True Grit directors Joel and Ethan Coen give a list of their favorite westerns

January 7th 2011, 4:56pm

Joel and Ethan Coen seem to have another great movie on their hands, TRUE GRIT. Bonus points since the film is a remake. Many of us are known to yawn when the word “remake” is attached to a project, but when the Coen brothers are attached it’s time to take notice. They don’t f*ck around.

But what westerns are the Coens really into? EW got the director/writers to make a list of their favorites from that particular genre.

Here’s the list:

1. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, PG-13) “Sergio Leone movie. Good hat brims.”

2. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976, PG) “Clint Eastwood movie from the 1970s, when the major studios were, on the evidence here, less uptight.”

3. Greaser’s Palace (1972, R) “Robert Downey Sr. movie. The Putney Swope of Westerns.”

4. Doc (1971, PG). “Frank Perry movie, written by Pete Hamill. We haven’t actually seen this one but saw a clip of the first scene, and the opening gag makes us suspect the movie belongs on the list. Stacy Keach fights consumption, dust, and bad men as Doc Holliday. This movie is for you if you like to watch people cough. Stacy was warming up to play one of cinema’s great lawmen in the Cheech and Chong movies.”

5. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972, PG) “Interestingly, it turns out that most of the best Westerns were made in the ’70s, hardly our expectation when we started the list. This one has another great opening scene — again with Stacy Keach, this time as Bad Bob. Admittedly this John Huston movie is, apart from the opening scene, less swinging than the others on the list, but it has Paul Newman with his limpid blue eyes. “

Source: EW