Page 70 - Cinematic Thinking Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema

60 Michael J. Shapiro

early scene in Sheehan's saloon, through the other male gatherings, the
peripheral conversations taking place outside of the main camera shots
are audible. They often involve the exchange of unreliable and/or mythic
information. In contrast, the scenes among women reveal a playful, caring,
and supportive communal harmony.
A telling moment of parallel editing emphasizes the difference: while
a group of Mrs. Miller's sex workers, which includes a Chinese woman,
is sharing a bath and engaging in playful exchanges, the scene cuts to the
men playing cards in another room. As the scene cuts back to the nude
women, one of the men's voices can be heard as he passes on a rumor
about the distinctive physical attributes of Asian women, a rumor that is
belied by what the viewer can see. Throughout the film, once the contrast
between the bumbling McCabe and the canny Mrs. Miller is established,
inept, violent, and uncivil men are contrasted with what appears to be an
orderly and civil women's society within the brothel. In scene after scene
the viability of the "among women" trumps that of the "among men" as
a basis for community. Certainly John Ford, in his early film Stagecoach,
displays a generosity toward the former prostitute, Dallas, who turns out
to be a promising prototype character for the West-to-come. But the value
of her character for such a role is inextricably connected to her coming
marriage (an identity shift from prostitute to wife) to the hero, the Ringo
Kid (John Wayne), who also emerges from a damaged identity, a change
from "outlaw" to inchoate rancher / settler.
Doubtless even the classic westerns sought to note the importance
of strong women in the emerging Euro-dominated West, for example "ex-
traordinary heroines from Mae West's Klondike Annie and Doris Day's
Calamity Jane, to Joan Crawford's Vienna and Barbara Stanwyck's Jessica
Drummond." 22 But Mrs. Miller is a different type. Her toughness is entre-
preneurial. Having the knowledge and experience needed to develop and
manage a sex-work enterprise, she has to convince the town's only innova-
tor, McCabe, to develop a larger vision because he has the only building
that would make a viable space for her business. And although McCabe
becomes her occasional sex partner, it is through canny economic talk
and a no-nonsense approach to all areas of the business that breaks down
McCabe's initial resistance and makes him her business partner.
When they first meet, and Mrs. Miller asks to be taken to a place
for breakfast, McCabe's face registers amazement as he watches her attack
her meal without the least hint of a stereotypical feminine delicacy. Here