The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is certainly a good fit for the big screen, with its visual splendor, slow and steady pacing, remarkably dexterous gunslinging, and old Hollywood as well as Old World singsong. ![]() Curious too that this slender volume, tightly bound with deckled edges, this copper-distilled home brew, is also the first film by the Coens to be shot digitally, a bold jump for a genre picture full of wide vistas, period costumes, closeups and fading lights as well as cinematic sleights of hand. The Coen Brothers’ first foray on Netflix feels curiously well suited to the format: curious because beyond the vagaries of the term ‘anthology’, which on film has sometimes meant multiple directors and is nowadays more often used for television shows whose series are self-contained, straddling the line between more conventional movie making and episodic or serialised television, what The Ballad of Buster Scruggs most resembles is more rugged and wrinkled, a collection of short stories hewing in both setting and temperament to the nineteenth century. It weaves several personal stories against a grand landscape to give a very balanced yet stylized interpretation of the Old West.The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Anthology Western | 133 Minutes | 2018 | United Statesĭirectors: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | Producers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Robert Graf | Screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | Based on: ‘All Gold Canyon’ by Jack London, ‘The Girl Who Got Rattled’ by Stewart Edward White | Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Tyne Daly, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Kazan, Liam Neeson, Harry Melling, Tom Waits | Music: Carter Burwell | Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel | Editor: Roderick Jaynes And like so many of the Coen’s other films, sometimes they’re just a little too cerebral for their own good.Īll in all, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is another strong chapter in the Coen’s cannon, more a peripheral entry than a starring one. Some stories are stronger than others and some feel less consequential. Though all the different stories belong in the same world and have the same pacing, they are disjointed at times. Our myths guide our national heritage, but the truth about our past is fraught with inconsistencies. The Western is an inherently American genre, mythmaking in its tales of bravado and open plains, of adventure and glory, but much like America is full of contradictions, the Western is too. For the Coens, one can sense their idolization of the Western, but they incorporate the knowledge of history, bloodshed, backstabbing and cruel ambition. For every moment of marital happiness, there’s a sad reminder of the unpredictability of life. For every strike of gold, there’s a harrowing betrayal. For every glorious gunfight, there is a sad death scene. It is both a celebration and a condemnation of Western stories, the tales of rough riders thrillingly told but with an admission of the failure of their hubris. The different stories never intertwine or have interacting characters, instead serving as a collage that illustrate the themes present in pretty much every Coen brothers film: the wondering of life’s purpose, the corruption of evil, the unpredictability inherent in living and the just rewards of simple good actions.
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