Customer Reviews

The Proposition [NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

MOVIE: The Proposition opens in the middle of an intense gunfight and we learn that it was actually an ambush set up to catch the ruthless Charlie and Mickey Burns. Two of three brothers who are part of the problem that Captain Stanley is trying to fix. The film is set during the 1800's in the Australian outback as Britain began to colonize the continent and basically throw the Australian Aboriganals into slavery. The story revolves around Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) who is trying to "civilize" the land by ridding it of the murderous outlaws who plague it. So, he captures Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and Michael Burns (Richard Wilson) and offers Charlie a proposition. He wants him to set out into the outback to find his other brother, Arthur Burns. He feels that Arthur is the abomination who has the reputation of being a rapist and a murderer. He wants Charlie to kill is brother or his younger brother will be hanged on Christmas Day. The film is incredibly gritty, and incredibly violent. In fact, it's as violent as the crud that we see in horror movies these days. However, the violence is not used for gore's sake but rather in a realistic and effective manner that adds to the tone of the film. The characters are deeply fleshed out and the screenplay is absolutely amazing. The film has a distinct moral ambiguity, and that makes us as an audience have to decipher which of these characters are good or bad. To label a main character in this film would prove difficult since each of them goes through their individual journey. I suppose if you were to single out a main character then it would be Guy Pearce, but Ray Winstone's character almost has the same weight as Pearce's. They both go through a series of events that leads them to their own discoveries of who they really are in this mess. Who is right and who is wrong in this movie? Captain Stanley is ridding the land of crime, but in doing so he is taking over the land of the natives and creating hatred and intolerance towards them. Charlie Burns may be a bad guy, but he goes on a personal journey of loyalty to his family and comes to realize just who his family is in comparison to himself. Does this revalation make him a good person? The film presents lots of questions for the audience to ponder, which is why it is such a great film. This is not just a mindless shoot 'em up western, this movie requires an expression of thought on the audience's part. The problem with the film in my opinion was the pacing, which in turn leads to the editing. The film was poorly constructed and it didn't spend time where we needed to spend time. The film is told in a linear fashion, but scenes felt short and before you know it we're already progressing to the next scene. The film overall is an amazing experience though. Nick Cave's script is just marvelous, and his subtle and menacing musical score is brilliant. The film also boasts breathtaking cinematography, cinematography that would make Leone himself very proud. Color tones, extreme contrast, and extreme wideshots are also all used to perfection and they all relate directly to the story. Look for shifts in color and certain motifs that are used, it is really a feast for the eyes.

ACTING: The film has an amazing cast. Guy Pearce (Memento), Ray Winstone (voice of Mr. Beaver in Narnia), Danny Huston (The Aviator), Emily Watson (Angela's Ashes), John Hurt (Alien, V For Vendetta), and David Wenham (Faramir from LOTR) all deliver amazing performances. They each craft their characters out so well that it makes the film incredibly interesting to watch. There isn't one weak link within the entire cast, they all have great performances. Truly a very great cast.

BOTTOM LINE: Gritty, dirty, brutal, and intelligent. The film is a great morality tale about righteousness in human nature, and it has an amazing cast to deliver Nick Cave's amazing screenplay. John Hillcoat presents a great vision for the film, but his sense of direction is a tad bit unfocused. The poor editing also detracts from the impact the movie has on the audience. The film's brilliant cinematography is worth admission price alone though. See it if you can find it since it's a limited release, but if you can't find it at a theater then definately check it out on DVD.

Brutal, dangerous, morally suspect, psychologically devious, John Hillcoat and Nick Cave's "The Proposition" begins with a gut-wrenching, viscerally effective scene of human carnage that signals a film with its own set of moral and social values.
We are in Australia, circa 1880: a land set up by Mother England as a place to send its lawbreakers and a situation about which the native people, the Aborigines are none to happy.
"The Proposition" is peopled with la crème de la crème of Brit/Aussie actors: Ray Winstone as Captain Stanley, the "Sheriff," Emily Watson as his wife Martha, Guy Pearce as the grizzled Charlie Burns and Danny Huston as Charlie's brother Arthur: a cryptic, God-like Colonel Kurtz who lords over a posse of family, friends and Aborigines.
The Burns brothers are wanted criminals and when Charlie and his brother Mike are arrested, Captain Stanley proffers a Proposition to Charlie: kill your brother Arthur and I will release your brother Mike and expiate your crimes against the state. And so begins a biblical-era crime spree that rivals anything ever committed to film.
There are scenes of great physical beauty here alternating with scenes of horror and carnage and it's the juxtaposition of the two that give this film its profound moral weight and ambiguity.
"The Proposition" is a dry, arid, violent film: an often corrupt and anarchic film that prefers to stand back, watch, not pass moral judgement nor differentiate the good guys from the bad.

