For my review, I watched the recently released Coen Brothers film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.  Taking place in the American West during the heyday of Manifest Destiny and gunslingers.  Interestingly, it takes the form of an anthology composed of six stories. Each one is related a common theme but each tale is self contained.  The first is of a verbose gunslinging musician with a confident streak and a habit of causing trouble. The second is about a lone cowboy hanging on by a thread and his efforts to rob a bank.  The third is follows a paraplegic thespian and his relationship with his grizzled impresario. The fourth story is of an old prospector and his arduous struggle to find gold in the pristine Western wilderness.  The fifth story is about a young woman traveling along the Oregon trail who encounters love, hardship, and death of all kinds. The sixth story follows a groups of stagecoach passengers as they discuss the nature of man and deep musings on death.

    Where this film thrived was in its details.  Much of the value from this film is derived from minute details or actions by the cast rather than the spoken word.  Particularly in the case of the thespian's story and the stagecoach tale, the little, unspoken details in both the set design and shot composition are key to understanding the little details in the tale.  Of course, as per any Western, many of the shots are wide landscape shots that are designed to take in the splendor of the untamed American West. Though these kinds of shot could be labeled as overdone, the simple reality is that they look good.  The draw of the American West was its untapped land and resources, and that was encapsulated throughout the literature of the time by descriptions of the expansive landscape. Movies about the Wild West are as much about the land as it is the people, and this movie acknowledges this.

    Though I did enjoy The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, I have the distinct feeling that it is not for everyone.  If you want a Western like A Fist Full of Dollars or Tombstone, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is not that.  This film has far more intense moral and existential themes in it than one might expect in a film of this genre.  I found this aspect of the film very compelling, particularly after my family and I took some time to discuss our interpretation of certain scenes.  Still, the film can be dreadfully slow at times, particularly during the prospector and thespian stories. However, the first story with the titular character Buster Scruggs was one of the funniest 20 minutes I have ever witnessed in a movie.  The few shootouts spattered throughout the movie were wonderfully shot and compelling each time. I would say that the anthology format actually improved The Ballad of Buster Scruggs on the basis that it allowed for very different stories to be told within the same film but still have the overarching connections.  I can't say that I'd recommend this to the casual filmgoer, but I can confidently say that I'd endorse this film to anyone who enjoys having to really think about a narrative story or analyzing the little details in a film.