When it was announced that the Coen Brothers were releasing a new movie Western on Netflix called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), I was quite excited as I love both Westerns and Coen Brothers films. The movie, which is really an anthology of six stories, creates an experience like reading a book of entertaining and thoughtful short stories.
Short stories do not have the benefit of substantial character development, as does a novel. Some of the tales in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs may leave you wishing for more. And, like a book of short stories, some of the stories are stronger than others. But the whole seems to get stronger the longer you watch.
Six Tales
Without spoiling any of the stories, I would note that even if you do not love the first two stories — “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and “Near Algodones” — you should continue. The segment that gives the movie its title features a happy singing gunslinger played by Tim Blake Nelson. “Near Algodones,” which features James Franco, is good but goes by too fast, like eating a small bag of potato chips. But you are likely to get drawn into the odd story of the third segment, “Meal Ticket,” featuring Liam Neeson.
The fourth and fifth tales may be the strongest. “All Gold Canyon” features singer-songwriter Tom Waits doing a great acting job as a grizzled gold prospector in what may be the happiest of all the stories. And “The Gal Who Got Rattled” features many elements of a traditional wagon train epic. It focuses on the plight of a woman whose companion on the trip, her brother, dies. Of all the segments, it is “The Gal Who Got Rattled” that appears most like it could have been developed into a feature film on its own.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ends with a story set mainly in a stagecoach, “The Mortal Remains.” This segment plays more like a coda that connects again to issues about death and the frontier that echo throughout all of the segments.
Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the movie a 91% critics rating and a 74% audience rating. In short, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a worthwhile trip through various Western tropes, such as gunslingers, con men, outlaws, wagon trains, gold prospectors, stagecoaches, and death. Partly because of the anthology nature, you likely will not find it to be your favorite Coen Brothers film. But it is extremely enjoyable and worthwhile nonetheless.
Which tale in “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is your favorite? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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