The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen took three Academy Award nominations and won none: Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design for Mary Zophres, Original Song for When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings, by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. The adapted label rests on two of six chapters. All Gold Canyon comes from the Jack London story of that name, The Gal Who Got Rattled from The Girl Who Got Rattled by Stewart Edward White. They lift London’s dialogue almost word for word, then add scenes of their own. The book whose pages open each chapter has no author; it was invented. Reports had it down as a six part television series; the Coens ordered the stories in the script and shot it as written. It is also their first film shot digitally rather than on negative. Bruno Delbonnel says the camera became a negotiation: Netflix wanted 4K, the Alexa did not deliver it. His first question was whether each chapter should look different; they tried it, it did not hold, and settled on one line drawn from N. C. Wyeth. A good fit if you read the constant look, against a tone hardening chapter by chapter, as a decision, not a lapse. Not for viewers waiting for the six stories to tie together; all they share is that book being turned.