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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
File:Busterscruggsposter.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed byJoel Coen
Ethan Coen
Written by
  • Joel Coen
  • Ethan Coen
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBruno Delbonnel
Edited byRoderick Jaynes[a]
Music byCarter Burwell
Production
company
Distributed byNetflix
Release dates
  • August 31, 2018 (2018-08-31) (Venice)
  • November 9, 2018 (2018-11-09) (United States)
Running time
133 minutes[1][2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$45,000[3]

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a 2018 American western anthology film written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. It stars Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Harry Melling, and Tom Waits, and features six vignettes that take place in the American frontier. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2018, where it won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay.[4][5] After a limited theatrical run beginning on November 9, 2018, it was released on Netflix on November 16.[6][7] The National Board of Review named it as one of their top ten best films of 2018.[8]

Plot

Introduction

The collection of six stories is depicted as contained within an old book, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Other Tales of the American Frontier, with a hand reaching in to turn the pages between the stories, and each story preceded by a color plate illustration of a scene within it.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Buster Scruggs, a cheerful singing cowboy, gunslinger, and wanted outlaw clad in white, rides through Monument Valley on his horse Dan, introducing himself to the audience before arriving at an isolated bar. The bar owner refuses to serve Buster whiskey due to the bar being located in a dry county, but he does sell to the other patrons because they're "proper" outlaws. Buster exchanges insults with the lead outlaw before effortlessly shooting everyone as they reach for their guns. He then rides into town and enters a saloon that requires him to surrender his guns at the door. He joins a game of poker that a player has suddenly fled after being dealt the infamous dead man's hand, which the other players insist Buster play now that he has seen the cards. When Buster refuses, a large menacing player named Joe sneers, "You seen 'em, you play 'em," and stands to draw a concealed pistol, as depicted in the story's color plate. After failing to dissuade Joe from continuing the confrontation, Buster repeatedly kicks a loose plank in the poker table, which hits Joe's gun hand and tips his pistol backwards. He shoots himself in the face three times and falls to the floor dead.

Buster breaks into a boisterous song (loosely based upon "Little Joe the Wrangler") about having to kill "Çurly Joe,"[b][9] much to the patrons' delight. Joe's brother arrives in dismay and demands a duel with Buster in the street. Buster gladly obliges and proceeds to shoot off each of his fingers before finishing him off with the sixth shot. A young man clad in black and playing the harmonica then rides into town and politely challenges Buster to another duel. Buster again happily obliges, but much to his surprise, the young man draws even faster and shoots him through the forehead. Buster examines the wound in disbelief before collapsing, admitting via voice-over that he should have foreseen that "you can't be top dog forever." The young man and Buster then sing a bittersweet duet as Buster's spirit rises from his body and floats towards heaven, complete with angel wings and a lyre, and expressing hope of a place above where people are better than they are on Earth.

Near Algodones

A young cowboy attempts to rob an isolated bank on the prairie. When he allows the lone bank teller to stoop for the "larger denominations," the teller fires a row of shotguns mounted under the counter, which the cowboy leaps to avoid while the teller flees out the back door. The cowboy grabs the cash behind the counter and flees out the front door, but the teller shoots at him and forces him to take cover behind a well. The teller then charges the cowboy wearing a washboard and several pots and pans as armor, which deflect all the cowboy's bullets while the teller repeatedly cackles "Pan-shot!", as depicted in the story's color plate. The teller knocks the cowboy out with his rifle butt, and when the cowboy regains consciousness, he is sitting upon his horse under a tree with his hands tied and a noose around his neck. The lawman and posse who captured him ask for his final words, since they "convicted" him and sentenced him to death while he was semi-conscious. The execution is interrupted by ambushing Comanche warriors who quickly slaughter the lawman and posse but leave the cowboy in place upon the horse.

After a time, a drover happens by and frees the cowboy, who then joins him on his drive. However, the drover is actually a rustler, and they are promptly chased down by another lawman's posse. They capture the cowboy and march him into town, where the sheriff summarily orders him to hang. As the cowboy stands upon the gallows with three other men awaiting execution, he spots a beautiful young woman in the crowd and mutters, "There's a pretty girl," before the hangman abruptly hoods him and pulls the trapdoor lever to cheers and applause.

