Just watched this. Quite entertaining, especially as from the 3rd vignette onwards I was no longer expecting a clear conclusion to the stories, All 6 vignettes were well shot and had something intersting in them. My favourite was probably the Buster Scruggs one which I enjoyed more in retrospect after realising how the stories worked.
::watching trailer on youtube::
Hah, I see Tim Blake Nelson is in it. And in the Buster Scruggs vignette as the title character, no less.
From only 1 watchthrough my provisional ranking of the stories
- I The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- IV All Gold Canyon
- V The Girl Who got Rattled
- III Meal Ticket
- II Near Algodones
- VI The Mortal Remains
Watched this on NetFlix this evening. I was waiting for it to arrive in the local theaters, and was happy to see it available online.
The short-story format seems inescapably lighter than a 2 hour tale, but I enjoyed it. Probably liked it better than the Coen’s True Grit. Lots of humor. Lots of frontier grit. Lots of fresh twists on cliches.
It seemed low-budget, but the photography was consistently interesting.
I liked the finale, “Mortal Remains”, more than the OP. Usually philosophical discussion leaves me cold, but the trapper, gambler, and good wife were thoroughly entertaining. “Meal Ticket” was probably the least consequential, but it still had several strong points. The wagon train episode was the most conventional tale, and probably my favorite.
Recommended. Enjoyable and impressive — but more an appetizer plate than a rich meal.
I greatly enjoyed some and didn’t terribly mind the others.
I liked all of them and loved some of them. I’m tempted to go see it in the cinema for a second viewing (I notice it’s playing tomorrow in SF and I’ll be there for work).
“The Gal Who Got Rattled” was my favorite. I really liked the portrayal of the romantic relationship. It showed a real connection being made but didn’t feel like an anachronism: they kept to the formality and structure that I’d expect from the time, but it felt like a real deep understanding and match. It was really convincing. It made things all the more tragic, and actually made me let my guard down to the extent that I was not expecting the ending (even though in hindsight I obviously ought to have).
“The Mortal Remains” was probably my second favorite, but I liked all of them.
I liked it overall. There are a lot of neat little visual touches throughout the movie and excellent cinematography but it wasn’t a top-tier Coen Bros effort for me. One thing’s for sure, they left very few Western tropes untouched.
This post will contain some spoiler boxed comments…
The film was one of the best things I’ve watched recently, so I’ve been thinking about rewatching it — but I keep finding other things to do instead.
The reason, which is an obvious thing that took a few days for me to realize, is the lead character dies in every episode. The exception is Tom Waits in “All Gold Canyon.” [spoiler] And he just appears to die. But now that I think about that, it would be easy to contend that he actually did die, and has crossed over to a land where his fortune will provide him with whatever pleasures he wishes. Or maybe he’ll just keep coming upon perfect valleys with hidden motherloads.
The evil bushwackin’, back-shootin’, bastard that laid him low, might be fated to just rot in a hole.
So, despite all the yuks and humor, the movie might be too much of a downer for me to rewatch. [/spoiler]
The exceptions to that are the goofy Buster Scruggs episode, and the ever-so-clever “Mortal Remains.” (Which I want to rewatch to catch all the foreshadowing.)
I thought that it was exceptionally well made, and the writing was very good. I would say that it is dark and depressing, even for a Coen Brothers movie, and I won’t be rewatching- except maybe the first segment, which is practically a bugs bunny cartoon, lulling the viewers in by mixing humor with the nihilism.
The last segment, the mortal remains, really impressed me with the way it implied the supernatural without showing anything out of the ordinary at all. By the end, I’m sure most viewers will figure that these are souls on the way to the afterlife, without any real evidence of such. Though the cherub and devil atop the hotel doors was a nice touch. And the Frenchman’s fear being replaced by resigned optimism as he enters is a nice bit of acting and probably the best ending we could have hoped for.
I watched this with my parents over the weekend – my mother had read something about it, and as she’s a Coen Brothers fan, she wanted to watch it.
I agree with Johnny Ecks – well done, but really dark. It was dark enough that my parents decided to head to bed, rather than watch the final segment.
Of the five I saw, I probably liked “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (for its absurdity) and “The Girl Who Got Rattled” (for the characters) the most. While watching “Meal Ticket,” I felt like I recognized the young man playing Harrison (the actor) – I looked him up, and discovered that he’s Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
I went into this thinking that I don’t generally like westerns but I love Coen brothers movies, and seeing Tim Blake Nelson in the trailer sealed the deal.
