The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Movie, 2018, The 2010s, Set in Six western tales
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is #18 of 21 in release order and #18 of 21 in chronological order in the The Coen Brothers.
The story
Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs recap
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) collects six separate stories of the American frontier, presented as chapters in an old illustrated book. In the title story, Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson), a singing gunslinger in white, shoots his way through saloons. In "Near Algodones", a cowboy (James Franco) robs a bank guarded by a teller in pots and pans. "Meal Ticket" follows an impresario (Liam Neeson) touring a limbless young orator (Harry Melling) through shrinking frontier towns. In "All Gold Canyon", a prospector (Tom Waits) digs for a gold vein in a pristine valley. "The Gal Who Got Rattled" sends Alice Longabaugh (Zoe Kazan) west on a wagon train after her brother dies, where its leader Billy Knapp (Bill Heck) proposes. "The Mortal Remains" puts five passengers in a stagecoach with two bounty hunters. Released by Netflix, it is the eighteenth and last feature Joel and Ethan Coen made together, following Hail, Caesar!
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ending explained
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ends with the stagecoach reaching a hotel with the bounty hunters' corpse, its passengers entering as if into the afterlife. Earlier, Buster is shot by a younger singing cowboy and floats to heaven singing. The bank robber escapes one noose only to hang for another man's rustling. The impresario swaps his orator for a counting chicken, implying he drops the young man off a bridge. The prospector survives a shot in the back and kills his attacker. Alice, believing Mr. Arthur has fallen in a Comanche attack, shoots herself with the pistol he gave her.
Post-credits scenes
No. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Where to watch The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is streaming on Netflix in the US.
Ratings
IMDb 7.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes 90%
Where it fits
- Release order: after Hail, Caesar!, before The Tragedy of Macbeth.
- Chronological order: after Hail, Caesar!, before The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Cast
- Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Willie Watson as The Kid (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Clancy Brown as Curly Joe (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Danny McCarthy as Curly Joe's Brother (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- David Krumholtz as Frenchman (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Thomas Wingate as Gun Check Man (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Tim DeZarn as Mean-Eyed Card Player (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- E.E. Bell as Piano Player (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Alejandro Patiño as Cantina Bartender (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Tom Proctor as Cantina Bad Man (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Clinton Roberts as Cantina Scum (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
- Matthew Willig as Cantina Scum (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Directed by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen.