I have to admit that some optimistic ending or highlight would have helped our enjoyment. “Meal ticket” and “The Gal…” are so bleak, while “Mortal Remains” is very ambiguous. So some lighter notes would have helped me and the wife to enjoy it more. As is, after “meal ticket” my wife was disturbed, and “The Gal …” left her crushed. It’s ok to show that life can be randomly shitty, but it would be nice to show how it can be randomly good as well.
I think the first three installments had a good balance there, with the funny but evil Buster getting his comeuppance, the bad guy in “Near Algodones” not escaping justice, and the prospector at least having a shot at getting a good ending.
But it was an beautiful comment on the western genre, and it lends itself very well to rewatching and Analysis, which I love.
I mean, if you know the trick, the specific chicken surely doesn’t matter.
Unless any random chicken would have to be conditioned to respond to whatever the stimulus was, and Neeson’s character didn’t have the time or inclination to train one. Just WAG’ing now, because you’re probably right.
It’s tough to read the angle, but the scapula could have been involved too.
I did get a chuckle out of “It didn’t hit nothin’ important! Nothin’ important! Just guts is all you hit!”
Let’s hope not, Tom!
We just watched it last night, I’m still thinking about it, but Meal Ticket was by far my favorite.
Okay, I’ve digested the movie (burp) and am ready to discuss it. I know everyone has been waiting on pins and needles.
It’s almost like they created Twilight Zone episodes based in the Old West. The Cohen Bros. also seemed to be showing off, like “see we can make a dark and gritty western, we can also make a John Ford style western and a old timey singing cowboy western!” Good stuff. I liked it better than Hail Caesar.
My rankings of the episodes:
- Meal Ticket, the Orator’s performance was amazing, especially when he wasn’t speaking, just using his eyes to act
- Buster Scruggs, just awesome use of cartoon violence with real world consequences
- Mortal Remains, most Twilight Zonesque of the bunch.
- Near Algodones, I’d watch Root read the phone book
- Rattled, too long for the payoff
- All Gold Canyon, huge Tom Waits fan, but I don’t like happy endings in general.
I’d go with 3, 4, 1, 5 in a Tie with 2, and 6.
Meal Ticket was beautifully shot. That kid (the orator) has got a great career ahead of him. I agree with your statements. But, the whole thing felt too long.
Buster Scruggs: Funny but a pretty goofy start to a dark-ish movie. I did like that the main character isn’t quite what you might initially guess him to be.
Mortal Remains. I like the philosophical bent to the discussion. What’s the trope? Closed room? Any way. I also like the Zone-esque aspect. I like Kathy Bates getting put in her place and the ambiguous ending.
Near Algondones was funny and I, too, like root. That’s when it began to sink in that this movie was going to subvert expectations.
Rattled: I really like the performances. I could stand to see Kazan in more things. But, I agree that it was too long.
Gold: It was good to see Waits is still around. I like his performance. The scenery was
gorgeous. But too long and the happy ending seemed out of place with the rest of the movie.
It was actually Tyne Daily on the stagecoach, not Kathy Bates. I hadn’t seen Daily in anything in years, but she was pretty good.
Wouldn’t it be great if the Cohen Brothers put out a movie on Netflix like this every couple of years that plays with a particular genre?
“Pan shot!”
I guess this is a good time to confess: Although I bragged earlier about noticing the prospector in “Gold Canyon” was still bleeding, I was too dense to catch the subtleties of “Mortal Remains.”
Better still if this were done by the Coen brothers! 
I blame bourbon and autocorrect in that order.
You’re right (Although, it’s “Daly” :D). Shouldn’t have been working from memory.
Yeah. I could stand to this kind of thing from the Coens on a semi-regular basis.
Just saw it, and really liked it. It would fit in well with the universe that includes the Coen Brothers’ True Grit and No Country for Old Men.
Both my teenage son and I suspected that either the girl or her potential husband, the wagon train #2 guy, were probably doomed. It’s just that kind of movie.
Yes! We noticed that.
Yes, he was terrific. And has lost a lot of weight since the HP films.
I noticed in the final credits that the movie was made by Pan Shot Productions.
I did some panning for gold, years ago, and it looked about right to me. Didn’t understand why he wouldn’t have kept the tiny flakes of gold that he initially found, though.
Just call him Charon: Charon - Wikipedia
I have to admit, for a long time, we thought it was Will Ferrell under a lot of makeup!
About the panning - in the Jack London story, the flakes that he’s counting are really tiny. It’s not until he gets a lot closer to Mr. Pocket that they are worth keeping. I think that they punched up the size a bit for the sake of the viewers, so you’d know what he’s seeing and how his plan works.
I really appreciate this thread. It has greatly enhanced my appreciation of the movie. Many thanks to all who have contributed.
I didn’t get around to watching the movie until this week, and I really liked it, but I didn’t want to revive a month old thread with nothing new to add. But since it had been revived, I’ll add my two cents.
Basically, I liked the first episode the best, and liked each successive vignette somewhat less than the previous one. Mind you, I liked them all! But as they got progressively darker and more obscure, I enjoyed them a little bit less. I do like dark stories, but I like humor more.
The first one reminded me very much of my all time favorite Coen movie, Raising Arizona.
I agree that I liked the first chapter the best, but it mostly reminded me of Rustler’s Rhapsody. I would have happily watched an entire movie in that vein.
The chapter I liked second best was “All Gold Canyon” Waits did indeed rule in that role, though he rarely disappoints.
As I mentioned earlier, but for poking around in the meadow rather than in the stream it pretty well depicted the process of tracking down the source of the color, usually a pocket but everybody dreams of finding a mother lode. He didn’t keep them because he was after the source, not trying to make a living. Only the very first people at a gold strike – California or the Klondyke as examples – can temporarily make a living with naught but a gold pan. I’ve panned and kept in a vial the tiny flakes I found, but only as a souvenir, not for cash.
Incidentally, Buster didn’t want to play that hand of cards because it was the Dead Man’s Hand: Dead man's hand - Wikipedia
Well said.
An old joke, sure, but I don’t think he’d do that. If anything, it was more unsettling that he had an almost shy, apologetic smile as he quietly walked over to the wagon to (almost certainly) toss the Professor off the bridge.
Nice! Hadn’t thought about that. That makes it even more heartbreaking.
Yeah, it would’ve been nice if there had been some kind of connection between the episodes - shared characters or a narrative handoff of some kind. Say, we later see the singing man in black who killed Buster in the crowd for the hanging of the bank robber, and then the nearsighted bank clerk is among those watching Prof. Harrison orate, and then we see a Harrison handbill tucked into the prospector’s pack, etc.
Gleeson is great in just about everything. See Calvary, if you haven’t already, in which he plays a troubled Catholic priest in a small Irish town.
Don’t know how literally the Coen Bros. intended it, but wouldn’t the dead body be carried downstairs to “the basement” if the guy was going to Hell?
An interesting article on the sfx of TBOBS: How Ballad of Buster Scruggs pulled off its cutting-edge effects - CNET
And I thought it was Bruce Dern!