Just finished watching The Proposition and I must say that it was everything that I had heard and more. It was a classic western with rich characterizations full of depth. The cinematography was beautiful and the story was fantastic. Ray Winstone and Emily Watson give powerful performances as the local Marshal/Sherrif and his pure and clean wife. Winstone is obsessed with bringing law and order to this frontier. This means bringing in a deadly gang of brothers lead by the evil oldest brother Arthur. He captures the middle and youngest brother and offers the middle brother Guy Pierce 'the proposition'. This is to save his young simple minded brother by killing his evil psychopath older brother.

I found this movie to be gritty, dirty and very violent. But this is a gritty,dirty and violent time. I would recommend this movie to any fan of westerns from any generation and also any fan of good solid drama. I bought it new and after seeing it must say that it was a fantastic choice and a GREAT piece of filmaking.

From the opening gunfight, The Proposition puts us in the middle of a drama where there are no heroes, just different degrees of villian. This is not Butch and Sundance with the lovable "bad guys", this is a very visceral, very violent, very beautiful movie with characters that use there own internal justifications to give them the right to commit this violence. This is a story set in a time and place where the value of an ideal, whether it be family or a better world, is more valuable than life. So how can a movie that seems to have no one to root for be a great movie let alone, watchable? The answer is hard to find, but if you give it a chance, you cannot turn your eyes from the screen and the people on it. Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce and Danny Huston are dead on in their roles. Winstone's Captain Stanley is a man that finds solace in his home and the different world that it represents to him. His flaw is that he has given himself the impossible task of trying to make the land and people in his new country fit his ideal, and he is willing to go to almost any length to get there. This leads to the proposition that he gives to Charlie Burns(Guy Pearce)to choose one brother over the other, Arthur, the psychotic older brother played by Danny Huston or Mikey, the dim-witted younger brother. Given this you as a viewer can know that there can be no happy ending. No one can win. But what you can know is that the story getting there is intelligent, and superbly crafted. I will be very surpised if I do not hear Ray Winstone's name at oscar time. Guy Pearce and Danny Huston could just as easily get oscar nods as well. This is more than just a great movie in the western genre, this is a great movie in any genre.

Coming up with any description for `The Proposition' will be precarious for deterring an audience, and that's a shame. Startlingly brutal, this film takes place in the Outback of Australia during the 1880's, so it really should be called an Eastern, rather than a Western. A revenge story with a vengeance, Captain Morris (Ray Winstone) vows, "I will civilize this land." He's the British equivalent of the partakers of Manifest Destiny and the typical new sheriff, trying to bring law and order in the dry, forsaken land. His iron hand makes the cure seem worse than the lawless contagion.

His obsession is to kill or obtain Arthur Burns. After a huge shoot out, he has Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) captured. He makes him a proposition. To spare his younger brother, he must find and kill his older brother, Arthur, within nine days, before the arrival of Christmas*. We're never shown what the Burns brothers allegedly did, but, unlike the horror we're presented with for nearly two hours of the movie, it is too horrible to show. (They're accused of raping a pregnant woman.) Capt. Morris does everything to get his man. Besides putting his brother in a desperate situation, he lets a rapist go and kills a native aborigine just to name a couple of moral compromises. Just when we think the Captain is the pit of established barbarism, we see him cry when he is denounced by an even tougher superior who chastises him for his desperate rampage of justice.

