The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | 133 minutes | comedy, drama, western | Actors: Tim Blake Nelson, Willie Watson, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy, David Krumholtz, Thomas Wingate, Tim DeZarn, EE Bell, Alejandro Patiño, Tom Proctor, James Franco, Stephen Root, Ralph Ineson, Jesse Luken, Michael Cullen, Austin Rising Liam Neeson, Jiji Hise, Paul Rae, Tom Waits, Sam Dillon, Bill Heck, Zoe Kazan, Grainger Hines, Jefferson Mays, Prudence Wright Holmes, Ethan Dubin, Brett Hughson, Jordy Laucomer, Jonjo O’Neill, Brandan Gleeson, Saul Rubinek, Tyne Daly, Chelcie Ross

Had said ten years ago that the latest film by the Coen brothers wouldn’t even make it to theaters, but would be released straight away on an online streaming platform, and you’d probably have been declared asylum-ready. It shows how quickly the movie world has changed since the arrival of Netflix, because for the new film from the brothers, ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’, we have to get the popcorn ourselves. But isn’t the film too big for the small screen?

‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ was actually going to be a six-part anthology series, which would take the Coen brothers for the first time into the ever-expanding series landscape. It turned out to be just a bit too modern for the brothers, because the series was eventually shortened to a more than two-hour feature film. The six separate stories remained, and that immediately makes it a tough job to discuss the various plots spoiler-free: in fact ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ is one big junk pot full of western subgenres, from gold diggers to singing gunslingers and from bounty hunters to stereotypical Navajo- native Americans.

We begin with the story of title hero Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson), a singing, trigger-happy cowboy who can’t understand why a price has been put on his head. It is a short Coen film at its best: absurdism, pitch-black humor and self-conscious kitsch. After this first fifteen minutes, the tone is well set.

The second story revolves around a bank robber (James Franco) who tries to rob a bank owned by a somewhat unworldly man (a delightful and ultimate Coens role by Stephen Root), but has clearly walked into the wrong place. Ultra short and a bit nihilistic, but with remarkable outbursts of violence that could have come straight out of a Tarantino film.

In the third episode, Liam Neeson travels the country with a mini freak show, in which he has a lad (Harry Melling) without arms and legs recite classic poems, with huge box office success as a result. Until the trick wears off, after which the Coens clearly sneer at the volatility of the entertainment industry.

The fourth story focuses on the odyssey of a prospector (a very creditably grumbling Tom Waits, who seems to have a taste for acting). Little dialogue, but heart-warming, but again with a little joke about the expansionism of man, even when nature has to give way.

The fifth (and longest) story is a fairly meek, almost un-Coenesque romantic drama. This part is carried by an excellent Zoe Kazan (“The Big Sick”), who travels with a group of trappers after her brother’s death, where a romance slowly develops between her and one of the trappers (Bill Heck). But don’t let yourself be manipulated: tragedy inevitably lurks in the world of the Coens in romance too.

We close with arguably the most polarizing episode, in which two bounty hunters travel in a covered wagon with three disparate, random figures. At least, so it seems. Beautifully shot, very atmospheric, a lot of dialogue and a singing Brendan Gleeson (just watch for that reason). Also the most surreal part, but for that reason more than worth re-watching.

The question that still haunts your mind when you see the film(s) is how ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ would have turned out if it had been made as a series. Perhaps even better, because the transitions in tone are sometimes very rigorous and sudden: one minute you’re laughing out loud at Buster Scruggs’ inventive escape attempts, but less than half an hour later you’re traveling through bleak mountain landscapes with Liam Neeson through a much darker America. At moments like this it seems as if you suddenly switch to ‘No Country for Old Men’ in the middle of ‘The Big Lebowksi’; nothing wrong with that of course, but it does require a bit more flexibility from the viewer. In fact, ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ is a film in which all the work of the brothers and the genres they covered come together, but you also wonder if it would have worked out better as a whole in six longer series episodes, also because some stories are sometimes just a little too fleeting.

What links the six short films together? The ever lurking death? Altruism versus personal gain? America’s dark heart? Although ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ cannot be counted among the absolute masterpieces of the Coens, this film again offers enough food for discussion. Not every story works equally well, and the difference in tone may sometimes be just too great, but the Coens are simply too genius as filmmakers to ever really fall for the trap. ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ is essentially an ode to the western and all its excesses, but perhaps even more a venomous love letter to the genre. Whether the step to Netflix is ​​here to stay? Although in fact we have nothing to complain about, the brothers may secretly just belong on the big screen.