys.
PROTO Incredible. Incredible performance. So it’s worth just watching for what she pulls off as Trip — I forget her — Linda Trip. Yeah, great performance.
DANNY We got like four episodes and but I think we just kind of wanted to wait till it was done. Is it over over?
PROTO Yeah, it’s over.
DANNY Okay.
DANNY I want to pick it back up.
SLIM I want to make a Spotify playlist of all episodes Proto has issued an apology in. [Slim & Danny laugh] I did have one Spotify playlist for episodes where Proto called Danny an idiot. There’s like two episodes where I forgot about it. I do want to call out Isaac who joined the Patreon this week, get access to exclusive episodes from the 70mm Vault like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, just dropped by the time this episode is released, and right around the corner is Matrix 3. And we have some patron choices coming very soon to the Patreon. It’s four bucks a month, you can join up and join our little movie family.
DANNY I mean, do you want to talk about Cursed Child? You made the trip into New York and everything.
SLIM Ohhh. Yes.
DANNY Big, big time.
SLIM God. So Amanda joined like a lotto or something for Cursed Child a couple months ago. And because tickets, you know, shows been out forever. And tickets are like mad expensive, and you have to be on a waitlist or whatever. So we just kind of forgot about it. But she got on some kind of a lottery and she got tickets, like not too long ago.
DANNY Nice.
SLIM And it’s starting back up. I think this is the first week since the pandemic ended its run. And in New York, they’re doing it all as one show, because the original version and outside of the US, it’s like two shows. You have to like maybe go Saturday and then see the second half on Sunday or well, early Saturday morning. And then like Saturday night, it’s very strange. It’s like five and a half hours of a play. And so this version is three and a half hours, got 20 minute intermission. And so we took the train into New York City. And we went to the Lyric Theater, I believe it’s called, got in line and we had amazing seats, actually the theater is pretty awesome. So you can’t really get a bad seat. But so I had read the script book when it came out. And Harry Potter fans seem to take a big S all over it. I feel like they kind of called it like fanfiction. Not a great story like a rehash of some of the movie plots. But I didn’t mind it that much. And I am of the mind that I want more of this world and these characters in particular. So I kind of ate it up. And the show I thought was great. The set pieces are insane. The way that they use lighting. It just like blew my mind. Like I don’t really see expensive Broadway shows ever. Like this is probably the only thing I’ve ever seen. But Amanda and I were both like turning to each other at various points of the show, from what we were seeing. There is an effect that happens in the show that they use with lighting that literally made my jaw drop. And I’ve never seen something done with lighting like this, let alone in person and several times during the show. It was stunning. So I had a lot of fun. The actors are amazing. I liked the show better than the shooting script book. Because you can kind of see certain characters like Scorpius Malfoy. Plot of the story, it’s not a spoiler. The story is Harry’s, one of his sons goes to school at Hogwarts and doesn’t really want to go. He’s like afraid he’ll be put in Slytherin. And he gets put in Slytherin. And so like really messes with his head. He has like not a great relationship with Harry. So it’s like a father, son plot storyline. The play kind of like fast forwards a few years so it’s like year three at Hogwarts and he’s friends with Scorpius Malfoy, Draco’s son, and they kind of get into high jinks and the plot of the movie is, you know, Harry kind of not really wanting to please his father but maybe try to like fix some of Harry’s mistakes that he made when he was younger. And it messes things up a bunch and I thought it was great. So the cast of the original movies, the books are in it, you know, maybe like half the show. Like Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Draco was in a lot. So I had a ton of fun. Ton of fun.
DANNY And then Chris Columbus was tweeting about doing a movie version now that the actors are all the right age. And we all know your feelings about Chris. [Slim laughs]
SLIM I mean, I don’t know what Chris Columbus has done the last 20 years to deserve doing Cursed Child. I don’t know.
DANNY The first Harry Potter.
SLIM I mean, that’s a long time ago, doesn’t mean he could just do Cursed Child.
DANNY 20 years now. It’s a banger.
SLIM I would love it. You know, they are the same age. At the end of the the last movie when they’re adults dropping their kids off, that’s essentially when the play starts. They’re dropping the kids off. So they’re at that age now, like it could be done. Like it would be an event. It would be the biggest thing to ever happen to a streaming service if they did that.
PROTO Could they do this?
DANNY I think they could.
SLIM Proto, what do you know about the Cursed Child? Have you read it at all? Do you know anything about it?
PROTO I know nothing. I kind of checked out of Harry Potter everything after the original books. So I don’t know anything about the famous beasts or whatever those are. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Fantastic Beasts, I was so deflated after I saw that movie. And like, it’s fine but like you’re gonna make five movies of this series? Like come on. What do you think of Fantastic Beasts Danny?
