The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
2018 · Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Original language: English
- western
- comedy
- drama
The story
Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.
What it’s like
Painted-flat Western vistas and storybook framing: the Coens shoot sweeping desert, snowy passes and mountain roads with a crisp, almost illustrated clarity, while interiors glow in warm lamplight and campfire orange. Each vignette is set off by a turning page of an old illustrated book, and the camera often holds still, letting landscapes and stagey tableaux breathe. The score is a folksy, twangy ballad sound, with guitar and voice carrying the mood, and silence falling into long dusty stretches of wind. The vibe is wry, bittersweet and dryly absurd, a yarn told by a campfire that keeps undercutting its own sentiment. Pacing shifts from segment to segment, brisk and punchline-driven in some, slow and contemplative in others. Violence is present and sudden, with a few brief, sharp gunfights and a hanging, but it is mostly played for black comedy rather than lingered on; there is death, some crude language and a brothel setting, but no sustained gore. The people are often ill-fated drifters and performers whose arcs turn toward mortality and small grace. Made for viewers who like dark wit, Western mythology and anthology films that trade a single story for a patchwork of moods.
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