Ethan and Joel Coen discuss a scene with Hailee Steinfeld on the set of True Grit. Photo by Wilson Webb/© 2010 Paramount Pictures.

Since the release of its electrifying trailers, True Grit has been one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year. The Coen brothers long ago ascended from enfants quirkee of indie cinema to preeminent filmmakers of their generation, and their take on a Western promised an intriguing cinematic proposition—as well as an instant Oscar contender. Given their penchant for existential endings (see: No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man), you might have expected the Brothers Coen to subvert the genre, like they subvert everything else, and turn in another disquisition on the cosmic arbitrariness of life. Instead, just when you expect a curveball, they throw a 99-M.P.H. fastball right over the plate. Judging from their reactions, critics and bloggers expecting No Country for Old Men 2: Old Timey Edition were slightly flummoxed after the first screenings. True Grit turned out to be a beautiful and soul-satisfying old-fashioned adventure story, one that lulls you in with laughter and goofy charm before it sneaks up and smacks you upside the head with its potent, poetic lyricism. Little Gold Men had the good fortune to catch up with the Coens to see if they’re getting to be sentimental softies as they age (not quite), hear about the long search for Hailee Steinfeld, and figure out what’s next for them: outer space, a dog, or Henry Kissinger.John Lopez: I thought the film was beautiful, but so markedly different from any of your other films. It felt like an old leather-bound kid’s adventure novel, but with more hangings.

Joel: Yeah, that dovetails with our way of thinking about it. In fact, people [asked], “How does it feel to do a Western?” When we read the book, it was more about struggling to fit it into this young-adult adventure genre than a Western, per se. It happens to take place in the West in 1878, but the way we thought about it was more storybook-like.

What’s neat is that the story starts off fun and funny, and then becomes almost poetic. The way it ends is almost happy. I’m trying to think of the right word—“heroic”?

Yeah, it’s cornier. Well, corny’s not a dirty word for us either. When you’re talking about a young-adult adventure story, there’s something very simple and elemental about those kinds of stories. You don’t want to change that. It’s what’s compelling about them as stories. It’s where they get their power.

I know the word I’m looking for: poignant.

Ethan: That’s good, that’s the ambition. That’s in the book; that’s what we wanted to do.

Do you think your attitudes and outlook have changed since Blood Simple?

Maybe. I don’t know that this would have appealed to us, or certainly this much, when we were doing Blood Simple.

Joel: It’s hard to say. Someone asked us with the last movie [A Serious Man] if we would have done that 20 years earlier, and the honest answer is probably not. It probably wouldn’t have been so interesting to us to think about the place we grew up in. We were too close to it at that point. When you’re in your mid-20s, you’re not that interested in thinking back about what it was like when you were 16. But it’s more interesting if you’re 50.

Ethan: Even this movie, there’s the frame: it’s retrospective. It’s more interesting as you get older. It’s told from the point of view of an older person, she’s thinking about what it was like.