DANNY I had a good time. I’ll say that. I don’t think they’re — I don’t know if any of the two — is it only two right now that are out?
SLIM Just two. The new one comes out I think in six months or so.
DANNY I don’t think either of those are better than any of the original Harry Potter series. I don’t know if I’ve enjoyed the cast as much as I like the cast in the first eight. I love Eddie Redmayne though, I think he’s great. I don’t know. I don’t know if I enjoy the supporting cast as much.
SLIM Right, Ezra Miller is in it. Your boy, Proto, Flash from Justice League.
PROTO He’s my boy?
DANNY Yeah, he’s your boy.
PROTO Oh okay. I’d watch them. I’d probably watch them. Maybe after we finish these, I’ll watch them with my daughter.
SLIM I thought you’re about to say we do the Fantastic Beast after this. And I was about to say no.
DANNY No, we’re not doing that.
PROTO No, no, no.
DANNY I ain’t got time for that.
PROTO Not saying that.
SLIM Every week we give away a free year of Letterboxd Pro and I felt like we should do something different this week because I want to spotlight someone in our Discord that is circulating — they’re just doing a little Verhoeven month. Verhoeven journey. My boy Paul Verhoeven. Andy Stone has been circulating a DVD, an out of print DVD of Soldier of Orange, that I think is arriving at my door next. So I just wanted to spotlight that that’s a pretty cool thing. Sharing movies that are hard to find with our community. Andy’s already a Patron member. But his dear friend Kate Rose is not. So I think she gets a free year Letterboxd Pro. They go to the movies together, as friends forever. So Kate just won a free year of Letterboxd Pro.
PROTO God.
DANNY Wow.
PROTO Love to see it.
SLIM The system works.
PROTO Wow.
SLIM Proto, I think you’re next on the list after me getting that DVD.
PROTO Yeah, I had to get on this. I gotta see what’s going on with this Soldier of Orange business.
SLIM Danish, I think. Or Dutch.
PROTO That the same thing?
SLIM I don’t know. Maybe? [Slim laughs]
DANNY Oh, no. We need to move on.
PROTO A danish.
DANNY A cheese danish right now.
PROTO Yeah. Can you imagine? Do you want to say a word about The Green Ray that you watched and gave five stars to?
SLIM Golly. You saw that rating? You were intrigued?
PROTO I’m intrigued. I mean, you and French New Wave. I mean, is that your wheelhouse or what?
SLIM I think French New Wave is my wheelhouse big time. So The Green Ray was a movie that we watched for the upcoming episode of The Letterboxd Show. And this was a pick of Carin Besser, co-writer of songs from The National, her husband is Matt from The National, the lead singer.
DANNY Excuse me.
SLIM We’re talking to Bryce Dessner as well. And this is one of her fave movies. And this is about a gal who is about to go on vacation. She’s Parisian. She’s about to go on vacation, but her partner bails. So she’s got like, two, three weeks of vacation. She doesn’t know what to do now. And she’s been out of a relationship for a long time. And it’s just her going on various locales trying to meet people, not meeting people, her friends telling her to get a boyfriend. But what struck me about this movie is it’s maybe like seven real locations. And there’s so much improv and long takes of non actors and actors just talking, it blew me away. Like we talked about nothing burger scenes on the show a lot where it’s just like people talking, but it’s still so well done. So it still draws you in. That’s all this movie is. You’re just kind of like watching people talk for 10 or 15 minutes, telling a story, that I have no idea if it was even in a plot. It just felt like the director said, I needed at the end of this conversation for you to tell her to get a boyfriend. Anything before that for 15 minutes, just do whatever you want. And it somehow worked. Like that could be the dumbest thing ever. And it could just not work at all. But every time it was incredible, there’s a moment — the green ray, it’s a refraction of light, when the sunsets. It’s considered you know, like you, you experience all of yourself, you are aware of everything that you need in that moment when you see the green ray. And there’s this one scene where these four or five people are on the beach, I think they’re in like a book club. They’re talking about a book. And this one older gentleman knows about the green ray. The green ray comes up. And he’s like, oh, can I tell you about the green ray? It’s like seven minutes of this old guy just telling a story about what the green ray is. It’s like all one shot. It’s wild. You know, that kind of filmmaking I’m not really familiar with. So when I see something like that, and it’s from 1986, you know, I’m all in.
DANNY Gosh. I want to watch this now. Where’s it streaming at?
SLIM This is Criterion.
DANNY Criterion.
SLIM Criterion Channel right now. Proto, you gonna watch this?
PROTO I mean, it’s on my watchlist now. I love the sounds of it.
SLIM So you’re going to focus up.
