The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.
Critics Sentiment
Buster kills Joe and his brother with the over-the-shoulder mirror shot
The impresario replaces Harrison with an arithmetic chicken and drives away
The film swings sharply downward from the beloved Buster Scruggs opener (peaking at 9.1 around minute 15) into the deeply divisive Meal Ticket segment (bottoming at 5.5 around minute 65), a drop of 3.6 points driven by reviewers who found the armless performer's fate bleak, boring, and unsatisfying after the comic brilliance of the first two stories.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs opens at a near-peak with its gleefully violent and witty title segment, which reviewers almost unanimously called the film's best work, before settling into a mid-film trough during the polarizing Meal Ticket. The anthology recovers warmly with All Gold Canyon, widely praised as a patient and satisfying gem, before the final stagecoach segment lands as a muted, philosophically interesting but anticlimactic close. The overall arc is one of a brilliant opening that the rest of the film can never quite match, producing a film that is admired more than it is loved as a whole.
Full cast
Showing 20 of 55
Tim Blake Nelson
Buster Scruggs (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Willie Watson
The Kid (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Clancy Brown
Curly Joe (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Danny McCarthy
Curly Joe's Brother (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
David Krumholtz
Frenchman (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Thomas Wingate
Gun Check Man (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Tim DeZarn
Mean-Eyed Card Player (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
E.E. Bell
Piano Player (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Alejandro Patiño
Cantina Bartender (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Tom Proctor
Cantina Bad Man (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Clinton Roberts
Cantina Scum (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Matthew Willig
Cantina Scum (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
Jesse Youngblood
Cantina Scum (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
J.J. Dashnaw
Cantina Scum (segment "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs")
James Franco
Cowboy (segment "Near Algodones")
Stephen Root
Teller (segment "Near Algodones")
Ralph Ineson
Posse Leader (segment "Near Algodones")
Mike Watson
Posse (segment "Near Algodones")
Brian Brown
Posse (segment "Near Algodones")
Ryan Brown
Posse (segment "Near Algodones")
Crew
Write a Review
Rate each story beat:
