11/29/2023 0 Comments Ballad of buster scruggs locations![]() Deadwood delivered us the spectacular performance of Robin Weigert as Calamity Jane, not to mention the other memorable characters of Alma Garret, Joanie Stubbs, and Martha Bullock. It also stands that any of the characters in Buster Scruggs could have easily been traded out for a woman without fanfare. We also know that modern Westerns can handle women well. The story contains insight into the choices that a woman had during that time in American history, and also, possibly, some insight into why there aren't more women in the film (they never really made it there in the first place).īut it stands that there were real, strong, complex women in the west – both in and out of brothels and parlors. ![]() Like many of the tales, it is about agency (or a lack of it) – and it turns out that in the West, sometimes the most agency a person has is limited to a couple of very dire choices. But when her brother and keeper dies on the journey, she's forced to find her own way in life. In it, Alice Longabaugh, played by Zoe Kazan, is headed West on the Oregon Trail toward a possible fortuitous arranged marriage. The one story in the anthology that contains a leading woman, "The Gal Who Got Rattled," shows a glimpse of what the movie could have been. They cling to the most basic Western stereotypes of Native characters, and they, in large part, ignore and flatten women. While the Coen Brothers more than happily throw out some aspects of the problematic Western, they embrace and preserve two big ones. ![]() Or–at least the white male characters are. The protagonist doesn't always win (in fact, they lose in five out of six of the tales), the Western story arc is delightfully scrambled, and characters are given the depth, reflection, and thoughtfulness that they lacked in the black-and-white shoot-em-ups. In the Coen Brother's West, many of the Western's formulas are broken. In many ways, the movie delivers that elevated tale. And the moment that he's quickly and summarily shot through the head and killed by a cowboy in black, we are further convinced that this will not be the hyper-masculine, over-simplified, stereotypical Western that our dads watched from their special chairs while we were growing up – not like the old dusty book with illustrated plates that opens during the movie's opening credits. ![]() Buster Scruggs is an untouchable, lawless cowboy, singing his way through the shooting-up of various saloons. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs opens with the titular tale, and we have high hopes for a movie that will do for Westerns what Fargo did for crime dramas. They've also brought a parade of strong and interesting female characters to the big screen during their careers, including Mattie Ross in True Grit, Penny Wharvey-McGill in Oh Brother, Carla Jean Moss in No Country For Old Men, and Katie Cox in Burn After Reading. Most notably, Maude Lebowski is unforgettable in The Big Lebowski and Marge Gunderson in Fargo is simply one of the best movie characters in history. Ethan and Joel have established themselves as innovative and thoughtful – and many of their movies are nothing less than unprecedented and culturally significant. We've seen it throughout the years, and they've made their name on it: The Big Lebowski turns the detective caper on its head, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is their take on the epic journey. But it also misses an opportunity that the Coen Brothers often love to take: the opportunity to expose and then elevate the genre that they're toying with. The movie as a whole brings so much that we expect from Coen Brothers movies: extremely dark humor, the sharpest writing, memorable characters, visual treats, and quirky, beautiful, fun storytelling.
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