Carter Burwell's score for Joel & Ethan Coen's cinematic version of Charles Portis' novel True Grit (they consciously decided to ignore the original Oscar-winning film because they considered it a bore) is rooted in the world view of its main character, the outrageously self-righteous Mattie Ross (played by Hailee Steinfeld). Burwell used classic Protestant hymns as inspirations; in some cases bits from the classic hymns themselves – “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand” (by Franklin L. Eiland), “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (by Charles Converse), “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” (by Elisha A. Hoffman & Anthony J. Showalter), “Talk About Suffering” (Traditional), and “The Glory-Land Way” (by J.S. Torbett) – for his cues. These pieces in particular, from the opening theme, "The Wicked Flee," "A Methodist and a Son of a Bitch," and "I Will Carry You," all begin simply, lyrically, almost reverentially before giving way to grander pieces of music that reflect the land and history.

Carter Burwell's darkly mysterious orchestrations play a significant stylistic role in both Barton Fink and Fargo, two of the best films from acclaimed independent filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, particularly in light of the oft-violent content of the Coens' stories: violence can of course be laughable when the characters are too goofy to be believed, and tragic when the characters are too believable to be goofy, but the Coen brothers' creations are somewhere in between. They strike a precarious balance between a broadly comic Beckett-esque absurdism and a more straightforward, three-dimensional naturalism. Consequently, Burwell's grave, sweeping scores are a crucial reassurance that the Coens are not taking their characters' personal tragedies less seriously than are their audiences.

The story goes that composer Carter Burwell owes his fortuitous, ongoing collaboration with the filmmaking's Brothers Coen to one crucial requirement: he worked cheap. But the Coens' low-budget film noir debut, Blood Simple (which also launched the career of cinematographer-turned-director Barry Sonnenfeld), certainly got the best of the bargain, a wonderfully less-is-more score highlighted by a compelling solo piano theme. For the Coens' next film, Raising Arizona, a darkly goofy kidnapping-themed comic vehicle for Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, Burwell veered bravely into the ozone, mixing heavily Gothic organ, soaring sopranos, bluegrass banjo, whistlers, synths, yodelers, and samples of what sounds like a tin can being kicked down the longest hill in the world into a delightfully heady farrago that recalls Morricone at his most mischievous.