The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · Comedy, Drama, Western, Music

Starring Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Brendan Gleeson, Jonjo O'Neill, Saul Rubinek, Chelcie Ross, Harry Melling, Bill Heck, Grainger Hines, Stephen Root, David Krumholtz, Clancy Brown, Ralph Ineson, Matthew Willig, Jesse Luken, Paul Rae, Tom Proctor, Tim DeZarn, E.E. Bell, Martin Palmer, Danny McCarthy, Billy Lockwood, Jackamoe Buzzell, Sam Dillon, Jefferson Mays, J. Nathan Simmons, Willie Watson, Katy Bodenhamer, Jiji Hise, Austin Rising, Stephen R. Estler, Grace LeSueur, Ethan Dubin

IHBM8.5Excellent

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.

My review · Reviewed 11/21/2018

One of the beautiful aspects of a so-called Western is that a story can be stripped down to its essence without a lot of the interference that might come with other backdrops. For example, the main story line from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was actually borrowed from a ninja movie. In this film the Coen brothers have taken this freedom and extended it by making a series of shorts rather than a long-form film. The shorts allow the viewer to get right to the heart of the conflict. At different points in the film I thought that the overall piece was unlike anything that they've ever done but when it was said and done it was 100% Coens. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and the way they were told.