The film goes back and forth to all of the major fronts: The Burns' family in their exile, the aborigines, who keep a native tradition of reciprocity for slain tribal members; and the law and order head office. All are victims of terrible violence. Gruesome to the fore, the acts of bottles smashing on heads, toes blown to a stub, public floggings, and stranglings--just to name a few--nearly reinvent violence. Presented with graphic detail, anguished writhing, and blood-curdling screams, 'The Proposition' can hardly be accused of glorifying violence. All but the most perverse will find the whole movie a deterrent that makes one hold on to dear life. Indeed, the dialogue is so beautifully eloquent, we feel like we are often given the modern equivalent of Shakespeare. Amazingly, it never comes across as artificial or out of character, even when they speak poetically about the beauty of nature and the fragility of existence. And it's all done in the spare laconic Western tradition. The characters still retain their gritty determination as well as their rough Aussie and Irish immigrant dialects.** Some of the best, reflective scenes are heard with the echoed whispering of Charlie's innermost thoughts.

`The Proposition' for all its bloodshed is an excellent adventure with enough time to pause and reflect on the beauty and brevity of life and nature when it's at its dearest. Despite all the gore, the violence is hardly a Western arcade. It's not just your typical shoot out at the Queensland Corral. We can almost feel their pain and are presented a tragedy of unrelenting vengeance and violence. Besides excellent tension brought from the acting, the cinematography and the directing are awesome, making us gasp, like watching the cinematography of the Outback sunsets. Inspiring and remarkably well constructed, 'The Proposition' is a must-see for movie buffs.

*Remember that Christmas is just after the summer solstice arrives Down Under, so it is swelteringly hot.
**It could have been "To be or not to be, mate!" but it's not like that. Oddly, it works.

The Proposition, written by songwriter, Nick Cave, uses the conventions of the Western genre to wrestle with ideas of good and evil (somewhat standard in the recent strain of revisionist Westerns) but more interestingly, uses the form to also indict the colonialist mission in Australia. The story is set in motion when a lawman bent on capturing three outlaw brothers makes a deal with the middle of the three - bring back the oldest one or the youngest, who he has in custody, will hang. The lawman, played by Ray Winstone, echoes the film's tagline, when he proclaims emphatically "this land will be civilized." Yet the remainder of the film makes it abundantly clear that what the European settlers have brought to the country is a far cry from civilization.

The contrast between the worlds of the colonialists and the colonized is effectively evoked in a scene where Ray Winstone's character tells his Aboriginal servant to be on his way as he settles on his porch, rifle in hand, waiting for the inevitably brutal attack from the outlaws that will follow. He wishes the Aboriginal man, "Merry Christmas," at which point the latter removes his shoes and socks at the gate of the yard, returns the good wishes with a hint of irony in his voice and walks away barefoot. The camera lingers on the shoes briefly, letting us know that we are meant to see something beyond the surface in this moment. One interpretation is that the shoes are a connection to "civilization" but in this case, a civilization that doesn't fit into the world it has been introduced to. Later another Aboriginal man, who is serving as a tracker for a group of lawmen, calls attention to the barbarism of the Europeans when he comments to one of the lawmen, "strange mob, you whities," as they observe the remaining members of the troop standing around a tree, trying to urinate on each other. Like Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, which also uses the Western genre to critique the treatment of indigenous people, The Proposition gives a voice to the oppressed and does it in a way that's not merely politically correct.

The Proposition is an incredibly violent yet somehow subtle film. Themes are suggested but (excuse the pun) nothing is black and white. Over 100 minutes the moral struggles of its complex characters are explored and time feels like it has passed too quickly. The film's violence feels essential to the narrative for lending verisimilitude but also for adding urgency to the stakes involved for its characters. Not a scene is wasted. The images are lyrical, the visual style, brisk and the cinematography, breathtaking. The casting and performances are all perfect, with Danny Huston and John Hurt being particularly outstanding.

This is a brilliant film that's been unjustly ignored, but not surprisingly so, considering its underlying critical stance. Rent, buy or borrow it, but make sure you see it.

The DVD extras (interviews with the cast, director and screenwriter) are also excellent, providing valuable insight into the background and themes of the film.

I've seen The Proposition twice now and can honestly say. this is one of the best westerns ever! What a story, can you imagine being served a deal like that. Words really won't give this film the dues it deserves, this is visceral, emotional film making at it's absolute best. The story is uncompromisng, unapologetic, and wrought with realism.

