Editing McCabe & Mrs. Miller (section)

===Contemporary U.S. reviews===
The film opened without advance screenings at the [[Criterion Theatre (New York)|Criterion]] and [[Loews Cineplex Entertainment|Loew's]] Cine theaters in New York City and received mostly negative reviews from the New York daily newspapers including one from [[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'', who wrote that the film dragged its storyline out with such "tired symbolism" "that the effect is to undercut its narrative drive and the dignity of its fiction."<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Vincent Canby|last=Canby|first=Vincent|date=June 25, 1971|title=The Screen: 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/25/archives/the-screen-mccabe-and-mrs-millermiss-christie-portrays-prostitute.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=17}}</ref> It was also panned by [[Rex Reed]], who called it "an incoherent, amateurish, simple-minded, boring and totally worthless piece of garbage" and "an insult to the intelligence of anyone stupid or masochistic enough to sit through it"; he added that "at the screening I attended Wednesday night, there were so many boos and hisses and programs thrown at the screen I thought the enraged audience was going to burn down the theater. I wouldn't have blamed them."<ref>{{cite news |last=Reed |first=Rex |date=June 25, 1971 |title=Altman's Latest Is Just T*R*A*S*H |url=https://nydailynews.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/137623926/ |work=[[New York Daily News|Daily News]] |location=New York City, New York, United States |access-date=December 29, 2023}}</ref> However, the weekly critics raved about the film including [[Judith Crist]] and [[Pauline Kael]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' who called it "a beautiful pipe dream of a movie—a fleeting, almost [[Wiktionary:diaphanous#Adjective|diaphanous]] vision of what frontier life might have been," adding, "The movie is so affecting it leaves one rather dazed."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Kael |first=Pauline |author-link=Pauline Kael |date=July 3, 1971 |title=The Current Cinema: Pipe Dream | url=https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1971-07-03/flipbook/040/ |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |page=40 }}</ref> As well, Kathleen Carroll of the New York ''[[New York Daily News|Daily News]]'' gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said that "again Altman never states or explains. He suggests the passing of time and one has to catch his clues. His concern is not to unravel a plot, but to capture an atmosphere or a feeling and this he does beautifully even to the point of softening the color so that the film has a faded, antique look to it."<ref>{{cite news |last=Carroll |first=Kathleen |date=June 25, 1971 |title='McCabe, Mrs. Miller' Picturesque Western |url=https://nydailynews.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/137624017/ |work=[[New York Daily News|Daily News]] |location=New York City, New York, United States |access-date=December 29, 2023}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] gave the film four stars out of four and wrote that it "is like no other Western ever made, and with it, Robert Altman earns his place as one of the best contemporary directors."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mccabe-and-mrs-miller-1971 |title=McCabe and Mrs. Miller |author-link=Roger Ebert|last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=July 30, 1971|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun Times]] |access-date=December 3, 2018 }}{{rating|4|4}}</ref> He later added the film to his "Great Movies" list, where he said "Robert Altman has made a dozen films that can be called great in one way or another, but one of them is perfect, and that one is ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' (1971)."<ref name=Ebert>{{cite news |author-link=Roger Ebert|last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=McCabe & Mrs. Miller |date=November 14, 1999 |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-mccabe-and-mrs-miller-1971 |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun Times]]|access-date=September 26, 2020}}</ref> [[Gene Siskel]] also awarded it four stars and called it "a brilliant film, not because of the story, but because of the way in which it is told ... To construct such delicate scenes is the hallmark of fine film making and Altman is clearly a master."<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Gene Siskel|last=Siskel|first=Gene|date=July 30, 1971|title=McCabe and Mrs. Miller|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|page=12, Section 2}}{{rating|4|4}}</ref> [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called the film "interesting" but "as uneven as the stare of a cheap mirror."<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Charles Champlin|last=Champlin|first=Charles|date=August 1, 1971|title='McCabe': How to Demythologize the West|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|page=1, Calendar}}</ref> Gary Arnold of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' wrote, "Once again Altman brings a special way of life casually but vibrantly alive. 'McCabe' is an imaginative triumph partly in a visible, technical sense—a meticulous, conventionally authentic reconstruction of a frontier town—but principally in an emotional sense—a deeply felt and stirring romantic vision of frontier society."<ref>{{cite news|last=Arnold|first=Gary|date=July 7, 1971|title='McCabe': Cause for Jubilation|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|page=B9}}</ref>