Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, James Franco and Tom Waits feature in this six-chapter Western anthology film from the Coen Brothers.
"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a six-part Western anthology film, a series of tales about the American frontier ... Each chapter tells a distinct story about the American West." (Venice Film Festival)
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89%234 reviews
The opening two tales whet your appetite with their characteristic comedic flair. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs sees the titular singing gun-slinger having to fend off a continuous queue of challengers who have heard speak (and song) of his deadly hand. The Coen's regular score-master Carter Burwell drastically overachieves in this anthology, but it's the first chapter where he earns his keep.
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Once it's time to switch tones, the Coens don't seem to have much to say other than pointing to the well-documented fact that the American frontier was a violent place.
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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a pop fantasia that's interested in the meaning of what a brutal place the Old West really was.
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Richly entertaining and blackly funny but told with sincerity and heart, the half-dozen Western tales packed into The Ballad of Buster Scruggs show the Coen brothers loading up their six-shooter and firing barely a blank.
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This is a handsomely made picture, with a richly plausible musical score by Carter Burwell; it is an old-school western in many ways and if there is something comic or self-satirising about it, this doesn't mean it is pure pastiche.
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This is a film about America... one filled with scenes of bloody vengeance, religious zealotry, romantic idealism, slick salesmanship, incoherent ramblings and sunny optimism. It's absolutely glorious.
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Despite the snark and irreverence, genre specialists will eat up the devotion to detail here, from the relish the Coens take in writing colourful 19th century Western vernacular to the musical choices and the lovely between-acts artwork.
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