The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

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.

Marco Polo: An actual review.

First of all I want to apologize for one comment that I made the previous post about Marco Polo, in which I said that there were going to be a fantasy element on the show, I thought I saw one but it was just the illusion caused by quick camera changes and not knowing the series, so what I’m saying is, there is no fantasy in this show.

Also I want to apologize because I had this review ready on December 23 but it slip from my mind and I'm uploading it until now.

  

Well but what can I say about a show that everybody is trashing? First I don’t know what everybody is complaining about, I mean the budget you can see where it went in every shot and every angle, the acting is well balanced, nobody is over or under playing their parts you can feel they were taking it really seriously. The lack of women? There are a ton of female characters, there is at least 1 strong female character for each man. The white guy how gets to civilize the barbarians and save the day? Far from it, and I’ll go deeper on all this themes and no spoilers on the show, because yes, it is that good.

First the review of the show:

This is a show based on an historical figure, I don’t know how accurate or loose is this base but they use it on a good way, I mean, people go and watch movies about exorcisms or an evil doll that are loosely inspired on the ramblings of an old priest, a drunk that called himself a ghost hunter and used to get money from some scared people, so why get so much into details of a story that feels right and have actual facts and investigation.

The show feels great it sets you the mood of every character by how they talk, they walk what do they do, is not black and white and you change your view of everything just by keep watching, at the beginning you might feel that the Mongols are barbarian and savages and then you see them and change that idea, and that happens to every character, and you like a character or the other and all of them feel deep with a rich background and with plans ahead, that makes good characters not just all being cool or having all the powers (Are you listening Moffat?)

 The settings are beautiful, if you don’t get why some people like oriental history give this show a try just sit there and enjoy the panoramic shots, the architecture of the palaces and gardens. The cinematography and photography reflects every moment as it should be the war councils feel the pressure, the conversations on the gardens are relaxed but feel like they have some double intention lurking in the shadows. You can just watch this show without audio and it will be very enjoyable, and I’m not talking about nudes scenes :P

Al the dialog is with an intention, not only to move the plot but to reveal a little more of the characters, but as I said not only what they say but how they say it, what are they doing while they say it, we have to remember that Oriental countries have strong traditions and discipline and patience is one of the strongest points, so they do all the rituals taking their time, you might even see a character holding his/her face when something upsets them during a dance or ritual.

Now to ease up the pain and doubts of people:

-It cost 90 million dollars!

Yes that is an amount of money, but you know what? Helicopter shots are not cheap, neither to hire more than 300 people to stand or represent a war and feed them, or to build throne rooms, make clothes for period pieces is not that cheap either, have a lot of horses and use them regularly, use actual oriental gardens and palaces, film in 4 different countries. What I’m saying is that you can see where all that money went, it was invested so we could watch a really good quality show.

And all these guys eat :P

-It is a copy of Game Of Thrones!

No is not, first this show is based on actual people and actual battles. Yes the idea might have come from making an epic show like GoT but it is very different. You don’t trust me well here I go.

First here there are no children playing war, in GoT you have Rob and Daenerys wining battles and ignoring their war councils in MP all are experienced war lords with seasoned war councils taking their time to make every move because it is important.

Second the camera is way open here than in GoT there you can see is almost all close ups even when they are outside because of reasons, but in MP you get panoramic shots even indoors what is awesome to watch Kublai Khan in his throne room.

Third we have horses, in GoT they avoid the use of horses or running on them, because horses are expensive and running on them means to rent a bigger piece of land and the insurance of the horse goes up, but in MP you can’t have Mongolia without running horses so we get horses running and lots of them.

Fourth there are not many stories, there is the main story threaded by lots of little stories, in Got we have like 5 main plots characters running wild and doing their thing, here is just one story, one war, two kingdoms, and all line up with them.

Don’t get me wrong I love GoT but what I’m saying this show is completely different, don’t look at it as another GoT but as a period piece.

Look they have a wall is a copy of GoT! You know who had wall too? China! And before GoT.

Feels old!

