It's kind of bizarre that Joel and Ethan Coen's "No Country for Old Men" should win four Oscars on Sunday, including best picture, direction and adapted screenplay. Not that their talent hasn't always been evident, but the Coens just don't make the kind of movies Oscar voters usually like.

BY BOB STRAUSS >LA.COM

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Snarky, antic, cultish things like "The Big Lebowski," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Fargo" are more their speed. That last one did earn them screenwriting Oscars, but the rest of Hollywood thinks writers are just weird, so it's hard to call that full acceptance.

For their part, the Coens don't think much of the industry establishment in return. Asked whether they were excited by the awards buzz before "No Country for Old Men" was even released last fall, Joel shrugged, "No ... I guess that's why we live in New York. L.A. is such a company town, y'know? It's so much about the movies. And certainly you don't want to be thinking about that stuff all the time."

When the brothers won the directing prize, Joel Coen thanked the industry for "continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox."

The Coens admit that the bleakly austere "No Country," an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's challenging, depressive novel, was a departure from their usual goofier way of doing things. But ...

"Was it a conscious attempt to, um, knock it off?" Ethan said in November. "Hmm. No. We never make those kind of overall, abstract decisions and calculations. It was an adaptation of the book, and we liked the story, so we tried to serve the story."

Accepting the trophy for adapted screenplay, Joel Coen said whatever success the brothers have had in the category "is entirely attributable to how selective we are … we've only adapted Homer ('O Brother, Where Art Thou?') and Cormac McCarthy."

With its unusual story structure, disappearing lead characters and abrupt, quizzically philosophical ending, "No Country" is about as unlikely a best picture winner as the creatively conservative academy has ever chosen.

And that's partially why it's a true Coen brothers movie. Along with best picture, direction and adapted screenplay, the film gave Javier Bardem a supporting actor Oscar.

"You can turn the question around," Joel said, when asked if there was ever any thought of changing McCarthy's story along more traditionally satisfying narrative lines. "If the novel had been more conventional in its approach, we probably wouldn't have been very interested in making it into a movie."