DANNY Ouais ouais. [Slim laughs]
SLIM McCabe and Mrs. Miller. This is Proto’s pick for our loosely themed fall vibes month. This is one of the picks silently of a dear friend of our show in our Discord, Art. Longtime friend, loves this movie. So he was tickled pink that we were going to talk about this. Proto, what is this movie about?
PROTO Presbyterian Church is barely a town in Washington State, acting as a hub for the zinc mine workers. John McCabe comes to town and quickly establishes himself as somebody erecting a saloon and brothel. Soon after Mrs. Constance Miller arrives in town and wrestles her way into a business partnership with McCabe. Things are looking up for McCabe until a pair of businessmen representing a corporation show up and demand that he sell. Unwilling, McCabe becomes a problem that can only be solved with a gun. That’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
SLIM Wowow. You two are Altman boys. Right? You’re on this Altman journey that you guys won over by The Long Goodbye. Right? Is that Is that a correct statement?
DANNY Yes.
PROTO Yes, I was adopted by Robert Altman this this year.
SLIM What was it about that movie that enaptured you Danny?
DANNY Well, Elliot Gould’s performance I think is very good. But there’s something about how Altman kind of — I don’t know what the word is he kind of everything feels kind of casual. Like it just like a casual filming. Nothing feels like he’s trying too hard for something but also everything he’s doing looks amazing. And you really feel it in The Long Goodbye and I think I felt it in this as well. But I don’t know, his style is very specific or it’s very you know when you’re watching an Altman movie, I think. Especially in this era, this time in the 80s or whatever. It just feels like something. I don’t know. It’s really hard for me to explain but there’s there’s a very specific vibe to an Altman movie that I really dig.
SLIM Yoli chat agrees, says vibes, impulses the camera just looks around and captures conversations, feels very organic. You agree with that Proto?
PROTO Yeah to me, the way I feel about it is that if the human eye could zoom, life would look like an Altman movie. It feels almost like a fly on the wall type of feeling as if life is happening and there just happens to be a camera here capturing what is going on. And almost like a sense that you’re not even sure what necessarily you should be paying attention to at any given time because you might be hearing something in a room, but then the cameras focuses on something outside the window. And there can be a lot of different things happening at the same time that makes it feel, like Danny said, very lived in and very organic.
DANNY That’s very apparent in the beginning of this movie to when they get to the saloon where they were playing cards, or there’s so many conversations going on. So many things happening on screen that, honestly, I’m going to be honest, I got frustrated for a bit because it was I was just kind of like, where do I focus? I wasn’t settled in yet with this film. And it took me a while to to get its hooks into me. I mean, maybe even like an hour into until kind of hooked. But for the beginning of this film — I mean, not — let me back up. The beginning where it’s the music playing, the scenery, the long shots. It’s amazing. Like, I was really vibing but then when we got into an area where there’s like 50 conversations happening, I’m like uh oh, this is taking a turn I wasn’t ready for.
SLIM But yeah, my first note is how bad is the audio on this movie? Like the music plays and is great and but I thought maybe there was something wrong with my digital copy because once dialogue starts happening, gosh, I gotta find the remote, hold on a second. I’m like raising the volume for the speaking part that I’m lowering it for the music. Like I was watching a Argento movie.
PROTO Yeah, it does go up and down a lot. And I thought the the version of it that some of it’s like super grainy, I thought.
DANNY Super grainy.
PROTO Like, I wonder what the — because that there is a Criterion version of this. So I wonder what that looks like. And if it’s much better not.
SLIM The movie is so grainy — Marcie says music was added after the fact, the original score didn’t work for Altman. The movie is so grainy that I like assume that there’s no better version of this movie that exists. [Proto laughs] It looks like they filmed all — like this is the master. This is the cleanest copy they can get because even when like the rain scenes, or like when there’s rain or the that snow effect that they added in the final act like I just feel like this is as good as it’s gonna get for this movie, like whatever they filmed it on, this is it.
DANNY I literally have ‘snow overlay’ written down.
SLIM Catastrophic.
DANNY Like pull it out. We don’t need that. We know it’s snowy.
SLIM There’s no reason for it
DANNY There’s no reason. It didn’t add or or take away from anything in the final act of this film.
PROTO Well, I think it kind of does take away because to me, it’s kind of just distracting because it’s like, this is some kind of filter overtop of this. You’re not fooling anybody, that it’s snowing out right now.
SLIM Yeah, it looked — I mean, there was snow on the ground. Like they didn’t really need the storm. I don’t know. But yeah, not ideal. Marcie says that was real — the snowfall was not real.
DANNY Marcie, please.
SLIM The snowfall was not real. 100% Marcie, come off it.
PROTO Marcie shadowboxing right now.
