The Proposition [Blu-ray] [2005] [US Import] [2008]

A new cinematic sub genre now exists. The Australian western. The Proposition though transplants the mythic landscape of The American versions into a broiling sun/sand blasted fly plagued hell hole. It's not a nice place, slavered in heart that regularly fluctuates between 40-50 degrees centigrade. You sort of wonder why anyone would want to be there in the first place.

But there people are, in 1880 the British have set up a settlement in Banyon, a newly established town in Queensland. Overseen by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) who along with his wife Martha (Emily Watson) have made a futile attempt to relocate their homeland into this godforsaken place with their net curtains carefully tended garden and roast Sunday lunches the settlement is under a pall of fear after a vicious gang of outlaws led by the psychopathic Arthur Burns (Danny Huston) have slaughtered a family of settlers. Stanley eager to tame this frontier land hunts down and captures Burns brothers Charlie (Guy Pearce) and his semi-retarded kid brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) and offers Charlie a gut wrenching proposal. In order to save Mickey and himself from the hangman he must hunt and kill his older brother.

Given 9 days to carry out this onerous task Charlie sets out on a journey redolent of Marlow's search for Kurtz in Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness", into an unforgiving unknown with god knows what horrors at the end of it.

The Proposition is as, everyone remotely interested in the film knows, is written by Nick Cave , and anyone familiar with his music, most notably it's preoccupation with death , murder and brutal lyricism , and also his novel "And The Ass Saw The Angel" will not be too surprised at the levels of violence. The blood letting is in all truth a little over the top straying too close to horror grand guignol at times but the exceptional performances by all the cast with notable cameos from John Hurt as aged bounty hunter Jellon Lamb and the expressive script more than compensate.

Directed by John Hillcoat who has collaborated with Cave on the film "Ghosts of The Civil Dead" who in turn wrote the rather fine sound track for Hillcoats "To Have And To Hold"( Cave provides the soundtrack here along with Bad Seeds stalwart Warren Ellis) the films themes are multi layered and complex utilising a number of dichotomous situations- family ties versus survival, civilisation versus the frontier, the subjugation of an indigenous population versus their willing co-operation , to produce a film that echoes richly with themes common with the traditional western yet gives them a slightly contemporary sadistic twist without compromising any of it's poetry or emotional resonance.

The western is alive and well and currently residing in Australia, but it's a more savage beast by far .

The Proposition will have you fixed from the opening scenes; a terminal gunfight exposes the brutality and sheer fear factor that occurs when under suppressive and effective gun fire, and the film makers (for once) put aside the myths of protection from flimsy materials. If this was not enough the action is then thoroughly supported by a thrilling, intriguing and well acted film, Guy Pearce and Ray Winstone are formidable in their roles. The storyline is simple but thoroughbred and the characters so well presented that you feel deep inside each psyche by the film end; this is a tremendous achievement. This film is extremely violent but it is the charactres that captivate not the acts within it. I watched this film four times, on the latter three I focused on one character at a time and from that gained a slightly different perspective - this is a great film, and should be in anyone's Top 20. This is frontier Victorian Australia and it was tough then, and brutal - this film lays all this bare for all to see. Brilliant, thank you. Some will despise this film for content, but it is powerful indeed to represent things how they really are - although this would leave me slightly troubled as to how they got their facts right! My own awareness comes from personal experience in the middle east.

The DVD

This is an excellent DVD package. On Disc 1 you get the superb main feature. On Disc 2 you'll find a raft of extras: loads of interviews and a Making of documentary that's almost as long (118 minutes) as the feature itself!

The Film

As for the film itself, the first point that must be made is that this is NOT a Western. Anyone who calls it a Western has no idea what they are talking about. A Western is a film about events taking place in the American West during the second half of the 19th Century, i.e. circa 1850-1900. There may be some variation on the date or location, e.g. drifting across the border into "Mehico", but what we're talking about is the good old Wild West.

The Proposition takes place in the Australian Outback in the late 19th Century. The parallels that exist with Westerns are fairly obvious (brutal landscapes, drifters on horses, indigenous population being mistreated by white settlers, gun-play, etc.) but that's where the similarities end. This is a morality tale concerning white settlers (British and Irish), indigenous aboriginals and local whites in Australia.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film for its beautiful photography, interesting characters, tense and foreboding story and brief history lesson on white settlement of the Australian Outback - not a subject one is overwhelmed with in films today.

The acting is outstanding from everyone in the film. Danny Huston (Arthur Burns) caught my eye in particular. Arthur, although a very violent and disturbing man, also comes across as intelligent, educated and not lacking a certain amount of integrity, at least where his `family' is concerned.

Guy Pearce puts in another fine, if limited, performance. For my money, Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Memento), as one of Australia's leading actors, is building up a body of work that has, in my opinion, already surpassed that of Mel Gibson (Gallipoli was probably Mel's best effort) and will soon rival that of the great Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, The Insider, L.A. Confidential).

Other noteworthy performances come from the ever-excellent Ray Winstone, Emily Watson (the only female role in the film) and a very nice part for John Hurt.

Penned by Nick Cave (who, unsurprisingly provides the soundtrack), The Proposition is more than a violent tale of revenge and justice in an uncivilised and lawless land. It gets right into the heart of love, loyalty, beauty, colonialism, racism and so on.