I was kinda disappointed when Buster died and it moved onto another story, but in a way I don’t know if I wanted a whole movie of a singing cowboy anyway. Definitely enjoyed his story though.
The story of the one with James Franco wasn’t that great, seemed too short. But Stephen Root yelling “POT HIT, POT HIT!” or whatever was hilarious.
All Gold Canyon was good if a bit slow. If that is an accurate depiction of that sort of gold prospecting it’s very interesting.
Meal Ticket was compelling but very dark and bleak.
My favorites were probably The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and The Girl Who Got Rattled. I thought the Girl Who Got Rattled had an especially interesting story, great characters, and a terrible but great shocking ending.
The last episode makes it seem like the passengers are on their way to the afterlife, but then, who was Mr. Thorpe on the roof of the stagecoach? Double dead?
If you’ve seen “A Serious Man,” you’ll recall the short subject that took place before the main story. The Coens referred to that as the “cartoon.” I felt they did something similiar by starting with the Buster Scruggs segment. It was very much the cartoon before the main feature, had some laughs and whimsey before we moved on. Liked it!
“Near Algodones” had a ironic Twilight Zone twist at the end. He escaped being hung for a crime he actually committed, only to have the noose around his neck again for something he did not. It was awfully short but perhaps that’s all the time it needed.
“Meal Ticket” I did not enjoy at all. It was just too cruel for my tastes. The acting was good, though.
“All Gold Canyon” I really enjoyed. Tom Waits was excellent and it all came off like an authenic western story that could have been written by Zane Grey or Bret Harte.
Ditto for “The Gal Who Got Rattled.” There’s an earnest authenticity about it, in the manner of the formal dialog to the behavior of the characters. Acting was tops. I didn’t expect the twist ending.
“The Mortal Remains” I’m still trying to figure out. Many people have said this story somehow ties all the others together, but I’m not seeing it, especially when I don’t think the intent was to tie any of these stories with any of the others. I’m seeing them all as stand lone vignettes.
At 2:13, it’s a committment, but well worth watching for Coen fans.
In fact, that segment is based on a Jack London story of the same name.
[going into open spoilers mode now] I haven’t rewatched the film, but I’m thinking that the dead man on the roof ties into the bounty hunters’ comments about how they
they tell a story and people are fascinated by it… until they realize the story is about them. And then the listeners struggle to come to grips with that realization.
The dead man on the roof is the story the passengers are being told, and then they suddenly understand that they are also the bounty hunters’ victims.
XOldiesJock: I’ve seen a review saying that All Gold Canyon was based on a Jack London story. (ninja-ed)
I am in the small, and maybe unique, minority who liked Meal Ticket the best. I thought that Melling’s acting was superb. His facial expressions were amazing.
I wouldn’t say i LIKED it because it was extremely dark, but it was very well acted.
It was too dark for me. I stopped watching after Meal Ticket. I liked the Ballad the best of what I saw, but it was very short.
So… we assume then that Liam popped Dudley over the bridge? I spaced out watching it. The whole thing, not just this vignette. I had to rewind and be like “wait, that was the end? oh. OH!”
There were parts of it I enjoyed. I do like unconventional storytelling and this was fucking out there. But it was slow and dull for the most part. Some of the slow was fine, like grand sweeping landscapes, but it dragged instead of being like… taking deep breaths.
Stephen Root and his pots was the best part for me. In most things, he’s the biggest scene stealer. I surprisingly almost liked James Franco. Usually he turns my stomach. It’s like his character matched up with his real-life self and was watchable for me. I spaced out too much to get the last one at all.
The prospector one… that might have been the slowest and dullest of them all, but it might have actually been my favorite. Its simplicity worked for me. I liked the Wagon Train one too but I was too anxious the whole time knowing Something Bad was going to happen. Something Very Bad. And I was right. That would have been my favorite but for the bummer ending. I loved the trail guy and the romance and her determination.
I mostly got O Henry vibes for the whole thing. Maybe with a splash of Poe. Add that pinch of Coen and it was just a little too much for me. I see what it was trying to do, but it wasn’t for me.
Definitely. I paused on the books at the end of each story. In this one, it definitely says that he threw him over the bridge.