The Coen brothers name their favourite westerns
It’s hard to imagine an all-American archetype as influential as the cowboy, echoed today through variations from some of Hollywood’s most central directors. Whether a close remake or distanced depiction from the real deal, the likes of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Jordan Peele’s Nope have both premiered on-screen within the past decade, debuting their own modernistic, and even sci-fi takes on the classic western.
A duo not to be missed off the list of western protégés is, of course, the Coen brothers. Harnessing their namesake through films like the screwball flick The Big Lebowski and dark comedy Raising Arizona, the pair are known throughout the industry for their commitment to more-is-more narratives and over-the-top action. And with this in mind, it becomes apt to imagine why the Coens might also look to the west for inspiration.
Originating in the late 1800s but said to have reached the golden age throughout the 1940s to 1970s, western movies have paraded some of the greatest lasso-armoured characters on horseback and some of the most memorable shootouts to ever grace our screens. Typical of a bygone age yet appropriated recently through films like the Coens’ No Country For Old Men, in which a deranged Javier Bardem relentlessly pursues its protagonist with a captive bolt stunner, westerns have arguably gotten better – and certainly more elaborate – through adaptation.
While at times more loosely inspired than others, becoming increasingly distanced from the happenings of an original western as the genre expands, the western yet proves a perfect canvas for experimentation in the modern day. In fact, when casting No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers sought someone the apparent opposite of its villain, famously chopping Bardem’s natural hair into a psychopathic bowl shape. On reflection, Bardem told Vanity Fair, “It was such a Coen brother’s look. It was funny, it was ridiculous”.
So, in seemingly trailblazing the less serious strand of westerns we see more frequently today, one can’t help but hazard a guess at the kinds of westerns that once inspired the Coen siblings themselves.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the pair at first mention Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider, before noting Sergio Leone as a name they’ve looked up to since childhood. “We grew up watching crappy sixties Dean Martin westerns, but Once Upon a Time in the West was the eye opener,” expresses Joel. Falling into the spaghetti western category, the iconic tale hones one of the most memorable opening scenes, taking place over eight minutes as its protagonists kill time waiting for their target to arrive. Manifestly, the scene bodes the kind of comedic value and crisp tension we have since expected from the Coens.
Inspiring No Country For Old Men in particular, right down to its promotional typeface, the classic film also remains as influential to the title of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So, as embracing as today’s cinematic landscape is of the experimental, non-traditional westerns, it’s a useful rule of thumb to suspect that even the most standalone scenes we see today are most likely derived from one of the greats.
