The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
AKA: We only had a few ideas that
could not possible support a full movie.
OR
We are already famous so people will
watch it and will like it.
I want to start that I like
westerns, actually I love them. My first TV series I’m developing is heavy
handed on the western vibe, with that say, here my opinion.
I refuse to call this a movie, hell!
I refuse to call it a series of short films. It has 2 short films at most and
the rest are a few of skits that have no heads or tails and just happen, is
like take a rhyme and just shot at verbatim what is said “Early bird gets the
worm” and just put on the screen a bird getting a worm, boom here is your
movie. NO! That is not a movie, you need, character development, something to
happen, evolution on story, escalation or de-escalation, even for a short film
you have to tell a story, simple but a story. This thing has nothing at all,
only with the 2 stories that you can get a little with the characters because
are longer stories and have a shit ton of exposition. And that is something
extra, they rely a lot on exposition, because they don’t know how to make the
audience to know about the characters and situations they just tell you. But of
course if you like to waste time on songs we have time for that, they do not
work for the plot or character development but you have the full song want it
or not.
Well I’ll separate it on the
different skits and tell you why each of them are boring and should stay on
someone’s head instead to get to paper and after that on a screen.
Also Spoilers, but the stories are
so plain and one directional that you can consider this spoilers.
1-The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
It is the one that starts, is
supposed to give you the setup, the idea, the feeling of it. Starts with a fairly
long song about nothing two bits on cantinas to show that guy is the best and a
duel which he loses, that’s it. It has no deep, characters or direction, the
guy arrives, is the best and dies, the end. I just could think on a dumb phrase
“You are the best until you are not” and you think OK will be something short
about the characters but will move from one to the other, but no, just happen
and move on to a different story completely unrelated and on a different rhythm.
After each story you could hear something like “Well that happen” and that’s
it.
2-Near Algodones
The idea behind this to me was “I
want someone with a pot on his head” I mean starts with a bank robbery, the
clerk has a shotgun and armors himself with pots and pans, the robber is going
to get hung but manage to break free and is captured again so is hanged, the
end. That was it, you don’t get to know the characters, motivations, anything
to resembles an ark is way beyond the writing levels of the person who made
this one. When I saw the memes with the “First time” joke I thought “This is
going to be a recurring thing, will be between stories and every time he will
break free until the end” but no, I was expecting way too much from this one. He
just died on the second try.
3-Meal Ticket
OK, someone told me this one was the
saddest story they saw in a long time, but I hated the guy after the second
time he said his speech, I knew he was going to die at the end and I could not
wait to see that happen, but I thought that it was going to be even more dramatic
that Liam Neeson was going to be 100% committed to the guy and one night he was
going to drop dead out of the blue and the other guy was going to be sitting in
the middle of the woods and realize he could not survive the night without his partner,
and the shot going out along with the flame dying. But no, they waste a good
chunk of reel with that guy only saying the same words over and over until
Neeson realizes there are easier cheaper ways to earn the beans than carry that
guy around, so he does what I wanted to do for almost the whole story. Here no
one is relatable, one has no personality more than “Has no limbs” the other, nothing,
and that we have to give it to the writer and director because is difficult to
get nothing out of Liam Neeson. This story is boring to the point that is
almost unbearable, I don’t get why people like it, is an easy tearjerker and
most people fell for it, because there is a guy with no arms or legs.
4-All Gold Canyon
This story is a simple one, a
prospector looking for gold. Not much to explain, and it would be an OK story,
I don’t need several characters or anything, he quest was to get gold, they
could have made it just him looking for the gold and that’s it, it would be OK
but no, they had to pot a twist. One guy waited for him to get the gold and
shoot him on the back. To this point I was waiting that to happen in that exact
moment, because the whole line of stories where, something happen, something
crappy happen, the end. Well not surprises here, he gets shot but survives and
gets the gold. If you wanted to put a difficulty set a cave in, a storm, a
cougar or bear, something that would have been more related with being alone in
the wild, more than a guy that was keeping an eye for all that time and the
prospector not even realizing.
5-The Gal Who Got Rattled
This one is the more similar to a
full story, but then again it has a shit ton of exposition, there is no a
single moment of silence, almost every frame is set with dialog for exposition
for character development, or plot related, because of that you can get to know
the characters and the situation, but then again, you can foresee the ending to
every conversation and situation as clear as day. But all considerate this is
more developed story. Yes I was expecting that ending since the moment they say
“The Indians don’t attack us”. Also the bit of the kid walking backwards was
useless, pointless and made only to set it on the trailer.
6-The Mortal Remains
I haven’t seen anyone staying that
this is a rip-off from “The Hateful Eight” (Movie that I haven’t finish because
is not a western, is boring and very poorly executed, but that is for a different
review). You have the carriage with unlikely travelers, the more unlikely to be
traveling on a carriage was the trapper, who I suppose should have his own
horse, mule, ox and wagon to take the skins and other goods to town, a person
like him will be more likely to go by himself to different towns and may be not
staying in luxury hotels but more like the inn on top of the saloon. This piece
has 2 whole songs and a couple of dialogs on heavy on the Tarantino side, where
the dialog is there to get into the mind of the characters but, why do we need
that, if the characters will be gone in 2 minutes and will be over. Well like
in Hateful 8 we got bounty hunters with their captured guy, by some reason
everybody are afraid of them the end. The only reason I can think is that all
of them had a bounty on their heads and didn’t want them to know, but that would
be if the writer would have some talent or imagination, or wanted to make a
full story. Then again nothing happens and just filler dialog for something
that has no pay off.
The movie has very good actors
totally wasted, beautiful scenery, and good budget on the art department, but
this shows that no matter how good the actors are, your locations how majestic,
and how much effort the art department puts in, if you have a bad script or
something that you just write on a napkin because you thought was a good idea
but never worked on it there will be no way to save it.
In my opinion you can see it but
jump parts watch:
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs light
heartedly to remember the Bugs Bunny cartoons of the old days.
Near Algodones, to see a quick joke
that extends itself and is not funny
Meal Ticket if you like the noon Mexican
telenovelas and cry when the maid gets proposed by the rich guy
All Gold Canyon to see tips and
tricks from a prospector/Crazy old man
The Gal Who Got Rattled if you like
over exposition on a medium to good story
The Mortal Remains if you liked the
intro from Hateful Eight
After all to me it goes All Gold
Canyon and The Gal Who Got Rattled are OK, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is
mediocre, the other 3 should have not existed
So getting three zeros, a three and
two fours gets a punctuation of 1.8 stars, but because it is supposed to be a
movie it gets a 1 star rating which means, not worthy of your time.
