Product Details

• Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Madeleine Stowe, William Hurt, Robert Loggia, Bronia Wheeler
• Directors: Lesli Linka Glatter
• Writers: Rick Ramage
• Producers: Alessandro F. Uzielli, Diane Nabatoff, Lata Ryan, Scott Kroopf, Ted Field
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram USA Video
• VHS Release Date: February 8, 2000
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304993730
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,747 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than I expected, July 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Proposition [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I found this film to be cliched in many ways, but also a clever and underrated, scenario. All the characters are fine actors, and if the story seems passe, it's because the era was purportedly the 1940s when this kind of material was scandalous..

I learned long ago that one's expectations have to do with one's eventual impression and I expected nothing from this movie. I was therefore, pleasantly surprised. It is, after all, a delightful love story with untoward plot twists.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Proposition; a must see film for tragic romantics!, January 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Proposition [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Based in the 1930's, the film let's the viewer enter the world of Boston's elite Catholic. William Hurt wonderfully changes his face to the elder millionare who wants to gives his avante garde young wife everything and he'll take great risk to let her have the only thing he can't personally provide, a pregnancy. Madeline Stowe beautifully portays the author-wife with strength and sensitivity. Neil Patrick Howser (Doogie Howser?) plays the young surrogate that painfully and tragically falls in love with the wife. If all isn't complex enough, the best is saved for last as the priest who tells us this story (Kenneth Branaugh) epitomizes the passionate confusion between having and wanting and the consequences it brings. As Father Mikinnon states, "My God fishes, gets a headache, and stubs his toe... and he doesn't begrudge our being human". Touche'

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Is This Terrific Film Not On DVD?, October 6, 2011

By 

HAMLET - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Proposition [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Note: I saw this movie with XFinity OnDemand.

This is a vastly under-rated movie that got very little, if any, exposure when released in 1998. I don't know why it was savaged by the few critics who have seen it or why it got a very limited theatrical release, as it boasts an impressive cast: Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh (best known for his superb film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays) Madeleine Stowe, Academy Award winner William Hurt, Robert Loggia, Neil Patrick Harris and Blythe Danner. The story is engrossing from beginning to end and keeps you hooked until the end. Why is this film not on DVD? It's worth it. The performances are absolutely wonderful from such an acclaimed cast. My only criticism is that it should have been longer, with additional character development for Father McKinnon & Arthur Barrett and a better denouement between them.