Throughout their acclaimed filmmaking career, the Coen brothers have worn their influences on their sleeves. Known for their innovative utilisations of genre frameworks such as neo-noir on gems like Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing, as well as their unique approach to comedy – evident in Raising Arizona – the Coens have repeatedly transcended genre limitations by drawing from multiple sources. While their knowledge of film history is impressively vast, one of their favourite spectacles is the American western.
In fact, they created one of the most interesting neo-westerns of the 21st century when they decided to make a film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy‘s No Country for Old Men. Starring Javier Bardem in the most iconic role of his career, the 2007 masterpiece is the culmination of the directorial duo’s style – both visually and narratively. Beautifully laced with an inexplicable sense of dread and foreboding, it is bound to haunt anybody who comes across it.
When the Coens were asked to name their favourite films of all time, they included westerns in their selection by directors like Sergio Leone. One particular Clint Eastwood movie also made the cut, clearly influencing The Big Lebowski directors. Titled The Outlaw Josey Wales, the 1976 production stars Eastwood as the titular farmer who embarks on a violent quest for revenge after his entire family is massacred during the Civil War.
During a conversation with Patrick McGilligan, Eastwood explained what drew him to the project: “It’s about the character I play, whereas in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the only character you got to know – somewhat – is the Eli Wallach character. In other words, Josey Wales is a hero, and you see how he gets to where he is — rather than just having a mysterious hero appear on the plains and become involved with other people’s plights.”
Eastwood also commented on the popularity of the characters he played, elaborating on their straightforward moralities. He told McGilligan: “I think I appeal to the escapism in people – the characters I play […] I like those characters myself; that’s why, maybe, I carry them to other extremes than my predecessors. […] a Dirty Harry character, a man who thinks on a very simple level and has very simple moral values, appeals to a great many people.”
The Outlaw Josey Wales isn’t just an important reference for the Coen brothers. It was also a major milestone for Eastwood, the trajectory of whose filmmaking career was deeply impacted by the project’s success. When the New Hollywood movement was gathering momentum in the 1970s and westerns were thought to be almost obsolete, Eastwood demonstrated that the genre still had potential for new forms of expression.
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