I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again: the Coens can write ANY kind of film. They're almost supernaturally talented.

@@reservoirdude92 their greatest strength is their originality. you just dont know whats going to happen. you can be half way through a coen brothers movie and still not know where the story will end up. you can be 5 minutes into most movies and know exactly whats going to happen. "The ballad of buster scruggs" is the most entertained ive been by a movie in years. I just had no idea what the next scene would bring. Love the coens so much.

​@@NeilLewis77as an aspiring screenwriter, that's what I envy about these guys! You have to have a very particular kind of mind to come up with the stories and scenarios that Joel and Ethan do. I have no idea how they come up with this stuff, but they DO, and it's absolutely remarkable and inspiring to see that people can take genre trappings and use them to think outside the box and make something entirely unique ❤

Criminally underrated.

This is my favorite gangster movie and that scene when Leo get’s ambushed is one of my favorite scenes in a gangster film. I was 15 and working at a movie theatre when this came out. It played in our theatre but i never watched because it didn’t seem interesting. It wasn’t until i was an adult. Probably for the better, because i don’t think i would have understood its greatness at the time.

Pity he is s psychopath.

@@madmark1957 yeah. It’s an interesting character development we’re meant to like Tom and Leo but they are extremely flawed. He’s f&cking Leo’s girl, he’s addicted to gambling,he starts stabbing Casper in the back as soon as he joins him. Leo is the Boss and as such should be maintaining the rules of the Mob. But when Casper tells him about Bernie breaking the rules instead of disciplining Bernie he tells Casper to F&ck off ( one rule for you and another rule for my girlfriend’s brother) The sad state of affairs is that if Tom had legitimately gone over to Casper’s organization he probably would have been happier than when he was with Leo. Casper was about rules, know the rules of your society and follow the rules of your society. With Casper you knew where you stood. Casper also respected and listened to Tom, befriended him over The Dane (his behest mistake) All in all, the person in the story that we like the least is the the best human being in the story.

That's right, his only fault is that he wants everyone to play by the rules in a world where there aren't any. Casper is also one of the greatest performances in one of the greatest films.

@@rickcosman9670 To be fair while there have been a few comments about gambling, this was a very common thing in organised crime, and probably still is.

@@madmark1957 this is what is great about this story. All the characters are flawed to some degree. Yes Leo’s gang (including Tom) is involved in gambling. So Tom should not be into bookies like he is. I noticed that him being late paying the bookie did not escalate to a beating until after he fell out with Leo. So he was using Leo to protect himself from the consequences of his gambling. Like everybody else in this story Tom uses people. These are not nice people. The challenge the writers had was to make us like Tom and Leo and dislike Casper even though they are all equally bad and Tom is arguably the worst. Even the scene where Casper slaps his son, which is in the story to shock us and reinforce our negative feelings about Casper, is really revealing. Slapping a child with the open hand was not considered a bad thing in the 1920’s when the story is set. But Casper takes it to a different level that a lot of fathers of the time would not. He tells his son after pointing to Tom “take a page out of this man’s book, listen more, talk less.” Then he comforts the boy and kisses it better. Again a lot of fathers would not have done that. So in that scene Casper corrects his son in a fashion that would have been acceptable for his time and he reconfirms his respect and admiration for Tom who is currently working on a plan that will end up using Bernie to kill Casper for him. So again Tom is two faced and uses everybody whether he likes them or not. Casper is straight with everyone so you know if he is for you or against you and Casper tries to follow a set of rules. In the end we like Tom and dislike Casper. GREAT STORY TELLING.

Astute! Agreed!!

"Hey Tom you know the Mayor"---"I should, I voted for him 4 times in the last election; and that ain't the record!" and "I know all the angles."

Overlooked, NOT underrated. It has a 93% from critics and a 90% from audiences. Those ratings are extremely high.

The Coen brothers are masters of vernacular.

Cool!

Very true, gets better with every viewing.

I just noticed while watching this reaction video that Tom's apartment was Barton Arms. Also, I think the Coens wrote the screenplays for No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading at the same time, although, they didn't film them at the same time.

@@michaelbuhl4250 There's an obscure Hitchcock film from 1932 Called Number 17, which begins with a character named Barton chasing his hat in the wind...I have to wonder if they saw it.

Jesus Tom!

@@HappyHarryHardon And don't be giving me the high hat!!!

Damn right

No argument from me. One of my top 5 favorite movies of all-time.

Yup

Definitely severely underrated. I still have Fargo ahead, but this is great

@@LaCheeserie Overlooked, NOT underrated. It has a 93% from critics and a 90% from audiences. Those ratings are extremely high.

@@Corn_Pone_Flicks Good point

Yeah TBR better update his software QUICK 😂

His death scene was super cartoony and super bloody. Just Sam's style. They had fun with it. One of the Coen's was an editor on the first Evil Dead too, from what I recall. And Bruce Campbell is in The Hudsucker Proxy.

He and Joel Coen had a nice little cameo together in Spies Like Us, at the drive-in.

The Glass Key is probably the most cohesive of the Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd films, as This Gun for Hire and The Blue Dahlia have some glaring issues. It's very good, but still I find the other, more flawed, films oddly more entertaining.

