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MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

As The Ballad of Buster Scruggs begins, opening titles depict the opening of a green leather book. Inside are six stories, each accompanied by a full-page color lithograph with a line from the tale underneath. The film consists of six short films with distinctive casts and together they tell a variety of yarns from America’s Wild West days, somewhere in the mid to late 1800s when dime novels and popular fiction celebrated these adventures. Each short story has a distinctive tone, often infused with dark humor, and most of the familiar tropes are represented, including saloons, stagecoaches, bank robberies, hangings, wagon trains, traveling shows, gold prospecting and Indian attacks.

However, without exception, the stories travel to unexpected places. Violence and sudden death appear often, sometimes as a logical outcome to decisions made but also as a tragic and undeserved end to life. As I thought about popular fiction from this time period (including Victorian Era writings from across the pond), I was reminded that life was short (the average life expectancy was about 38, with high infant mortality) and on the frontier, even shorter. As Seth MacFarlane noted in his 2014 comedy there are A Million Ways to Die in the West.

The first story is “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and its main character is a singing cowboy of the same name (Blake Nelson) who just happens to be considered a misanthrope by the world at large (according to the Wanted poster), but claims that he just doesn’t like to be contradicted. This episode plays out like a Bugs Bunny vs. Nasty Canasta cartoon, with extreme violence added.
The next story features James Franco as a bank robber who finds himself using his wits to stay alive against great odds. It’s very funny, but also fatalistic.

There are four more stories, with each one seemingly taking darker turns. Guns fire, arrows are shot, relationships are frayed, communications misunderstood; death is omnipresent and life is passing.
By the time the last story is told we hear a character commenting that “We have only one life to live...you can’t play another man’s hand.” Not only do the stories serve as commentary for one another, but the film is bold enough to ponder the random senselessness of life alongside of a spiritual reconciliation between heaven and earth.

I know that this sounds like highbrow folderol and you can enjoy the film without asking such deep questions. I am convinced that the Coen Brothers have always had spiritual themes in their films and I would encourage you to bring your prospector’s pan along and see what you can sift out of these stories. The short pieces were initially directed to be six episodes of a limited series but the filmmakers decided that they wanted the viewers to experience all six stories together. They made the right decision. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is one of the best films of 2018, bar none.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating:

Four halos: A film about storytelling that also functions as a meditation on mortality and death.

Four pitchforks: The Wild West is filled with all kinds of treachery, criminal activity, greed, and violence; mild infrequent cussing; western stereotypes, including rampaging Native Americans.

 

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