The Proposition [Blu-ray]

One of the sad truths of the last 20 years is that Americans seem to have largely lost touch with the western films they invented. But the films live on often far from their inspiration. This is an "australian" western. Its a brutal morality tale set in the australian outback. This isn't for everyone in that the story (and almost everything else) is very intense.

The acting is uniformly excellent and the shooting of the film is very creative. If you like intense stories at the edge of law and morality, this is a good piece of work.

The plot description makes "The Proposition" look like a putrid exploitation flick: a criminal is given the chance of a pardon for himself and his younger brother -- who's to be executed on Christmas Day for rape -- if the man kills his older brother, a psychotic serial killer.

It's nothing of the sort. Though there are scenes of brutal, grisly killings (which are brief, and not lingered over), it plays out as a nuanced drama about compassion, justice, guilt, and responsibility, in an environment where these things are in short supply.

I disagree with the reviewer who rejected the film on the basis of its "pointless depravity". "The Proposition" is not about depravity, but what people consider depraved behavior, and how they react to it. This is the sort of R-rated film parents should invite their children to watch, so they can discuss the story's moral issues.

The performances are uniformly outstanding. John Hurt gets the "scenery chewing" role as a crazed bounty hunter, and delivers magnificently. Unlike Jack Nicholson's performance in "The Departed", Hurt's doesn't seem out of place with the quieter performances of the other actors. I find it remarkable that directors (Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese) continue to elicit ever-more-subtle performances from actors, without becoming "arty" or vapid.

I'd never heard of John Hillcoat, but his direction puts him in the top rank of directors. I find it remarkable that, though sound films have been around for 80 years, the quality of acting and direction continues to improve. A motion picture is a Gesamtkunstwerk that can be "anything"; Hillcoat and Cave show that films have yet to reach their artistic limit.

It's difficult to overpraise Nick Cave's simple-but-focused screenplay, which makes its points without making us aware it's making them, and his musical score.

This is a magnificent motion picture. Don't let the violence keep you from seeing it.

Set on an arid desert and sun-baked continent, during the late 1800's British settlement days, Pearce stars as Charlie Burns, one of three brothers that make up the notorious criminal Arthur Burns...

At the opening credits Charlie and his younger brother the 14-year-old Mikey are captured after a bloody shoot out with regional Captain Stanley in the aftermath of a brutal rape and murder... The decent captain is after their eldest brother Arthur described as 'the beast,' and is prepared to do just about anything to get him...

Thus Stanley lays out Charlie an unholy bargain: While Mikey stays in his custody, in jail, Charlie must find, kill or return Arthur or his teenaged brother will be hung on Christmas Day... He has nine days to do so...

Charlie eventually finds his brother but is left with one choice... He must decide if he can live with his decision to either kill Arthur or let Mikey be executed...

John Hillcoat's characters not only strike us with their emotions of grief and pain, or their passion of hate but they are presented in their real states that sway down hopelessness, denial, pity and firm belief...

Pearce combines a touch of kindness to Charlie's character, but it's a touch that keeps out of the way any love... It's, in essence, only enough to add a decisive influence on his personality that makes him unpredictable...

Danny Huston is magnificent as Arthur Burns... His deeply intelligence and totally brutal character is captured in a very good sense...

Richard Wilson, Mikey is given little to do beyond being frightened and horrorized...

Winstone is amazing in the role of the army officer who wants to civilize the place... We feel how his nerves are about to break... He imprisons his wife Martha for safety and protection caring at the same time about her delicate sensibilities...

Emily Watson is absolutely stunning as the fragile woman whose gentleness captures convincingly the character of Emily, the innocent wife who cares about her husband, her house and her perfect "garden" but her way of life is so far away from the reality of her surroundings...

John Hurt gives an interesting performance as the deranged bounty hunter...

"The Proposition" is too violent, too dirty, too bloody, and too barbaric to be forgotten so easily...

very different and violent the males in the movie were just downright BAD I enjoyed the movie but I shook my head and said I can't believe they did that !

Since so many others have rehashed the plot of The Proposition here, I will not. Instead I will make a few observations about why I think this is such a compelling movie. Be forewarned, its not at all for the squeamish. The blood, the gore, and the nightmarish graphic brutality would all combine to make this a film that would stand out for those reasons alone if not for the fine acting and cinematography that propel it to its stature as one of the finest frontier films of our time.
This is not the US frontier, but the Australian one. The Australian outback was a place far more unforgiving than much of our own West. When you remember that Australia was originally a place to which the United Kingdom shipped its excess and most incorrigible convicts and recognize that the outback was the place to which the most recalcitrant and anti-social of them were likely to flee, then you can see how the stage is set for some brutal confrontations between the authorities and settlers who want to civilize the land, and those who live by no law but their own. And instead of the Indians to deal with, Australia's settlers had the aborigines with whom to contend for lebensraum.
Here are some things to notice: the relentless shimmering heat, the constant swarms of flies, the sere landscape, the ramshackle nature of most structures (Captain Stanley's is the nicest), the omnipresent dust, the primitive nature of nearly everything and everyone including the abos, endemic racism, and the tendency to violence that seems to bubble just beneath the surface of nearly everyone, white man and abo alike. Notice how everyone rather grimly goes about their daily lives. In such an environment, there is little wonder that brutality reigned. Notice also how Nick Cave's inobtrusive score augments an overall feeling of oppression and menace in a landscape bursting with both.
As for the characters themselves, the acting is almost uniformly excellent. Even the stoic aborigine characters, while not saying much, do a fine job of lending an air of authenticity to the story. You might notice that The Proposition is entirely derivative and goes to the same well from which Peckinpah and Leone have imbibed many times before. In spite of that, John Hillcoat's film remains uniquely Australian and that's what gives it some of its appeal. If you can stomach the carnage, I highly recommend this one.