Coen Brothers Return
With the Comedy The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Once upon a time in Hollywood, the Western feature The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was a six-part TV series scheduled to run on Netflix at some point in 2018. Written and directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, the comedy/musical is based on half a dozen western-themed short stories the Coen brothers have been writing—and subsequently shelving—for over 25 years. In 2017, they pulled their gunslinger fiction out of the drawer and started creating the series. They gathered a full-house of great actors (Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, James Franco, Tim Blake Nelson), covered them in Monument Valley dust, and started shooting. Somewhere along the line, the Coens rethought the concept and ended up with a feature length film. The original idea remains and the anthology film is still a six-parter, only shorter and more concise. Here’s what you can expect to see when the film opens November 16th:
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs stars Coen Brothers alum, Tim Blake Nelson. Wow, this actor is funny, especially dressed in a white suit, complete with a white hat sitting on top of his oddly shaped head wearing a goofy, gap-toothed grin. As the singing cowboy (yessir, he’s got a great voice) arrives in a new town looking for a whiskey, he’s confronted by scruffy outlaws looking for a gunfight. Well, they found one in the literally trigger-happy Buster, that’s for damn sure!
Near Algodones introduces us to the bank robbing Cowboy played by James Franco. Poor Cowboy always seems to have a noose around his neck. It’s Franco’s performance, highlighted in the trailer, that makes this a comedy worth seeing.
Meal Ticket stars one of our favorite actors, you know, the one with “special skills,” Liam Neeson as a traveling performer.
All Gold Canyon follows a prospector mining for gold and stars the always-welcome addition to any film, singer Tom Waitts.
The Gal Who Got Rattled takes place on a classic wagon train making its way across the Wild West. Zoe Kazan plays a passenger who finds unexpected romance on the adventure.
The Mortal Remains is the final story, and it’s a thrilling whopper. Tyne Daly stars as the mysterious “Lady,” riding in a carriage with four strangers (Brendan Gleeson, Jonjo O’Neill, Saul Rubinek, and Chelcie Ross) who are about to meet their fate.
The only common thread woven through each episode is excessively violent (and numerous) kills á la the Wild West West tropes we know so well. But clearly the newly trimmed script works: when The Ballad of Buster Scruggs debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival, the Coen’s script won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay.
