Better Late Than Never on the Film "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"
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I recently watched the most recent Coen Brothers movie, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", and I have to say, I really loved this movie. I knew of it because I watched a few trailers, and as I feel with every Coen Brothers movie, I was intrigued. I like their take on Westerns, and they are 2 of the best directors that are out there right now. Also, the cast that was announced was pretty dynamite. I am a big Tim Blake Nelson fan. I adore Tyne Daly. I like James Franco. Tom Waits is weird, but he is a perfect fit in Coen Brothers movies. Zoe Kazan was a revelation in "The Big Sick". And that is just a few of the very big names that were in this movie. I also enjoy movies that go the vignette rout, and the Coen Brothers did this perfectly.
"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is split into 6 different stories that may, or may not, be connected. I tend to believe that they are each their own story, and each one is very well told. The movie starts off with Tim Blake Nelson, as the titular Buster Scruggs, and his story is fast and funny and violent and great. Nelson is funny and breaks the fourth wall all the time. He is constantly talking to the viewing audience, telling us his backstory, and I loved every second of it. He also sings some catchy songs, and brutally kills people that have wronged him. His demise was unexpected, but very well played. I liked this segment a ton.
The second segment featured James Franco and Stephen Root. Franco is a bank robber and Root is the teller. This story was a bit more dramatic, but when Root runs outside covered in pots and pans, I found myself chuckling. Also, the stuff with the Native Americans was tremendous. Franco is about to be hanged, and they come and save the day. I was blown away at how cool this whole scene was in the movie. While this segment was a bit slower, it still kept my interest to the very end.
We move from there to the Liam Neeson and Harry Melling segment, which was as dour as it gets in this movie, and I loved it. Neeson plays the care taker to Melling, who is armless and legless, and he does dramatic readings of plays and speeches in towns that they travel to. The speeches are great. Neeson's portrayal of the care taker was solid. But, Melling was the star of this vignette. He was tremendous and I could not take my eyes off him. His readings were dynamite, and when he wasn't doing the readings, he spoke not a word, but we saw his reactions to Neeson's life. It was incredible. This segment proved that the Coen Brothers are just as adept at drama as they are at everything else.
The Tom Waits segment came next, and he was pretty much the only person involved. He was a gold miner, and watching him go through the days, just panning and panning until his big payday was truly wonderful. Waits was so good. Even when he finds his fortune, he gets shot in the back, which made me sad, but he was still alive, and he still got his payday. That made me happy, and to see Waits gallop away on his horse was moving. This was one of the few segments that had a "happy" ending.
The Zoe Kazan vignette was next, and this one kind of had it all. It was classic Coen Brothers at the start. The scene around the dinner table was so good. They have the comedy from that, and then goes to dramedy, when Kazan's brother suddenly dies. I say dramedy because his character was an odd dude, and the crew taking them to Oregon didn't seem to sad when he died. We then got a love story between Kazan and one of the main ranch hands leading the trip. This quickly turned sour when Native Americans found her and her dog watching prairie dogs, and the main ranch hand came to help her fight. He told her that if things got bad, to shoot herself in the head. He told her this would be a much easier death than anything else that may happen. When things seemed to be okay, with the main ranch hand holding the fighters off, it turned sad because Kazan shot herself, thinking things had gotten as bad as they could. I was absolutely stunned by this ending, and it made me very sad.
The final segment was probably my second favorite, behind the Buster Scruggs one, and it was filmed and acted perfectly. There were 5 people in a horse carriage, and they all kind of tell their own story. There is 2 guys on one side, and 2 other guys and a lady on the other side. The 3 people each have very strong opinions about their lives, and how each other lives. It is, at times, funny, sad and interesting. I was hanging on every word from all three actors. Then they pan back to the other 2 guys, one of which is Brendon Gleeson, who breaks into song, and everyone stops to listen. It was touching and moving. They then pan to the gentleman he was with, and he reveals that they are bounty hunters, and the other 3 passengers may be their next victims. It was another stunning turn,, and I loved the way they revealed it. This was such a well told story. It was so well acted. It was near perfection, and the way it ended made it even better.
"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is one of the better movies to come out in 2018. I wished I had watched it sooner, but that is the good thing about Netflix. It is still on there to watch, and I am glad that I did. I highly recommend this movie, and I give it as many thumbs up as I possibly can. What a great, great movie.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The movie was great, but could have been better with one more vignette. Imagine a story where Ty is watching the film and then writing about it. That would be epic.
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