The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Netflix Original Movie Review: “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs". Critics gave it a 92% the users an 77%. Rated: R with a run time of 2 hrs and 13 mins with an IMDb of 7.4/10. Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, Liam Neeson, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Harry Melling, and Tom Waits

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a 2018 American western anthology comedy film written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. It features six vignettes that take place in the American frontier in the 19th-century post-Civil War era during the settling of the Old West. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2018, where it won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay. After a limited theatrical run beginning on November 9, 2018, it was released on Netflix on November 16. The National Board of Review named it as one of its top ten best films of 2018.

This movie has an accumulative effect. The stories range from funny to grim to harrowing to ironic to haunting to horrifying. You barely have time to recover from one before you're thrust into the next one. The format is set up as a dime Western book where we get to see six of the stories. There is a real authentic western feel to them. A real grit.

Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography is spectacular. Wide sweeping vistas, majestic mountains, stylized towns, all beautifully captured. There's also a surreal feel to some the stories. Imagine if 'Pulp Fiction' were all western stories. And on that train of thought, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs succeeds in many areas where 'The Hateful Eight' did not. A great collection of short movies by the Coen Brothers.

I recommend you settle in on your couch and or favorite chair, because this is a long, beautiful and amazing film. I'm a huge fan of western films along with being very picky about the ones I see. This blew me away!. You need to realize what your getting yourself into. This movie is way ahead of its time. The stories are beautifully written. And the backdrop of the old west makes it over the top. The last story dialogue was out of this world. Pure gold. My two other stories were the Prospector and the Wagon Train. Keep in mind all 6 of them are amazing and extremely entertaining.

I want to thank Netflix, without them this film would not be possible. This should be in theaters all over. And I'm watching it in the comfort of my own house on my couch. Crazy. Don't watch if you want a good ole western with the same plots we've been watching forever. Watch it with an open mind, and you will walk away appreciating life. Mad props Coen Brothers. You knocked it out the park. Thank you for your hard work. You brought stories to life with such beauty, horror, humor, hope, fear, despair and joy.