Plot
Six separate stories that show the exaggerated world of the wild west.
Direction
Written and Directed by the Coen Brothers, and it has all their charm, warmth, dramatic flair, and visual stylistics.
Breakdown/Cast/Characters
The Coen’s have always been daring when it comes to their narrative, and this is perhaps their most daring writing to date, with six ‘mini’ movies within the entire 133m runtime. They each have a different protagonist, and similar themes (which I will explain further in a moment).
Part One – The Ballad of Buster of Buster Scruggs
Buster Scruggs, (Tim Blake Nelson) travel the lands singing, he is also a quick draw champion who kills without remorse, and happy to challenge gunfights wherever he goes. Blake Nelson is a hoot, especially his fourth wall breaking narration.
Part Two – Near Algodones
A cowboy (James Franco) robs a bank, but the teller (Stephen Root) is prepared – and fights back. The cowboy must then try to save himself, while tied up, nearly hung from a pack of Native Americans.
Part Three – Meal Ticket
A man (Liam Neeson) and his quadruple amputee son (Harry Melling) travel the lands with his son reciting classical poetry to the masses. When money runs out, the father looks to secure another talent show.
Part Four – All Gold Canyon
An aging prospector (Tom Waits) digs for gold, trying to find the ‘pocket’ of gold that might yield him a fortune – but danger lurks in the shadows.
Part Five – The Girl Who Got Rattled.
Alice, a young woman who is to be wed off by her brother in a business deal, finds herself alone with two wagon trail captains after he dies suddenly, on a cross country journey. She agrees to marry one of them who has been kind to her. but one fateful day might change everything for them.
Part Six – The Mortal Remains
Five people, three of them strangers (Tyne Daly, Saul Rubinek, Chelcie Ross) – two of them (Brendan Glesson and Jonjo O’neill) acquaintances, delivering a corpse ravel across Colorado to a hotel. As darkness drifts over them, They discuss religion, love etc on their journey – but where are they going exactly?
The all star cast are credited alphabetical order at the opening credits, and each do a great job – especially those who are coen regulars.
The anthology film is mostly broke up evenly in screen time, and some of them are more fun than others.
The violence, when it does occur is brutal, and for the ‘most’ parts they are at the hands of the native American Indians – but the real antagonists are “non-natives”.
Each ‘parts’ has a theme associated with death.
In Part One, Buster is killed in a shootout by someone better than he,
In Part Two, the cowboy dies by hanging after breaking the law, In Part Three, the son is (presumably) murdered by his father, no longer willing to take care of him,
In Part Four the prospector is left for dead by a robber (but kills him instead),
In Part Five Alice kills herself when she believes her protector has been killed (fearing what the natives will do to her) and Part Six – the carriage is clearly a passageway for the three strangers going to the afterlife.
The scenery throughout is simply lovely, and the score complements it brilliantly. Of course it is by Carter Burwell who is a frequent Coen collaborator.
Overall
Not the Coen’s best efforts, but still solid enough. Some of the mini stories are stronger than others, but all have great performances.
3.5/5
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