![]() Far from being a ray of sunshine, Buster turns out to be the singing cowboy from hell, and hearing him talk and seeing where he ends up is very much a treat. One of Buster’s nicknames may be the “San Saba Songbird,” but he is also known as “the West Texas Twit,” not to mention being called out as “the Misanthrope” on a wanted poster the singer angrily rips apart. It features a hugely entertaining Nelson (a veteran of the Coens’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou”) as the title character.ĭressed entirely in immaculate white, including a hat with an enormous brim, Buster Scruggs is the ultimate singing cowboy, moseying into the Monument Valley frame singing the classic “Cool Water” (a hit for Gene Autry, among others) and talking to the camera as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.īut don’t let appearances fool you. Not for any meanness in his heart no but for his skill in the one art that mattered in this territory, that of drawing a side-arm. ![]() The best example of this, and one of the film’s best segments, is the first one. His name was Buster Scruggs and he himself was feared. ![]() Using their great ability with comic dialogue (the film won the best screenplay award at Venice), the Coens exaggerate and subvert familiar Western tropes to gleeful comic effect. With several Westerns under her belt prior to The Ballad of Buster Scruggs the Coen brothers ’ latest Mary Zophres knows the many. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Jump to Edit Summaries Six tales of life and violence in the Old West, following a singing gunslinger, a bank robber, a traveling impresario, an elderly prospector, a wagon train, and a perverse pair of bounty hunters. Though its obvious that one is more well-known and acclaimed than the other, its undeniable that they could actually compete with each other in many ways. But if all of this is present, none of it is treated in a familiar manner. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and True Grit are two excellent Westerns directed by none other than the Coen brothers. Bank robberies, lynch mobs, loyal sidekicks, cattle drives, Indian attacks, soiled doves, shabby saloons, gunfights on main streets, they’re all here. Yes, no end of familiar western situations find their place.
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