Meal Ticket

An aging impresario and his artist Harrison, a young man with no arms or legs, travel from town to town in a wagon that converts into a small stage where Harrison theatrically recites classics such as Shelley's poem "Ozymandias", the biblical story of Cain and Abel, works by Shakespeare, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The impresario collects money from the audience at the end of each performance, receiving less and less as they visit increasingly remote mountain towns with smaller and more indifferent audiences. The impresario grows dissatisfied while continuing to perform all the physical labor in their endeavor as well as caring for Harrison. Though they are making less from their performances, the impresario has enough money saved that one night he drunkenly visits a prostitute, callously keeping Harrison present but facing away from her bed.

Following a performance that yields no profit, the impresario observes a man nearby drawing a crowd with a chicken that can ostensibly perform basic math by pecking at painted numbers to answer addition and subtraction equations called out by the audience. The impresario buys the chicken, and while driving their wagon through a mountain pass, he stops by a bridge over a river. He walks to the center of the bridge and drops a large stone into the river to gauge its depth before returning to the wagon wearing a faint smile. The film then cuts to the final scene in which he has resumed driving the wagon with only the caged chicken inside, Harrison's unseen murder having been foreshadowed by the caption for the color plate illustration of him, a line from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice: "The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven."

All Gold Canyon

A grizzled prospector arrives in a pristine mountain valley and decides to dig for gold in a grassy meadow beside a river. He methodically digs a series of holes, panning through soil and counting the number of gold specks to deduce the likely location of a major deposit, which he christens "Mr. Pocket." After his first night at the site, he spots a great horned owl tending its treetop nest at the edge of the valley. He climbs the tree to steal the owl's eggs for his breakfast, pausing mid-climb to look out upon the expanse of untouched wilderness, seeing "no sign of man nor the handiwork of man," as depicted in the color plate. When the prospector reaches the nest, the mother owl's watchful gaze from a nearby tree causes him to replace three of the four eggs he took.

Later that day, the prospector identifies the deposit's likely location and begins digging a larger hole. The next morning, he digs out gold nuggets of increasing size before finally reaching Mr. Pocket, a large gold vein running through the quartz he's uncovered. No sooner does he make his discovery than a shadow falls over him; a young man stalking his claim has sneaked to the edge of the hole and shoots the prospector in the back. The prospector falls face down, but when the young man jumps into the hole to steal the gold, the prospector stops playing dead, wrestles the young man's gun away, and shoots him dead. The prospector then cleans and assesses his wound in the stream, confirming the bullet "didn't hit nothin' important." He finishes mining the gold, pushes the young man's body back into the hole to serve as his grave, and departs the valley.

"All Gold Canyon" is based on a short story by Jack London.[10]

The Gal Who Got Rattled

A young woman named Alice Longabaugh and her older brother Gilbert, an inept businessman, are journeying to Oregon in a wagon train, where Gilbert claims his new business partner will marry Alice. Gilbert dies of cholera shortly after they embark, and the wagon train's leaders, Mr. Billy Knapp and Mr. Arthur help Alice bury him. Though she has no definite prospects in Oregon, Alice decides to continue rather than return east. However, Matt, the young man Gilbert hired to lead their wagon, claims that Gilbert promised him $400 in payment, half of which he expects to receive when they reach the halfway point at Fort Laramie, otherwise he'll return home. Alice cannot find Gilbert's money and fears he was buried with it, and she conveys her predicament to Billy, who offers his support in contemplating how to proceed. He also does Alice the favor of first attempting to shoot Gilbert's small dog, President Pierce, then scaring him off, because the dog's constant barking has drawn widespread complaint.

