The Ballad of Buster Scruggs | 2018 | R | – 2.9.2

Why is “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some strong violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene in a bordello, some evident cleavage, and many scenes of very bloody violence that include gunshot wounds, arrows, scalping and hangings. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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Dark comedic anthology of 6 stories set in the old west: A self-assured gunslinger (Tim Blake Nelson) kills and sings, a bank robber (James Franco) thinks he’s managed to avoid justice, a hawker (Liam Neeson) makes money by going from town to town to put on performances by a gifted orator (Harry Melling) who has no limbs, an old prospector (Tom Waits) may have just found gold but he’ll have to be able to keep it, a young woman (Zoe Kazan) joins a wagon train but her little yappy dog is an unwelcome distraction, and strangers in a stagecoach debate the human condition while traveling to their destination. Also with Willie Watson, Stephen Root, Ralph Ineson, Jesse Luken, Bill Heck, Grainger Hines, Jonjo O’Neill, Saul Rubinek, Tyne Daly and Chelcie Ross. Directed by Ethan & Joel Coen. A few phrases are spoken in French with no translation or subtitles. [Running Time: 2:13]

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs SEX/NUDITY 2

 – In a bordello a woman wearing a corset that reveals cleavage is shown in a room with a man and another man who is missing his arms and legs; the first man turns the other man around so he will not see what happens between him and the woman and we see them moving toward a bed, and then dressing presumably after sex; the man pulls his pants on and we see a bit of his abdomen and the woman asks, “You wanna buy your friend some lovin?”
► A man describes to a woman what a war party of Native Americans will do to her including raping her repeatedly. A woman talks about going to Oregon to meet a man that she thinks she will marry.
► Women in a saloon are shown wearing low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage. A man wears long johns in a couple of scenes.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 - A man enters a cantina, orders a whiskey and shoots another man in the head (we see bloody bullet hole and blood sprays on the wall behind him), and then shoots several other men in the room, with blood spraying and one man wheezes and pulls himself along the floor and out onto the road with blood on his back. A man stands at a table and draws a gun on another man who kicks a slat of the table that hits the gunman in the hand and his gun discharges into this head and face three times (we see a lot of blood spray and we later see the bloody holes in the man's face as he is dead on the floor). Two gunmen face off in a road and one shoots the fingers of the other man one at a time (blood spurts, the man screams and we see the digits fall away), and then shoots him in the head (we see bloody spray). Two gunmen face off in a road, we hear a gunshot and one man takes his hat off to see a hole through it with blood on the back of the hat and we see a bloody bullet hole in his head as he falls back dead (his soul sprouts wings and floats into the sky). A man with a gun and covered with cooking pots runs toward another man, who shoots at him striking the pots until the pot covered man hits the gunman in the head with his gun butt. Native Americans attack several men at the site of a hanging (the man being hanged is bound with a rope around his neck and on horseback): we see men being shot with arrows (one is shot twice through the neck and blood pours), others are stabbed and slashed and some are scalped (blood sprays and pours) and the man on the horse tries to keep his horse calm through the commotion. Two men fight and struggle over a gun that one man picks up and shoots the other man three times, once in the face (we see bloody bullet holes). Several Native Americans on horseback charge toward a man and a woman: the man shoots several of them (blood sprays), a horse is shot (blood sprays and the horse whinnies in pain until a man shoots it dead), other men are thrown from their horses when they step in prairie dog holes in the ground, and a man is struck down and then shoots his attacker just before being scalped. A man is shot in the back and falls on his face in a hole in the ground (we see blood continuously seeping into his shirt). Four men are lined up on gallows as ropes are placed around their necks and hoods over their heads and one man sobs; we hear the mechanism release the floor boards and hear necks crack (the screen fades to black and we don't see the hanged men). It is implied that a man threw another man off a bridge and into a river, killing him (we do not see the action).
► A man enters a bank and holds a gun on the teller who then shoots at the gunman through the boards of the counter and the gunman jumps on the counter to dodge the bullets. A man with a noose around his neck and his hands tied behind his back is shown on a horse that moves away from the tree, and the rope is attached to a branch and is pulled more taut with each step; another man comes to help the man and shoots at the rope, missing a few times, and scares the horse away, leaving the man swinging from the rope for a few seconds before the rope is cut by a bullet.
► A woman is shown with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her forehead (a bit of blood dribbles from the hole). A man is shown with a very bloody bullet wound in his back and an exit wound in his abdomen with a lot of blood seeping from it. A man coughs violently and we hear gagging in the distance; he stumbles as he walks and we see him dead with some stains of saliva on his lips (we hear he died from cholera); we later see him wrapped in cloth and placed in a hole in the ground. We see a dead a man with bloody bullet wound on his face as he is rolled into a hole in the ground.
► A man enters a saloon where men are gambling and they are required to leave their weapons at the door. A man climbs up a tall tree to a bird's nest and steals four eggs, and then returns all but one when he sees he is being watched by a large owl. A dog barks incessantly and a man asks a woman if he can "put him down" for her; she accepts and the man walks off-screen, we hear 3 gunshots and the man returns without the dog (we understand that the dog ran away and was not killed). A man hits a boy on the back and buttocks with a stick as they walk. A man gives a woman a gun and tells her to use it to shoot herself in the head if Native Americans kill him. A woman hits a man with her cane a few times and yells until she has a fit and difficulty breathing.
► A drawing of a man holding a gun on another man over a tipped card table is shown. A man sings a song about a woman with lyrics that include, "She got dead." People discuss the nervous system and a man's nervous cough. Two men identify themselves as bounty hunters and indicate that there is a body on the roof of the carriage they are in (we see the body wrapped with a cloth later when they take it into a hotel and drag it up a flight of stairs).
► A man is shown to be missing his arms and legs and performs for people by sitting on a chair and reciting speeches and poetry; another man helps him get around and carries him on his back on a platform. A man holds another man with no arms or legs while he urinates (we hear a trickle off-screen). A man talks about patching another man up using wet leaves and urine. A man spits on his fingers (we see saliva) and uses the saliva to extinguish a cigarette. A woman's' nose runs as she cries.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs LANGUAGE 2

 - 1 scatological term (spoken in French with no translation), 1 anatomical term, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (devil, misanthrope, surly, son of a gun, sidekick, stock hustler, measly skunk, old, Fancy Dan, reapers, bounty hunters, selfish bastard, grumpy, ill-humored runt, cowardly, old dough face, presumptuous, fools, savages, hard-nosed, tedious, sorry sack of bones, crackpot, twit, crazy business), exclamations (there's more than one way to skin a cat, oh my), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. God Bless, Good Lord, Bless Him, Oh My God). | profanity glossary |

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs SUBSTANCE USE

 - A bottle of whiskey is shown in a drawing being spilled off a table in a saloon, a man in a cantina orders a whiskey and he is told that whiskey is illegal even though other men are drinking whiskey, a man holds a bottle of booze and breaks it in a campfire (he appears to be drunk), and men are shown with glasses of alcohol on their tables and on a bar in a saloon. A man smokes a cigar in a saloon, and a man smokes a pipe in a few scenes, and a man rolls and smokes a cigarette.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs DISCUSSION TOPICS

 - Murder, bank robbery, stealing stock, fate, the West, gold rush, failure, arranged marriages, doing what is right, debts, uncertainty, life choices.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs MESSAGE

 - Life can be hard and certainly unpredictable, and death is just around the corner.