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The Landmark Western Quentin Tarantino Called “Ugly” Is Streaming for Free
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Robert Altman's 1971 revisionist Western starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, is currently streaming for free in the United States. The film is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of the "anti-Western" genre for the way it subverts traditional genre conventions, but it has drawn a notably mixed reaction from Quentin Tarantino, himself known for reworking Western tropes in films such as Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.
Speaking on the Pure Cinema Podcast, Tarantino said he found the film's opening reel to be badly flawed, calling it "the worst-mixed reel in the history of Hollywood cinema" and criticising a level of technical "incompetence" he said Hollywood rarely sinks below. He recalled abandoning the film twice after watching a VHS copy, only to be won over on a third attempt after tracking down a 35mm print, originally intending to gift it to fellow director Richard Linklater, which gave him a markedly different impression of the movie.
In short
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller is streaming free in the US.
- Tarantino called the film's first reel poorly mixed and "ugly."
- He later reversed his view after watching a 35mm print.
Explained simply
McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a 1971 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. It belongs to the "anti-Western" or "revisionist Western" movement, a category of films that deliberately subverts the traditional conventions of the Western genre—the tropes and storytelling styles audiences expect from films about the American Old West. The film is widely considered one of the finest examples of this approach.
Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker known for making films that rework Western and other genre conventions. His comments about McCabe & Mrs. Miller are noteworthy partly because his own work explores similar questions about reimagining familiar genres, and they reveal how even widely celebrated films can provoke strong disagreement among artists about their value.
Tarantino's relationship with the film illustrates how viewing conditions can affect critical appreciation of older cinema. His initial negative reaction to watching it on a VHS copy shifted substantially after he saw a restored 35mm print, suggesting that the technical quality of how audiences experience a classic film can dramatically alter their judgement of it.