Through the course of their conversations, Billy grows fond of Alice, and he ultimately proposes to solve her dilemma by marrying her at Fort Laramie, assuming Gilbert's obligation to pay Matt, and retiring from leading wagon trains so they can build a home and family together on 640 acres in Oregon, which he can claim according to the Homestead Act. Alice is surprised by Billy's proposal but has likewise grown fond of him, so she accepts the next morning, and Billy informs Mr. Arthur that this will be their last ride together. The following day, Mr. Arthur notices Alice missing, and he rides over the hills to eventually find her laughing as President Pierce barks at some prairie dogs. Mr. Arthur then spots an Indian sentinel and advancing war party, and he gives Alice a pistol to shoot herself in the event that he is killed so that she can avoid capture. Mr. Arthur twice drives back the charging warriors with his rifle, but a remaining warrior appears to kill him. Mr. Arthur kills the Indian, then realizes that when she thought he was dead, Alice killed herself as he had previously instructed. As depicted in the color plate, Mr. Arthur sadly walks back to the wagon train with President Pierce and "no idea what he would say to Billy Knapp."

The vignette is inspired by the 1901 short story "The Girl Who Got Rattled", by Stewart Edward White.[11]

The Mortal Remains

At sunset, an Englishman (Thigpen), Irishman (Clarence), Frenchman (René), lady (Mrs. Betjeman), and trapper ride to Fort Morgan in a stagecoach. Thigpen says he and Clarence often travel this route "ferrying cargo", alluding to a corpse on the roof, but he does not yet specify the nature of their business. The trapper rambles about his past relationship with a Native woman, and observes that while neither knew the other's language, his grasp of her basic emotions led him to conclude that "people are like ferrets or beaver, all pretty much alike" in their animal needs and desires. Mrs. Betjeman, a devout Christian, indignantly rebuts that there are two kinds of people, upright and sinning, and explains that her husband, to whom she's journeying after being separated the past three years, is a retired lecturer and expert on "spiritual betterment." René challenges Mrs. Betjeman's religious dichotomy and the trapper's animalism with an anecdote about refusing to play a friend's poker hand in his absence, believing his own judgment to be no substitute for his friend's. He suggests that each person is a unique and complex product of subjective experiences, so that humans can never fully know each other. As an example, he suggests that if Mr. Betjeman does not conceive of love the same way Mrs. Betjeman does, perhaps he behaved unfaithfully during their separation. Mrs. Betjeman becomes apoplectic at the thought, and René calls out the window for the driver to stop, but as depicted in the color plate, "Whether or not he heard, the coachman did not slow." Thigpen clarifies that it is the driver's policy not to stop for any reason.

Clarence sings the bittersweet folk song "The Unfortunate Lad" to calm the group, and he and Thigpen then reveal themselves to be "reapers," i.e., bounty hunters. Thigpen explains that he distracts their prey with stories while Clarence "thumps" them, and he then remarks that he enjoys watching the prey die, the expression in their eyes as they "negotiate the passage" and "try to make sense of it." The other three are visibly unsettled by Thigpen's remarks as they arrive at the foreboding hotel in Fort Morgan where they will all be staying, and they remain in the stagecoach while Thigpen and Clarence carry the corpse inside. As they then warily make their way into the hotel, René pauses in the doorway to watch the stagecoach drive off into the foggy night. He then turns to face whatever awaits inside, dons his hat, and closes the heavy double doors behind him.

Interpretation

Writing on the website Screen Rant, John Orquiola argues that "The Mortal Remains" is a parable of navigating the passage from life into death, and that "it is strongly implied" that the three travelers, the Lady, the Frenchman and the Trapper, are souls being ferried to their last resting place, represented by Fort Morgan.[12]

Cast

Production

Joel and Ethan Coen announced The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in January 2017 as a collaboration with Annapurna Television.[13] In August, Netflix announced it would stream the work worldwide.[14]

The film was based on Western-themed short stories written by the Coens over a period of 20 to 25 years (accounts vary) that differ in mood and subject.[6][15] Tim Blake Nelson was given the script for the eponymous story in 2002 and told that a second, "Meal Ticket", was in outline form, but only heard that the project would commence in 2016.[16] "All Gold Canyon" was based on a Jack London story.[17] "The Gal Who Got Rattled" was inspired by a story by Stewart Edward White[18] and based in part on contemporaneous accounts, including those of heated arguments over pets.[19][20] While some reports claimed the work would be a six-part television series,[1] the Coens intended the stories to be seen together, structured them that way in the script they submitted to Annapurna, and shot the script as written.[21][22]

Throughout 2017 and into the start of 2018, James Franco, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Willie Watson, Ralph Ineson, Tim Blake Nelson, Stephen Root, Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson joined the cast.[23][24][25][26]

