He is presented as a protagonist and we find ourselves hoping he will survive his several encounters with people who want to kill him and are as depraved as he is. ![]() He claims to have violated the statutes of man and God and is shown to be selfish and devious. The larger than life cartoon character of Buster Scruggs is considered a misanthrope (one who dislikes all other people) and speaks of the sad and immoral state of the human condition. The song speaks of the souls that long for more. The opening scene shows Buster Scruggs riding through the desert singing a classic song, Cool, Clear Water, made famous by the “Sons of the Pioneers” in 1941 (Bob Nolan, writer). But here, allow me to substantiate my case. The most prominent theme in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is that our only defence against the randomness of life is to dress up in top-hat and tails, put on a brave face and march forward to whatever awaits. In a previous blog, I suggested that the theme of that movie was the “absence of meaning in the universe and that the only answers lie in having a good hedonistic time with sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll.” The opening Jewish myth portrayed in A Serious Man would seem to emphasise the fact that random decisions are the difference between seeing something as chance or as supernatural. Perhaps the theme of this movie is most like their 2009 movie, A Serious Man. This movie is much like previous movies of the Coen brothers: it generates certain philosophical questions. ![]() Yet, having seen many other Coen brothers’ movies, I have a sense that there is still more to the story. Perhaps we could leave it there and allow the viewer to approach it in one of those two ways. At another level, it is entertainment that causes one to say after each segment, “And the moral of the story is …”. (Spoiler alert: Watch the movie before reading this blog.) On the one hand, it is a collection of entertaining stories woven together into one movie. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a movie written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (2018), may certainly be viewed at a number of levels.
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