The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

If you haven't seen The Coen Brothers new movie on Netflix, I urge you to check it out. THe Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a series of 6 vignettes that pay homage to the American West and the genres of westerns in general. Its whimsical and fatalistic tales swing back and forth in mood and style, but all are beautifully shot and written. The episodes run a little over 2 hours in total, but each segment averages under a half hour. The stories are presented as if they are individual chapters in a old clothbound illustrated volume.

The first story is a bit silly, and it would be an easy mistake to give up on the movie. Tim Blake Nelson is a legendary singing gunslinger who finally meets his match, with over the top, musical results. However the next vignette takes a bit more of a serious note, with James Franco as a outlaw who's final hours are an awakening of sorts to the tenuous hold that settlers of of the wild west have on life, as well as a character study of its strange inhabitants.

I don't want to spoil too much, but the next story, Meal Ticket, starring Liam Neeson is sad and shocking, but beautiful nonetheless in its nihilistic portaral of survival and opportunism in the wanderings of a pair of itinerant showmen. Next comes a comical and grizzled prospector played by Tom Waits who is searching for a bonanza in a stunningly beautiful and seemingly empty mountain valley. But things are about to take unexpected turn. Can he persevere?

The next tale is a tragic romance, a Romeo and Juliet set on the sweeping prairies, where a wagon train must overcome the harsh realities and hostile forces of an untamed land on their trek to Oregon Territory. The last tale is undoubtedly the best of all, and features a expertly crafted character study of 5 travelers on a stagecoach. I won't spoil it, but the scene is as poignant and thought-provoking as you could ask for while still being entertaining and expertly shot.

I highly recommend that anyone give this gem a watch, it really captures the spirit of the frontier West and the people who tamed it, as well as the classic westerns that came out of Hollywood's bygone eras.