A story that seems drawn directly from Poe’s oeuvre morphs into a none-too subtle hint at what’s really happening. The knocking of a steel-tipped cane on wood silences the coach and Thigpen begins his tale. The movement from meandering tales to macabre unreality is almost imperceptible but once you realise where the story, led by Edgar Allen Poe lookalike Thigpen (Jonjo O’Neill) and Irish ‘Thumper’ Clarence (Brendan Gleeson), is going it’s too late to turn back. It’s about five strangers telling stories to each other while embarking on a long spooky coach ride. So, it checks out that they would eventually make a story about storytelling. When it comes to storytelling there are few better than the Coen Brothers. Of course, the segment ends in blood, dust and savagery but for a while it’s a joy to bask in the warm loving glow that’s rarely found in the Western genre. Mr Arthur’s (Grainger Hines) Spartan acknowledgement of long-time trail buddy Billy Knapp’s engagement is perhaps the funniest joke in the whole episode.
Most of ‘The Gal Who Got Rattled’ is an awkward romcom between two people as confounded by their attraction as they are by the disinterest everyone around them has in their romance. After Alice Longabaugh’s (Zoe Kazan) inept brother dies of cholera on the wagon train to Oregon she finds herself smitten with rugged wagon hand Billy Knapp (Bill Heck) and he with her. Romance in a genre better known for dust, blood and savagery is a welcome relief. Change is necessary and good as the likes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blazin’ Saddles and Bone Tomahawk have shown. Retelling the same old myths and legends gets old quickly. Originality in the Western genre may as well be gold. So, from best to least here’s a detailed breakdown and ranking of each segment in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Likewise the stark, terrible beauty of ‘Meal Ticket’ next to the eerie other-worldliness of ‘The Mortal Remains’ easily beat out ‘Near Algodones’ in terms of depth. But the number of characters to care about in that story – the titular ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ – is quite low compared to other entries like ‘The Gal Who Got Rattled’ or ‘All Gold Canyon’. It’s hard to fault the first entry for sheer entertainment value as we follow the adventures of the San Saba Songbird (or the West Texas Twit) Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson). It goes without saying then that The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is Joel and Ethan Coen working at the peak of their powers. They’d already cut their teeth with the western-adjacent Miller’s Crossing and then sharpened them on the neo-western No Country for Old Men and their True Grit remake. Out this day last year, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs set their reputation as Western auteurs in stone. Still, as long as the Coen Brothers are making movies it will never really die. To say the Western is a dying genre would be wrong but it’s nowhere near as healthy as it once was.
0 kommentar(er)
