Year: 2018
Director: Coen Brothers
Country: US
Language: English
Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have made a wide variety of great pictures that encapsulate many genres. No Country For Old Men is a grim thriller, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou is a comedy western, Fargo is a delightful mix of both the grim and the funny. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was developed for Netflix as an anthology picture that tells six stories, each with a varying degree of dark humour. It proves to knock its audience over with tears of laugher and sorrow.
This is a film comprised of six stories, each detailing events set in the Old West.
Throughout the anthology the Coen Brothers pay tribute to the likes of John Ford and other classical Western progenitors. They also pay homage to more modern cinema. All Gold Canyon reminded me of Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Revenant. The Girl Who Got Rattled made me think of Meek's Cutoff and the Coen's own True Grit. The last short is obviously influenced by The Hateful Eight. It's a great film to watch for cinephiles who love other Western films.
Aside from the abundance of references, Ballad of Buster Scruggs is brilliantly shot. The cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel is rich and vibrant in detail. Each segment has a distinctive look, but they also remain similar enough to be cohesive. The breathtaking natural beauty, which often clashes with the dark tone of the story, makes the Western Myth come alive. The storybook motif adds to the film's tall tale feel.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs works both as popcorn entertainment and as serious reflective melancholy about the meaningless of people's ambitions in the Old West. For me a Western is either a hit or a miss. This is certainly a hit.
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