The Coens’ new Western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was born from that penchant for
In typical Coen fashion, most people in the movie meet ironic or wry deaths, but this time the Coens seem to be actively eschewing any deeper emotional connection between the audience and the characters. They opt for a lighter brush even when the dramatic stakes are already right there in the picture, just waiting for a bold stroke to bring them out.
Take the tale of “All Gold Canyon,” which stars Tom Waits as an old prospector who meticulously searches for a gold pocket near a pristine stream. This section is quiet and sweet, just a man communing with nature, waking up each day to partake in his form of prayer: digging until he’s tired and then doing it all over again. I won’t give away this segment’s twist, but I will say that something happens to rupture the peace, and the prospector bellows at the camera, “You didn’t hit nothin’ important,” saliva rocketing from his lips, his hair and face a manic mess. That’s the most memorable few seconds of the film because it comes closest to
The best I can say about Buster Scruggs is that it seems as though the Coens picked their favorite actors and wrote them
Perhaps the directors’ experience of making a joyous musical number with Channing Tatum in Hail, Caesar inspired them to do something similar with Nelson, a sequence as richly artificial as old Hollywood singing cowboy movies. Hell, it’s possible that the critical reception to Hail, Caesar — praising the sum of that film’s parts but not the whole — led them down the path to anthology work. What could be better than dreaming up some weirdos for the screen and then never having to figure out how their stories would intersect with anyone else’s?
One of my favorite of the weirdos is Stephen Root as a fast-talking, bespectacled banker who, it turns out, has devised a foolproof system for protecting himself and the cash in his isolated bank from the danger of robbers. He strips down, straps an armor of tin pans to his body, and then charges at a thief across an empty, windy plain. Every time the thief’s bullet hits one of the pans, the banker yelps “Pan shot!” and continues charging.
There’s something wildly unnerving about peril emerging from a peaceful, barren tableau — the scene more than
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs premieres November 16 on Netflix.