The Coen Brothers latest film celebrates the Western with their famous brand of dark humor.
The new Netfl ix Western anthology film from Joel and Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, is the best Western comedy since 1969’s Blazing Saddles, which is to say it’s the best Western comedy in half a century. And unlike Blazing Saddles (1969), Three Amigos, Rustler’s Rhapsody, A Million Ways Do Die in the West, et al, Scruggs is not a parody of Western movies. It is a series of Western stories seen through the distinctively quirky prism of the Coens.
The short scripts were written over a period of over 20 years, and only the last, “The Mortal Remains,” was written after the film deal with Netfl ix was made. The other five were penned randomly over the years, and are presented in order of creation, the first, “Buster Scruggs,” being the broadest.
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Where Did the Loot Go? - This is one of those find the money stories. And it's one that has attracted treasure hunters for more than 150 years.
Whatever happened to the $97,000 from the Reno Gang's last heist? Up to a dozen members of the Reno Gang stopped a Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis train at a watering station in southern Indiana. The outlaws had prior intelligence about its main load: express car safes held about $97,000 in government bonds and notes. In the process of the job, one of the crew was killed and two others hurt. The gang made a clean getaway with the loot.
Hero of Horsepower - Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
Los Angeles lawman William Hammel tamed one of the West's wildest towns with hard work and horseless carriages.
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Wilbur Zink has preserved the Younger Gang's history in more ways than one.
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