WEEK 8 - MCCABE & MRS MILLER

Google “Wine, Wotsits, Westerns” and the only page that will come up other than this WWWSI thing is a 2006 message board, where people were asked to list things which they just couldn’t understand why other folk like.

On one results page, all three of these came up! And herein lies my struggle to make #WWWSI go boom in a BRAPA-esque way. Red wine is not universally popular like beer (especially when you are appealing to a beer loving ‘market’), Wotsits will never been a contender for nation’s favourite crisp (far too cheesy) and Westerns are a film genre which many will see as a not too fondly forgotten relic of yesteryear (perhaps also too cheesy at times). ‘Acquired taste’ all three. And that is before you’ve even combined them and read a rather pointless blog. Woe is me, poor Si.

But fear not as I was smiling at 6:30pm last Thursday as Week 8 commenced. I’d rolled a ‘2’ for a second consecutive week on the Wotsits front, far more manageable.

Nice ankle socks eh?

My Red Wine book told me I had to try a ‘Baco Noir’ grape variety, from Canada would you believe? I didn’t even know Canadians made wine! It was called ‘Henry of Pelham’ which sounds like a Western movie in itself, and I must say, from the first sip I enjoyed it much more than last week’s Alicante Bouschet. Nicely rounded like a plump dame, full enough bodied but rather too easy, foreshadowing the film I was about to watch.

Ignore Amarone for now as it is a 'blend' not a grape (but you knew that!)

Food-wise, I did the same trick of last week of ‘consulting the book’ and this time, it told me chilli was a good option for Baco Noir, so I knocked up a nice little chilli con carne (but with egg fried rice for some reason), and fearing what with only two bags of Wotsits I might not have enough scran to soak up the wine, I had some bread and liver pate on stand by, which of course I needed (plus a few tomatoes to take the edge off).

Dollop of sour cream too, just for the giggles

Onto the main event then of the film, McCabe & Mrs Miller and the first thing that strikes you is ‘Leonard Bloody Cohen’. Oh yes, such is my Mum’s love of his music, I’ve had to suffer it throughout my upbringing. Perhaps it is safe to say now that being a bit more mature, I found the miserable old sod's three songs complimented the film well, rather than making me want to slit my wrists like a Rotherham Utd fan at Millmoor in 1993 (this was a line taken from my first ever ‘Football Grounds’ book).

McCabe & Mrs Miller had been billed as an Anti-Western at the time, and its appeal was clear to see. We finally had the ‘bar/pub scene’ I’d been waiting for. Think Cambridge Blue in a power cut. McCabe (Warren Beatty) comes in, stranger in town, everyone thinks he’s weird, but soon he gets all the locals on side cos they are basically an impressionable bunch of simpletons.

Bearpaw Overland? Must be an Antic.

He decides to build a casino / knocking shop but it is all a bit ropey, the whores aren’t great, so this English madam played by Julie Christie (who it took ages to convince myself isn’t Julie Andrews) turns up, orders some strong tea and wolfs down a shitload of eggs (it is what we Brits do) and basically tells him he’s an idiot and she’s got a much better business brain, which she has.

She soon brings in some high class ladies and business is booming. These serious blokes with a 'reputation' wanna buy the business, but because McCabe is an idiot, he basically treats them with very little respect and pretty much signs his own death warrant by refusing all offers, even some really reasonable ones.

Mrs Miller tells him he’s an idiot again, and they go separate ways, and soon McCabe is out in the snow (it is always either snowing or raining heavily in this film) with the baddies after him. The local church gets set on fire when McCabe shoots and kills two of them but is mortally wounded and the main baddie finishes him off. He dies in the snow and the blaze is extinguished, no tears shed here in York amidst the Baco Noir and Liver Pate, and the scene cuts to Mrs Miler getting high in an opium den. Fin.

Really enjoyed the film, I like the subversive Westerns like this one, Near Dark and Bone Tomahawk and I’d say it deserves its 26th place in the league, could even be a bit higher.

Five of my first eight films have all been in the 20's

I’m going to try and squeeze one more film in this Thursday before my two week holidays, but depends how packed and organised I am which at the moment is ‘not at all’ cos I’m in charge at work cos so many people are on holiday (a bit like Prince Andrew becoming king if those ahead of him died, not that I’m comparing myself to him).

If I do, I’ve rolled an ‘upper’ 20 which takes us all the way up to film #3 which is High Noon. Very exciting. Never seen it. I won’t tell you the outcome of the Wotsit roll but I’m NOT happy.

Until then or three weeks time, farewell!

Si