Today I discovered that film score composer (and frequent Coen Brothers collaborator) Carter Burwell has his own website. And much to my delight, he briefly writes about his work on the new True Grit.

Here’s just a snippet of what he wrote:

“Many Hollywood Westerns sanctify myths about the origins of the United States. A typical example is to turn a cattle drive into a crusade. Brass, strings and timpani magnify the act of herding livestock across a river until it has the gravitas of crossing the Red Sea. Mattie is part of this tradition, and a parody of it, treating her quest and all its participants with a piety that blinds her to the absurdities that surround her. This is the source of much of the book’s considerable humor.”