Directed by: Joel and Ethan Coen
Written by: Joel and Ethan Coen, Jack London (story “All Canyon Gold“)
and Stewart Edward White (based on the story “The Girl Who Got Rattled“)
Starring:
Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs
James Franco as Cowboy
Liam Neeson as Impresario
Tom Waits as Prospector
Zoe Kanan as Alice Longabaugh
Rated R for some strong violence
After watching the Coen brothers’ last film Hail, Caesar! (2016), I remember telling myself that I couldn’t wait for their next project, because I wanted more out of it. While Hail, Caesar! was not a bad film, I just didn’t think it lived up to the Coens’ previous films, like Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), and No Country for Old Men (2007). Something was missing and I hoped they would find it for their next picture.
That next picture is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, an unconventional western told in six short stories. It starts in a very unique way, with a lone cowboy named Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson) strumming along on his guitar and singing away. When he finishes, he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience. I don’t recall seeing this technique in a western before, and I thought I was in for a real treat.
Netflix. Image from IMDb.However, this trend doesn’t carry over into the other stories. In the second story, we see a cowboy (James Franco) standing in front of a bank barely bigger than a phone booth, debating whether or not to rob it. He then engages in a shootout with the banker (Stephen Root) and finds himself in the gallows. These are aspects I’ve seen in countless westerns before, and no real originality was present.
Next, we get a wandering, quiet impresario (Liam Neeson), and his partner (Harry Melling), a limbless artist that recites various works of literature verbatim to crowds of curious townsfolk. However, he decides to end each performance with the Gettysburg Address, which I assume is because everyone is lost from the previous works and this is something they can relate to. The impresario grows tired and impatient of the fading turnouts and wants to turn their business in a new direction, much to the chagrin of the artist. This story is the most depressing of the six and it left me wondering where the film was going.
The fourth story involves a prospector (Tom Waits) digging for gold in what appears to be the beginning of spring. I took this as possible symbolism for a better outcome, due to the grim nature and winter setting of the previous story. However, at this point in the film, I think I wanted answers more than anything. There just seemed to be no payoff in any of these stories.
Then, we see a wagon train to Oregon. I was happy to see this story because it was true to American history. I thought this story had some potential, but it was just full of aimless dialogue and an ending that made me scratch my head.
Netflix. Image from IMDb.The last story is set in a stagecoach with five passengers. It was like sitting at a dinner table when you’re a kid and just hearing the grownups talk, talk, talk. I was continually asking myself, “Why?” Five stories would’ve been enough at this point. But this story got interesting way too late. The passengers believe they are heading to a certain destination, but they start to think otherwise. I thought the story would get somewhere, but it didn’t. The movie just ends.
I was honestly more puzzled than disappointed with this movie. I wanted the style and demeanor of Buster Scruggs to carry over into the other stories, but that never happened. It’s as if while the movie in its entirety is a western, the stories shift genres for no reason. I very much wanted to keep laughing as the movie progressed, but it never gave me any opportunities to do so. I read that the Coens developed these stories over the last 25 years, not knowing what to do with them. They must’ve wanted to put them into one movie so that they will become an afterthought. I think the stories should’ve just had a little more forethought put into them.
2.5/4 stars