SLIM I need to see more Warren Beatty movies. I feel like I haven’t seen any Warren Beatty movies.
DANNY I thought the same thing! Like I know Warren Beatty. I know his face. I know he’s a movie star. But I’m like, have I only seen Dick Tracy? I looked at his filmography, I’ve only seen Dick Tracy.
PROTO I love him in this though. I think he’s really multi dimensional in this, where he comes off kind of mysterious to start. And he’s very commanding, you know, but then he has like these other signs that he shows. Like he’s totally wooed. And, you know, beside himself with Mrs. Miller, like, he just, he can barely string a sentence together. And then like, when you know, then when the bounty hunters come, you know, then or the whatever the assassins come, he’s, you know, he’s very timid, you know, and he’s like, very, you know, drawn back, but then he asserts himself again, so it’s just like, he’s very, he’s like, he’s mysterious. He’s hard to grasp and like, the scenes where he’s talking to himself, I just, I just loved his performance in this.
SLIM It’s an odd character. You know, like he comes to town planning to you know, make a town like a business for himself and revitalize this town. And you kind of think that he’s just like a genius, intelligent, smarter than everyone here. But then once he gets encountered, you know, like you said, like the Bristol character. Like, man, he crumbles in that scene. It is awkward and cringy. He crumbles into dust.
[clip of McCabe and Mrs. Miller plays]
DANNY And that conversation is so good too. Where he’s just like, ‘I’m just here hunting bear.’ Like he had him wrapped around his finger. He was playing him so hard and and McCabe just couldn’t handle it. You’re right. He crumbled. It was so good to watch.
SLIM The first like, indication to that I felt like that kind of character existed was when Mrs. Miller arrived in town. And she pitches him on the idea that like I come here and build out the whorehouse. And he makes like that noise and that face.
[clip of McCabe and Mrs. Miller plays]
PROTO Yeah, I love that scene. And that scene was so cool. There’s a lot of music that happens in the movie. It’s not the score, but it’s happening in the background like someone’s playing, you know, a fiddle in in that scene when she’s eating there’s a you know, there’s a fiddler in the background playing. And it just like adds to the scene in a way that it feels almost like unintentional. Again, like as if he was just recording what was happening here. But it fits so well together with the scene. And man that looked good. Four fried eggs and stew. Dang, I was hungry watching that meal.
DANNY Can we talk about putting eggs in whiskey? I have never witnessed that. Is that a thing?
SLIM It’s a different time.
DANNY What’s the benefit of that?
SLIM I have no idea.
DANNY Is that just like getting your protein as well as drunk?
PROTO That’s some pseudoscience.
SLIM Disgusting.
DANNY Yeah, that’s some MLM science. [Slim laughs]
PROTO Someone’s grandmother swear by it.
DANNY That’s so gross. He kept doing it the whole movie.
SLIM Yeah, that was unsettling. There’s a couple of lines I wrote that cracked me up, you got a turd in your pocket or something. He said that a few times.
DANNY A lot of my notes take place third act because that’s really where I was really engaged with this film. I really found myself struggling for most of the first half of this film to just kind of be engaged with the story that’s going on. I found myself being carried by the visuals. I think there’s some absolutely incredible shots in this film. I think it’s mentioned in Letterboxd somewhere by someone about the church being built in the steeple at sunset, or just the long shots of this village or city, village, whatever you want to call it, town. It just it really felt it felt. I mean, I feel like that place is still there something at some walk through. I mean, the buildings felt like they had been there forever. It was gorgeous to look at. But man, this story. I didn’t care. Like I was really not caring about this story. I couldn’t I couldn’t really connect with Mrs. Miller for a while. And but when we get to when we get to when everything’s kind of almost falling apart for him and Beaty’s performance. I just, I really loved it. I loved the ending. I love the kid shooting the other cowboy on the bridge. That scene was so maddening. But that’s when it kind of starts and that’s when I kind of started getting engaged with the fact that this is all going to come down on McCabe but that’s just my honesty.
SLIM Thank you for your bravery. How about that car that was a train?
PROTO Insane.
SLIM A steam car?
PROTO Yeah, how’d that even get there? Like how would that thing keep running? [Slim laughs]
SLIM I don’t know. That was crazy. It was in an alternate dimension. And that was the cars that they had.
DANNY How about the stabbing with no explanation?
SLIM Oh the girl that was stabbing the guy?
DANNY Yeah, I was like, what happened?
SLIM 1902 I think this movie took place. So I actually had to — I wanted to find out what the inflation was because he gets offered $5,000 by these guys, and I love his little noise that he made when the guy introduced himself as Mr. Sears. He sounds like a muppet. He makes a weird noise. But I think it’s like almost 200 grand.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
