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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

12/5/2018

2 Comments

 

B+
3.25

Six tales of good and bad luck in the old West

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Tim Blake Nelson, Tom Waits, and Zoe Kazan
​Initial Review by Jon Kissel

Picture
​I picture Joel and Ethan Coen writing their scripts in their office and laughing at each other about how their films will be interpreted.  Maybe they think about all the ink that will be spilled by critics and film journalists wondering why the Mike Yanagita scene is in Fargo or what the true role of John Goodman is in Barton Fink, and chuckle that they don’t actually put these mysteries in their films for any purpose other than the mystery itself.  Much like several of their films, there is actually no meaning to be discerned.  The Coens love coincidence with no rationale behind it and the capriciousness of an impassive and unknowable prime mover, themes that film writers aren’t big fans of because there isn’t much to write about when that is the case.  The reviewer looking for answers asks ‘why did that happen’ and the Coens reply ‘why ask why?’  The Ballad of Buster Scruggs appears to be exactly as cosmically retributive as much of the Coens’ earlier work, with that prime mover watching from above and snatching goodness away from the characters’ grasps.  Though each of the six stories feature bloody ends, this is actually something of an outlier for the duo, in that it’s obliquely beautiful in its own specific way.  Joel and Ethan remain as fatalistic as ever, but nothing is so simple as the point A of birth and the point B of death.  There are songs to sung and moments to be shared along the way.

The Coens don’t have it in them to make a straight white-hat Western, as they’re far too cynical and side-eyed to do something that direct.  They understand that the mythology of the West is just that, romanticized lies pushed by a censorious Hollywood.  They give the viewer the musical opening of a classic Western like Rio Bravo, which was made in direct response to the perceived anti-Americanness of High Noon, except the singer is a bloodthirsty, shoot-first baritone dressed all in white.  This man, Tim Blake Nelson’s Buster Scruggs, gives the film its name, and as the introductory short, his story sets the tone.  Scruggs directly addresses the audience and rejects the title of misanthrope that one misguided Wanted poster has given him.  Even if humanity is deserving of hatred for the terrible things its members do, the bad is inherent to humanity, no more inseparable than well-developed forebrains and walking upright.  What Scruggs leaves off is the counterpoint, that the good is also inherent.  Scruggs might be a killer who takes people out with an unnerving nonchalance, but he’s also an entertainer who gives a saloon full of people a moment of pure joy.
​
The good being intertwined with the bad is something each short revisits.  James Franco’s bandit gets his one moment of peace before he’s executed.  Zoe Kazan’s Alice shares authentic moments of understanding with Bill Heck’s Knapp before she tragically meets her end.  The stagecoach passengers are regaled by Brendan Gleeson’s singing before they arrive at what is suggested to be their final destination, and Tom Waits’ good-hearted prospector, despite encountering some loathsome behavior, manages to survive.  Even the ugliest story, of Liam Neeson and his actor companion, contains a level of tender charity and literary inspiration, until it no longer engages with either.  It’s just too simple to chalk up The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as an exhibit to the worst of the species, because it exists next to some of the best.

While The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is lousy with great scenes and sequences, the choice to make the film as a series of short stories instead of one long one does detract.  I’m always going to prefer the latter.  These kinds of collections exist (Certain Women, Wild Tales) in small numbers, and my thoughts on the structure tend to stay the same.  The Coens venturing into this territory allows them to fill a bingo space on their filmography and return to their pet themes, though this film is a little more optimistic than their usual baseline.  Just because most of the segments end in death and murder doesn’t preclude grace.  All lives end, and some of the ones that end here get a note of transcendence before the sprouting of wings and the ascent to heaven.  B+
2 Comments
Bryan
12/5/2018 03:49:29 pm

"Pan shot!" and more likely "First time?" will live in meme infamy. The quadriplegic story you could see from a mile away. The dog escape was a highlight as well.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs plays out like a series of short stories and each story (except the last) was engaging.

B

Reply
Lane
12/6/2018 04:48:18 am

I’m not a Westerns expert, but I know enough to respect John Ford and not say bad things about “Shane” or “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” What are the best Westerns in my lifetime? Hard question to answer. “Unforgiven” probably tops the list. I thought “The Revenant” was brilliant, though other MMC members probably disagree and it’s not a Western in any traditional sense of that term. The Coen’s “True Grit” gets props, but its rank is more a result of the paucity of Westerns in the twenty-first century than anything else. The best modern Western is probably Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Man,” but I doubt more than two or three of our MMC members have seen that which says all you need to know about Westerns in modern cinema. If the best Western in a generation is only watched by academics and people who pay for memberships to indie theaters, nobody in Hollywood is going to invest. Only the Coen’s or Christian Bale could make a Western these days, and only Netflix would throw money at it.

Which is why I think “Buster Scruggs” should be a major figure in the U.S. film canon for the next bit of time. This isn’t a flawless film, but it does begin the process of redefining a genre for a new generation, and we should be thankful. Maybe it’s strange that the title short film of this compilation is probably it’s weakest moment, or maybe the Coen’s were intentionally bookending greatness with mediocrity. Beats me, and maybe that’s not an answerable question. Otherwise, we get what they are doing…deconstructing the genre, telling us that this will be something new. And they do this in spades. The violence and humor break down our expectations. The sharpest points are the Liam Neeson segment and the Zoe Kazan film. This also hopefully kicks off James Franco’s comeback, which I’m all for since I’m a JF fanboy and think he was robbed of his due rewards for “The Disaster Artist.” The penultimate film (and I consider this six films in one)…”The Girl Who Got Rattled”…is one of the best films I saw in 2018 and I could have watched two hours of that no doubt. I hope Zoe Kazan will be nominated for awards because that performance deserves it.

The final film, set in a stagecoach, wraps the thing up for us. This is a compilation about the West, yes, but mostly about death. The death of a genre…the death of American exceptionalism…the death of art…the death of the West. Dying is the most immanent and pervasive thing we’ve got. The Coen’s get this more than any other filmmakers, I think. A lot of Coen films end up being about death, but this one certainly seals the existentialist tomb. And I loved it.

Grade: A-

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