Of course it will feel old is history, and one that has been translated into movies, tv shows, cartoons, books, it even was on Doctor Who. So it will feel like history because it is, but the way is told is what makes it so great.

Two main characters, both women.

There are no women!

If you say that I’ll know you didn’t watched more than 15 minutes in. I mean there are a lot of female characters, each more amazing than the last one and all of them unfolds more mystery on the plot and on themselves. Yes is difficult try to being accurate and turn Maco Polo into a woman, what I’m almost sure all the people who say that there are no women in the show were expecting. But then you see that women are vital parts of the plot and that they have their own plots and objectives. Here is a very good explanation to the saying that “Behind every great man there is a great woman” because they give advice and they are as great as the man they stand behind.

The badassery of women is everywhere in this show!

 Is about a white man being the hero!

No is not, Marco Polo might be the name of the show but the character is our vessel, he is the way to deliver exposition to an audience that is not very familiar with oriental history and culture, but as the episodes go further we are more with Kublai Khan or Jia Sidao “The Cricket Minister” and less with Marco, because they are the main story. Also I’ll give to you to learn why is called “The Cricket Minister”

 

Yes there is a white guy, but you can't have a Marco Polo story without Marco Polo.

I watched 3 episodes one afternoon and I didn’t like it!

Well there is your problem, this show is not to watch it like 24 all in just one sitting, but to watch it and let it sink, to absorb and think about it, if you watch more than you can assimilate you will start to pay less attention, your mind will wonder and at the end you’ll be not getting any of what is happening, is like watching a movie falling sleep, your mind just don’t process it.

So the show is full of historic references like the Hashashin that where the first real assassins (the actual word assassin comes from Hashashin) and their leader Hassan I Sabbah (that he inspired Ra's al Ghul in Dc comics) and also Mongolian and Chinese culture, and that is great.

 Rules to watch this series:

-Turn off your cellphone.

-Do not eat during the episode.

-Do not talk during the episode.

-Listen to each and every conversation.

-Let it sink in.

So basically… Pay attention.

If you can follow this rules you might not like the show, but I think is great, not for everyone because some people don’t like war scenes or nudity but like Hundred Eyes said “If you can’t handle what’s happening, look away”

So I do recommend it to everyone, and I hope that they make more like this one, but about Genghis Khan and his rise of power, or a miniseries of Hundred Eyes, because I can read about what happened with Genghis or watch a documentary but I can think in just one phrase “I could read it, or watch it somewhere else but I want them to tell me the story”

Marco Polo

(The one on Netflix)

I just watched the first episode of Marco Polo and I can’t say why people complain about it. Yes the story feels kind of familiar, but what show doesn’t? Is not the core plot but how do you work it, and for that you have to watch the series and after that you make up your mind. Breaking bad had a familiar core, in the movie “Falling Down” you can see a normal guy breaking and making a difference because he feels in the dumps same core different treatment.

By the things I have seen in the trailer I can be sure that it is not a biographic series but more like and imaginative remake of history with a fantasy touch and that is not bad, I think?

I also heard that “there are only men in the series” well what do were you expecting, in that time women didn’t had a big part on society and if you are going to tell me that they are getting fantasy elements they could put at least a witch, well as far as I know the witches in this kind of subtle fantasy are always hidden and appear later in the story, and there are women, the concubine and the wives are women, that I’m almost sure that they will take more important rolls, because for once there are like 3 promo posters with the girls of the show, one is even wielding a sword. I mean is from Netflix the company that brought “Orange is the new black” that is pretty much an all-female cast.

3 out of 9 posters are female cast so 33.3% and we have fighting smart and powerful women so stop complaining

 The photography and the cinematography look great you cans see where all the money went on this production, and it has that calm and steady passing to get enough tension and important to each scene.

Some people have say that is a poor try of make "Game or Thrones" but I applaud this people to make big budget quality TV, I hope this begins to trend and then we will only have good TV in the future :D

I’ll get a more elaborated review after watching the whole series that will be in like 2 weeks because I think that this series is better to watch it one episode at the time, also I have tons to do now :P