FILM 2230: THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS (2018)

TRIVIA: The poker hand Buster Scruggs refuses to play in the saloon is infamously known as "the dead man's hand" (a two-pair of black aces and eights) as legend has it that was the hand held by Wild Bill Hickock when he was shot in the back of the head and killed by the coward Jack McCall.

The image of the horse's backside on the back of the book is actually the logo for the Coen Brothers' production company, Mike Zoss Productions.

The first project by the Coen Brothers to be shot digitally.

While almost unrecognizable due to his slim physique, the young orator is played by Harry Melling, who is best known as cousin Dudley Dursley in the "Harry Potter" films.

The song "Surly Joe" was first heard in a movie in the James Stewart western, Destry Rides Again (1939), under the title "Little Joe, the Wrangler".

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's third collaboration with French cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. The first was Paris, je t'aime (2006) and the second Inside Llewyn Davis(2013), which garnered Delbonnel his fourth Oscar nomination.

The opening song of the first segment, "Cool Water" has the line "Keep a-moving Dan, don't you listen to him Dan...". Buster then mentions his horse is called Dan. In fact, the Dan referred to in the song is a mule, Dan being a slang pet name for any mule much like Ned for a donkey. A nominal "Dan" appears often in early Cowboy Songs.

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