Also of particular interest is the setting, so rarely have we seen the Australian outback in it's early turn of the century form. It was an uncivilized, back woods continent primarily used as a penal colony. John Hillcoat makes us feel every tumbleweed that passes by. You almost feel like you haven't bathed in a month while watching this film. We see how tough life was back then, and how it took it's toll on even decent men. The pain that Guy Pearce carries with him throughout, is so heart felt, that I get a lump in my throat thinking about his situation. Danny Huston is so f@^*in' marvelous, what an actor! This guy exudes confidence and commands respect reminiscent of early De Niro, Pacino, Duvall etc..He creates a monster that is so filled with human conflict, anger and even love, that he instantly humanizes Arthur and shows you the weakness that is at the core of his evil.

This film works on so many levels that it would probably take several more viewings in order to totally absorb how these lives function and the dichotomy of human relationships. A brilliant film, not for sensitive viewers or anyone who likes hollywood style fast-editing. This film moves on it's own pace and does not conform to any set genre, it's pure non-Hollywood entertainment.

Highly recommended!

The Proposition is an appallingly violent/juicy (delete as applicable) story about an English police chief (Ray Winstone)'s attempts to bring a trio of Irish roughnecks to justice after a brutal slaying. Despite ii being infinitely preferable to 90% of what passes for the Top 50 movies currently availbale in the local video store, there are a few minor niggles. The good sides: the story moves along at a good pace, the script - courtesy of Goth rockstar/novellist Nick Cave - is assuringly competent and 'gothy', the realism is refreshing and tangy (dental hygiene wasn't what it is today); the acting performances - particularly of head hoodlum Arthur Burns and his young sidekick, Samuel - are spot on; the photography is really good and the fly-blown Australian outback makes an excellent setting for the story and indeed, enhances the uncompromising tone of the movie. The music is good too, with focus on moody although one of the leitmotifs, a poem (presumably from the pen of Mr. Cave), which repeats itself like a kind of mantra (something about riders being as dry as a bone) is either brilliant poetry or indecipherable twaddle depending on the extent to which you prepared to suspend your disbelief.
Which brings us to the shortcomings. I thought that both Ray Winstone and Guy Pearce were slightly wooden and over-ponderous in their roles as police chief and bad-guy-with-a-conscience respectively. Whether this is due to any technical limitations as actors or whether the director's work in this area was found lacking is something for the critics to decide. No acting limitations are apparent in John Hurt, however, who makes a superb cameo appearance as the toothpaste-challenged, cod-intellectual bounty hunter. Credit to Emily Watson, too, who does her best to inject a third-dimension into her role as the long-suffering, sexually and emotionally frustrated wife of the police chief. The amount of violence and bad language is jaw-dropping, and makes Reservoir Dogs look like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in comparison. I personally don't mind it, but persons of a sensitive disposition may find it all a bit much.

That said, this is still a highly watchable film, which puts life the Victorian-era Australian outback into new - or too much - perspective.

There's nothing like a good western and "The Proposition" delivers the sharp-shooting goods non-stop. Director John Hillcoat has a true knack for thrusting the feel and grit of the Australian Outback in your face and keeping it there. From the first moment of a hardcore gunfight, we soon learn that Capt. Stanley has captured two of the four Burns brothers, noted for their murderous and especially heinous past. The Captain's proposition is for Brother Charlie to find and kill his older brother, Arthur. Otherwise, he will kill his younger brother, Mikey. Thus, Charlie ventures to the Outback. The large scale cinematography makes one feel like dirt is in your mouth and death is at your door. This is not for the timid, as Hillcoat bloodies the landscape just as much as any Clintwood western. It's graphic as hell. The final act shouldn't be a surprise, but Hillcoat pulls off a stunt of `switch and bait' that will make you laugh with shock even as you shake your head in disbelief. This is a classic western by way of a rough, vicious and clever Australia.

This motif of frontier life in Australia combines beautiful scenery, along with wonderful characters, in the sense of great faces and features, a film based on a proposition of a man finding his outlaw brother to save his other brother by a corrupt but humane police chief sent to 'tame' the outback. A film abotu revenge and savagry that takes place amid the backdrop of the destruction of the native aboriginals and the 'civilizing' fot the bush. A brilliant film with a musical score done by Nick Cave. A truly wonderful film, an Australian version of Unforgiven with a better score.

Seth J. Frantzman