Yes! The Red Harvest connection would make Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars great follow ups.

And Red Harvest coined the phrase "Blood Simple". The Coens are definitely fans. Brilliant books. Hammett was a genius at pulp fiction.

The 1942 Glass Key was made just seven years after a previous adaptation in '35. And people think remakes are out out of control NOW.

@@Corn_Pone_Flicks I've always been curious about the earlier one. Any good? I never bothered because no Veronica Lake, so...

Even though it takes place during the 20s.

More or less did the john woo thing where in his films the characters would have shootouts but you never see them reload much because john thought reloading slowed down the pace of the scene so there would probably be one or two times where you would see the characters reload in the entire movie!

He loaded during the cuts between scenes.

Well put

Sure; that’s the kind of scene-chewing that grabs your attention. But IMO…his best acting, is in the chair of Tom’s apartment (x2)

Hit me like a truck when I first saw the movie on VHS tape in 1998/9 or so when I was a student. I was, erm, herbally enhanced at the time, did an emotional number on me. Also, for some months afterwards, I'd greet everyone I met with "how are the cats in 'jamas?" .

Thats not what you call making a reference. You saying con air is also making a reference because he was in that?

​@@roywilson4514I may be wrong but it seems like the op meant these to be separate thoughts. It just reads like it's the same thought. Again, I could definitely be wrong

re: Verna and Tom. Yeah, he was "cheating" with her on the surface. But I see it as Verna likely started playing both of them at the same time. Which would include trying to keep them from knowing about each other. Bernie was her only concern. It is possible Tom didn't really know how deep she had her hooks into Leo until the meeting at the start of the movie. And he played her back and stayed in contact with her to get an angle on Bernie, which he does.

It ISN'T underrated. It's lesser-known. The film has fantastic ratings from both critics and audiences.

If memory serves me correct, Barton Fink was written simultaneously.

They actually wrote Barton Fink, a movie about a writer suffering through writer's block, while they were suffering through writer's block on the script for this movie.

@@patrickdepew4976That’s really interesting. I never knew that.

The Thompson had 2 drum magazines. The 50 round was very common and they also made some 100 round mags. But the Thompson empty was heavy, a hundred rounds of 45 ACP that's probably why the 100 round drum mag never caught on. Check out the book "The Gun that made the 20's Roar".

I had to watch it twice back to back. (watched it so many times now that I can quote pretty much the whole film) When it came out, Steve Buscemi was practically unknown and not the recognizable actor that he is now. And he is only in the film for a minute or so. So I spent much of the movie wondering who the hell Mink was. I knew he was the lover of the Dane and cheating on him with Bernie. And I knew Bernie was just using him to get the inside dope on fixed fights. All that made perfect sense to me. But I kept asking, 'who the hell is Mink?'

The Man Who Wasn't There AND Barton Fink are probably their most underrated films.

@@reservoirdude92 I slept on The Man Who... for a long time. Recent rediscovery.

Schmatta is Yiddish for 'Rag.'

Agreed. It is rated highly on RT, but that doesn't mean it has the mainstream recognition it deserves.

Steve and John actually grew up in adjacent neighborhoods. Steve in Valley Stream, Nassau County and John in Rosedale, Queens. John and his brother Nick went to my grade school, St. Clare. They were already actors when I was there.

Hat also seems to represents one's identity. Without their hat, they're lost.

@@gluecement Yes. I don't have the concept fully fleshed out yet, but one would be lost without the moral compass, so that makes sense. Note Bernie never wears a hat even for a moment (I think).

@@jas137 Bernie actually does wear a hat in at least two scenes. When he first shows up to offer Tom a tip, he has a fancy bowler (very much in character), but when he returns after he's "killed," he's wearing a lower-class floppy hat. I'm sure we can find some symbolism in that switch.

For me the hat symbolises someone chasing a problem that keeps gettign away from them. Tom says of his dream: "There's nothing more foolish than a man chasing his own hat". It kind of reflects his pride in staying put to solve a porbnlem. Eventually the hat comes back to him, but Verna was right in suggesting that when he picks it up it "turned into something else".

@@tetleyT Interesting point. I think the hats may mean several things, maybe. I need us to all meet and talk this out. Ha. Seriously, though, I have said before I need people to talk about this movie with.

I don't think he dies in Barton Fink or Hudsucker Proxy. But, yea, he does tend to die in their movies.

@@patrickdepew4976 you're right, I have not watch Hudsucker proxy since its theatrical release and I thought he was killed by Charlie Meadows in Barton Fink, but you're right.

@@patrickdepew4976 haven't seen Hudsucker proxy since it's theatrical release and I thought his character was killed by Charlie Meadows in Barton Fink but you're right, he's not.I'm getting old, my brain hurts....😃

I swear to God, The Ladykillers doesn't get anywhere NEAR the amount of love that it should! The Coens' most underrated comedy ever, and consistently hilarious throughout ❤

@@reservoirdude92 ya I think it’s great, the soundtrack is awesome too. I’ve never really understood the hate. The waffle hut scene is one of my favorites of any of their films. “ O look at this, I got blueberry syrup on my safari jacket!”