Liked this film a lot but it looked gross

Yeah, it's the only Western I've seen where I actually smelled feces throughout, both animal and human. I've seen it many times (it's my favorite Altman film, and I love Altman films), and each viewing stinks of feces, more so when we're outside with the characters. It definitely makes me grateful that I missed the Old West.

It's called realism. We take for granted our current living conditions which for most (unfortunately not all) are far nicer and cleaner. But with that said it is still far grittier than the HBO Western Deadwood starring Timothy Olyphant which also painted a fairly nasty lifestyle.

Shaving Ryan's Privates was faux grimy. A hyperreality.

I very much dislike the camerawork in this film. It looks unpleasantly soft and faded. Apparently that was the intention but I don't think it works too well. It would have been a better film with more traditional cinematography imho.

Vilmos Zsigmond gave an interesting interview about it a few years ago: https://filmmakermagazine.com/87150-old-faded-pictures-vilmos-zsigmond-on-mccabe-mrs-miller/#.ZZHTnHbMLb0

that's why it's a masterpiece. it looks lived-in, unlike most westerns that romanticize the old west.

This "realism" style was very much en vogue during the 1970's and Robert Altman capitalized on it with not just his lighting but directing style as well. The late 60's saw rapid change such as movies getting much more explicit in terms of sex and violence. In the 70's, which was pretty much the only artist-driven decade when it comes to mainstream cinema, many directors made a name for themself by making films more realistic and less polished looking. It was largely started by the French in the late 50's with Francois Truffaut and others but took a decade to filter to mainstream Hollywood.

Around the same time, there were many sexually pictures directed by the likes of Pasolini and Tinto Brass which were in no way romanticized or nice to look at. If anything they seemed to delight in the repulsiveness and grit. I'm no fan of Pasolini at all as his movies are more endurance tests than anything, but I do appreciate what he was trying to do with trying to present things authentically. I think the height of the movement came with movies like SORCERER or THIEF which were stylized but featured characters doing amazing things but presented in a fairly dark, gritty, and realistic way. We didn't get a lot of cinematic lighting and staging to make things look nice in favor of a film looking like it was capturing a slice of life.

The style sort of died out in the 1980's in favor of "high concept" movies though Altman would return to it from time to time. He'd have to adjust to the times with the cinematography but always kept the unrefined acting style of characters constantly talking over each other etc.