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was the Coens' first film to be shot digitally. The filmmakers saw the project, with its 800 visual effects and late magic hour shoots, as a good opportunity to experiment with the medium.[27] Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel employed a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and used a 27mm lens for the majority of the shots.[28] "The Gal Who Got Rattled" was shot on private land north of Mitchell in the Nebraska Panhandle, with a casting call for "ordinary" Nebraskans to appear as extras.[29] In New Mexico, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" and "Near Algodones” were shot on location; "The Mortal Remains" was shot entirely on a sound stage.[30][31] "The Meal Ticket" and "All Gold Canyon" were shot in Colorado, the latter in Telluride.[31][32]

Joel Coen said the shoot was physically demanding: exterior shots with uncovered sets, "really brutal weather" and much travel over wide-ranging locations. "It wouldn’t have hurt if we were younger."[21] The long wagon train in "The Gal Who Got Rattled" proved especially challenging because of the difficulty of coordinating the oxen teams for timing and direction.[19] Fourteen wagons were built from scratch in a New Mexico blacksmith shop then shipped in pairs on flatbed trailers to the shooting location in Nebraska. Their design was influenced by the 1930 film The Big Trail. Most of the costumes were also handmade for the production. Designer Mary Zophres credited historical reenactment supply companies for carrying hard-to-find period fabrics, noting that U.S. wool production was "practically nil."[31]

Funding and distribution

From the outset, the Coens ruled out traditional film studio funding, seeing an industry shift in how smaller projects are financed. Joel Coen said that Netflix was investing in movies that aren’t based on Marvel Comics or other established action franchises, "which is pretty much the business of the studios now."[21] The filmmakers had mixed feelings regarding distribution as The Ballad of Buster Scruggs had only a limited theatrical run before its Netflix streaming debut. The Coens credited home videos with helping establish their own careers and admitted that they themselves succumbed to the temptation to watch movie screeners at home rather than going out to a theater. But the "hours and days and years you spend struggling over details" of a film "is appreciated in a different way on a big screen," Joel Coen said.[21]

Netflix funding was also the reason composer Carter Burwell conducted his score, with up to 40 musicians, at Abbey Road Studios in London, which, he noted, is ironic given that the film is an American Western. "In this case, Netflix as a distributor is not a signatory to any of the union agreements here. So they wanted to go to London so they wouldn't be involved in that. I mention that because more and more films are being made by companies that aren't signatories." He said that the issue has festered over the past 20 years to the point where the film score recording business has disappeared from New York with no prospect of being rebuilt.[33]

Reception

Box office

Although Netflix does not disclose box office results, IndieWire tracked reserved online seating sales and deduced The Ballad of Buster Scruggs made $6,600 on its first day from its Los Angeles and New York City locations.[34] It then estimated the film made about $36,000 in its opening weekend (a four-day total of around $45,000). Had the results been made official, the debut per-venue estimates of $12,000 would have ranked as the lowest of the Coen Brothers' career. IndieWire estimated that the opening exceeded most Netflix releases and noted that, for the distributor, "getting people to see their films in theaters is not the point."[3]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs avoids anthology pitfalls with a consistent collection tied together by the Coen brothers' signature blend of dark drama and black humor."[35] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[36]

Notes

  1. ^ Roderick Jaynes is the shared pseudonym used by the Coen brothers for their editing.
  2. ^ a b The character's name as listed in the film credits is "Çurly Joe" with a cedilla under the first letter. The spelling and use of capitalization in the song lyric are unclear.

