Last night I was re-reading "Laid Bare" by John Gilmore. It's a kind of first-person 'Hollywood Babylon', detailing Gilmore's friendships with everyone from Lenny Bruce and Janis Joplin to James Dean and Dennis Hopper. The book got me thinking about one of my favorite periods of American movie-making, the 1970's. Movies like "The Parallax View" and "Harold and Maude", that paired social commentary with unusual soundtrack choices. These days, most of the new movies that come out have soundtracks that play like the director's hippest mixtape. One movie that exemplifies the best things about '70's film/soundtrack combinations is "McCabe & Mrs.Miller". Directed by Robert Altman, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie and featuring songs by Leonard Cohen, the movie was an anti-western that took place during the Gold Rush. Altman doesn't treat the film as a conventional western, instead he shows typical western characters (whores, outlaws and lawmen) but manages to turn the stereotypes upside down. The film is bathed in a kind of daguerreotype haze, which works in concert with the three Leonard Cohen songs featured. Altman obtained the rights to the entire record "The Songs of Leonard Cohen" and ended up using the songs "Sisters of Mercy", "The Stranger Song" and "Winter Lady". Until the recent DVD re-release, all the copies i've seen were cursed by a muddy dialogue/music track. I was lucky enough to see an Altman-hosted screening of the movie at LACMA a few years ago, where I could finally hear all the lines I had previously missed. If you haven't managed to explore Altman's 1970's oeuvre, start with "McCabe & Mrs.Miller", then move on to "Brewster McCloud" (starring Bud Cort and Sally Kellerman), "Nashville", and "3 Women". Altman directed 13 movies in the '70's- so there's a lot to check out. And there's always a little movie called "MASH" as well.
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Oh Kate..I haven't seen that movie,but Leonard Cohen's voice is unrivalled..seriously,out of this world.
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Personally, I was always into Ennio Morricone's work in film, especially the Spaghetti Westerns (Once Upon a Time in the West/ A Fistfull of Dollars and, of course, The God the Bad and the Ugly). Vangelis wasn't a slouch either; I think his score for 1492 was roundly underrated)...and then that cut Tom Waitts performed on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack kicked arse too...MASH was a nice flick and while I think I've seen Brewster McCloud at some point in the past, I'm not sure -- I think I'll look it up over the w/e...
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"These days, most of the new movies that come out have soundtracks that play like the director’s hippest mixtape"
"The film is bathed in a kind of daguerreotype haze"
Sounds lovely and befitting given that it's a western. I wonder how they did that. I'll have to check the film out.
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The immigrant Russian community is just so in love with Cohen... Out of rebellion I've never allowed myself to listen to his songs even when they were audible somewhere. I've been due for a movie night.
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Check out the Palace Songs cover of "Winter Lady" if you have the chance (from the Hope EP) ... really amazing. I know Will also covered Cohen's "The Butcher," though I think it was only performed live and never officially released.
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Nice recommendation, Cherbonsy! I will definitely be looking out for that.
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I remember the first time I watched this film. As soon as I heard "The Stranger" shortly after the opening credits I was completely enthralled. I also remember the terrible sound quality and the whispering of certain lines, it drove me nuts (this also happens in other Altman flicks from this era M.A.S.H for one). I was told that Altman was heavily experimenting with sound in his films and that it was a conscious decision that you would not hear all of a certain line. As in real life, in a crowded bar you would not catch all of what everyone was saying. This made sense at the time, only because the narrative is so broken and chopped up in the film. I'm actually glad to learn otherwise and will be tracking down a later DVD release. Great post!
Oh and I had been out and just recently noticed your Murakami comment on my Mog. "Kafka on the Shore" was only the second title (Hard boiled wonderland the other) I've read by him. If you have other suggestions let me know.