Western Weekends - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

It's been a while since I've done a Western Weekend. Things are quiet at the moment, as I've finished my first year of university and am back home for the summer holidays. So, I figured I'd find some method of procrastination which involves some kind of writing.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a western film by The Coen Brothers. Or to be more specific, an anthology of six western stories, which I'll look at in turn. This may take a while.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Tim Blake Nelson plays an affable, loquacious, guitar-playing, fourth-wall-breaking gunslinger known as Buster Scruggs. He's presented as an archetypal "singing cowboy" akin to Gene Autry or Roy Rogers. But in the morally grey setting adopted by more recent western films, he's essentially a sociopath who doesn't feel empathy for anybody.

The vignette shows some improbable gun-fighting sequences and an almost cartoonish tone, which doesn't detract from the violent and amoral nature of the world being built. The most notable involves Buster refusing to play a Dead Man's Hand at a poker game and being threatened at gunpoint by another player. Since he'd surrendered his gun to a bouncer, he kicks a lose table leg into his assailant's gun to simultaneously throw off his aim and discharge it in his face. Repeatedly. And then he starts a musical number. It presents some side-splitting pitch-black humour.

However, it's also apparent that Scruggs is notorious enough to be pursued by up-and-coming gunslingers who hope to cement their own reputations by killing him.

Near Algodones

James Franco plays an unnamed gunslinger who tries to rob an isolated bank on the prairie. Unfortunately, the jabbering teller is more of a match, attacking with shotguns concealed behind each cashier window and then resorting to a Ned Kelly-style assault using armour made from pots and pans.

After the would-be robber is knocked out, he finds himself about to be hanged by a posse, only for them to be killed by an Indian war party. He's left hanging until another cowboy passes by with a herd and cuts him down in exchange for help driving his cattle. Unfortunately, the herd turns about to be stolen, and this Good Samaritan's...goodness...expires when he leaves our friend to be arrested by another posse.

Like the previous story, this one starts with some utterly bizarre imagery from the bank robbery. I like how it plays with the cliche of saving the condemned man by shooting the rope; the cowboy tries this, but misses with his first shot, which scares the horse. This makes it harder to shoot the rope when the man is swinging. It takes a few tries to pull it off. I also love the ultimate tragic irony at the end.

Meal Ticket

Liam Neeson plays a mumbling impresario who's travelling through the various mountain towns. His act is a quadruple amputee orator played by Harry Melling, who recites Ozymandias, passages from the bible, Shakespearean sonnets, and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Unfortunately, the show's popularity is dwindling, and the impresario is becoming increasingly impatient of his charge.

This one doesn't use much dialogue. In fact, Melling doesn't have any lines except in the scenes where he's performing. It's made clear that the orator depends on the impresario to look after him, while the impresario depends on the orator to make money.

It's a grim little story, where show-business is even more cutthroat out on the frontier.

 All Gold Canyon

Tom Waits plays a mumbling prospector who travels to a pristine mountain valley in search of a gold pocket. Most of the story consists of him digging up the meadow and panning for bits of gold before digging deeper.

There's not much to this one. I suppose there's some environmental message which can be picked up; there are shots of the wildlife leaving the valley with the exception of one owl as they sense the prospector approaching. He's pretty much the only character, and the film shows him slaving away in search of the pocket. That said, he seems to show some moral character above his greed; he goes to raid the owl's nest for eggs, but only takes one after being stared down by the owl.

I think they could have cut this one.

The Gal Who Got Rattled

Zoe Kazan plays Alice Longabaugh, a sheltered young woman travelling with a wagon train to marry her brother Gilbert's new business partner in Oregon. Unfortunately, the journey becomes increasingly complicated for her: Gilbert dies of cholera, the hired help demands wages she can't pay, and Mr Knapp the wagon master is forced to put down Gilbert's dog (which promptly runs away when he bungles the attempt).

I think this one should have served as the title of the film. It's the longest story in the anthology and takes up most of the film's running time. It's also the one with the biggest pacing issues. Nonetheless, there's a great action sequence, and a harsh cliffhanger.

The Mortal Remains

The final story follows five passengers on a stagecoach: Jonjo O'Neill and Brendan Gleeson as Thigpen and Clarence, an Englishman and Irishman who are "ferrying cargo"; Saul Rubinek as a French gambler named Rene; Tyne Daly as Mrs Betjeman, a devout Christian lady who is seeking to re-unite with her estranged husband; and an unnamed fur trapper played by Chelcie Ross.

The bulk of the story takes place on the stagecoach, and simply involves the passengers engaging in a philosophical discussion. However, the journey begins to feel unnatural, as Thigpen and Clarence discuss the nature of their work. There's not really much to it, but it does become atmospheric, with the suggestion that the stagecoach may actually be a journey to the afterlife.

All in all, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an interesting connection of stories depicting a savage world, but I think they could have cut one of the stories. The film is available on Netflix, and I do recommend that you watch it.

I'll catch you on the trail.