References

  1. ^ a b Tapley, Kristopher (July 25, 2018). "Surprise! The Coens' 'Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Is a Film and It's Headed for Oscar Season". Variety. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  2. ^ "THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS | British Board of Film Classification".
  3. ^ a b Tom Brueggemann (November 11, 2018). "Netflix's Strange 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Results; Jason Reitman's 'The Front Runner' Flops". IndieWire. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  4. ^ Roxborough, Scott (August 31, 2018). "Coen Brothers Say Their Netflix Western 'Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Will Get Theatrical Release". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  5. ^ Vivarelli, Nick (September 8, 2018). "Venice Film Festival: Alfonso Cuaron's 'Roma' Wins Golden Lion (Complete Winners List)". Variety. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Chu, Henry (August 31, 2018). "Coen Brothers Confirm Theatrical Release for 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'". Variety. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  7. ^ Brent Lang (October 31, 2018). "Netflix's 'Roma,' 'Ballad of Buster Scruggs,' 'Bird Box' Get Exclusive Theatrical Releases". Variety. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  8. ^ https://variety.com/2018/film/awards/national-board-of-review-names-green-book-best-film-of-2018-1203035378/
  9. ^ "The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs – "Surly Joe" Tim Blake Nelson (video)". Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  10. ^ London, Jack. "Read "All Gold Canyon," the Jack London Short Story That Inspired One Chapter of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs". Slate Magazine. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  11. ^ White, Stewart Edward. "Read "The Girl Who Got Rattled," the Stewart Edward White Short Story That Inspired One Chapter of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs". Slate Magazine. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  12. ^ Orquiola, John (November 16, 2018). "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs: All 6 Endings Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  13. ^ Sandberg, Bryn Elise (January 10, 2017). "Coen Brothers Set First-Ever TV Project With Annapurna". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  14. ^ "The Coen Brothers come to Netflix in the new Western Anthology THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS". Netflix Media Center. August 9, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  15. ^ Terry Gross (November 19, 2018). "Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen On Singing Cowboys And Working With Oxen". Fresh Air (Podcast). NPR. Event occurs at 3:00.
  16. ^ Radish, Christina (November 16, 2018). "Tim Blake Nelson on 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' and Damon Lindelof's 'Watchmen' Series". Collider. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  17. ^ Morgan, David (October 4, 2018). "The Coen Brothers on "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"". CBS News. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  18. ^ "The Girl Who Got Rattled". americanliterature.com.
  19. ^ a b "Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen On Singing Cowboys And Working With Oxen" (Podcast). Event occurs at 15:20.
  20. ^ Stevens, Dana (November 8, 2018). "The Coen Brothers' New Netflix Movie Is a Western Out to Break All the Rules". Slate Magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  21. ^ a b c d Rottenberg, Josh (November 14, 2018). "The Coen brothers on their Western anthology film 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,' Netflix and the future of moviegoing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 17, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  22. ^ Lewis, Hilary (November 18, 2018). "Coen Brothers, 'Buster Scruggs' Cast Insist Western Anthology Was Always Going to Be a Movie". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  23. ^ Dickinson, Chrissie. "Willie Watson sounds like a man from another time". chicagotribune.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Giroux, Jack (July 9, 2017). "'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Cast Includes James Franco, Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, and More". /Film. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  25. ^ Otterson, Joe (August 9, 2017). "Coen Brothers' TV Series 'Ballad of Buster Scruggs' Lands at Netflix". Variety. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  26. ^ "'Exclusive: Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson to star in Coen Brothers' Ballad Of Buster Scruggs". Entertainment IE. January 15, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  27. ^ "Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen On Singing Cowboys And Working With Oxen" (Podcast). Event occurs at 20:50.
  28. ^ Tizard, Will (November 16, 2018). "'Buster Scruggs' DP Bruno Delbonnel on Lensing Coen Brothers' First Digital Film". Variety. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  29. ^ Hammel, Paul (July 20, 2017). "'Coen brothers seek 'ordinary' looking Nebraskans for new miniseries being filmed in Panhandle". Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  30. ^ Zahed, Ramin (November 21, 2018). "Color, giant props, moving trees — creating the many moods of the Coen brothers' 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 22, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  31. ^ a b c Desowitz, Bill (November 10, 2018). "'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs': Pushing the Limits of Western Authenticity in Coen Brothers' First Netflix Movie". IndieWire. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  32. ^ Hart, Hugh (November 15, 2018). "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Production Designer on How the West Was Built". Motion Picture Association of America. Retrieved November 21, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  33. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (November 16, 2017). "Composer Carter Burwell Is the Latest Guest on The Hollywood Reporter's 'Behind the Screen' Podcast Series". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  34. ^ Tom Brueggemann (November 9, 2018). "'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs': Grosses Reflect Smaller Theaters and Netflix Priorities". IndieWire. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  35. ^ "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  36. ^ "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
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