The film is actually a collection of stories, consisting of 6 stories, "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", "Near Argodones", "Meal Ticket", "Golden Valley", "The Frightened Woman" and "The Body". So the name of this movie gave me a "Jinse" feeling. The film won the Best Screenplay Award at the 75th Venice Film Festival. The Coen brothers are good at dark humor, but I'm not really good at that.
These six American frontier stories make up a book that unfolds slowly, each with wonderful ups and downs. The narrative of the story is also deep and restrained.
"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs": No one hears, but the song of the lone rider rises far in the early morning air. This is a highly interactive story, and Buster talks to the camera from time to time, telling his life philosophy. In this story, the scene of borrowing a gun to kill someone in the pub and causing everyone in the pub to sing "Grumpy Old Joe" and shooting with a mirror really surprised me. The confrontation between Joe's younger brother and Buster, and the confrontation between Buster and the black cowboy, similar lines and similar scenes are like reincarnation, which vaguely hints at the ending.
"Near Algodones": A cowboy hangs for a failed bank robbery, is rescued, but is executed again for being misunderstood as a cattle thief. The simple story of "losing a horse", but the most wonderful thing is that the cowboy looked at each other and smiled with the girl in the audience before his execution, which has some similarities with Wallace's execution in "Braveheart". The beauty captured in the last few seconds before death in an already desperate and even joking life is cruel, but it is also the last reward for life.
"Meal Ticket": "Compassion is not forced, it descends from heaven like nectar to the earth". Shelley and Shakespeare's poems, "of the people, ruled by the people, and enjoyed by the people", are no match for a chicken begging for food. Boys with strong romanticism are finally driven to death by the reality of men. After the chicken, what should a man do for a living?
"Golden Valley": In this vast land, he could not see traces of human beings, nor could he see human masterpieces. Based on a short story by Jack London. The diligent but greedy old gold digger forms a delicate contrasting relationship with the young man who tries to sit still and die. Only the traces of grass and barren hillsides reveal the raucous trajectory that once broke the tranquility and moved on.
"Frightened Woman": After experiencing the sudden death of the eldest brother, being unable to pay the unreasonable price of the servant, and abandoning the puppy, the woman and Billy Knapp were finally on the verge of a stable and happy life. Se's admonition became the last straw that broke the nerve-slender woman. All the extras lead to the final tragedy.
"The Remains": This story makes perfect sense at the end, and it also seems to be a nesting and ending of all the previous stories. It's more like a wagon to death that never stops during the journey. When we watch other people's stories, we end up walking into them ourselves. Extremely cold tones accentuate the atmosphere of death. However, the carriage still did not stop, and it was time to carry the next group of guests.
"The lively scene is over. Our actors, I have something to say first, they were all elves, but now they have disappeared and become empty. Just like the illusoryness of this illusion, the towering towers, brilliant The palace towers, the solemn temples, the vast earth, and everything on the ground will disappear, just like this empty grand view, leaving no trace. We are the material used for dreams, a dream that embraces a short life ."
2019.215
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