The Proposition
by John Hillcoat
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Emily Watson, Guy Pearce, John Hurt, Ray WinstoneDirector: John Hillcoat
Brand: First Look Pictures
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 104 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: First Look Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Proposition
Movie Review: An awesome vision that resonates like a tale from the Old Testament
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Proposition" is less a linear drama than a prose poem. As scripted by Nick Cave, it does not develop according to any three-act structure, but rather seems to lurch wildly in different directions throughout, as if the rhythm of the story is dictated by the volatile passions of its characters-- characters that are, with only a notable pair of exceptions, all passion themselves. They are not nuanced; they react like kicked dogs. They rarely speak, and when they do, they speak only to express themselves, not to participate in any dialogue. They are as implacable and beyond appeal as the pitiless sun that scorches the barren sands of the Austrailian outback; a place which, through John Hillcoat's lens, becomes desolation itself.
These are all points to the credit of a remarkable film, which succeeds because its director knows the value of silence in an age when most are all too fearful of it. Look at "The Good Shepard," for instance. The characters in that film never stop talking, but we don't care, as they have nothing to say. The central characters in "The Proposition" say almost nothing; they speak through their actions, and the result is astonishingly effective.
The story is almost Biblical in its brute simplicity and directness, and resonates like a tale from the Old Testament. It concerns four brothers, who share the name of Burns. The elder Burns, Arthur, is irredeemably brutal and nihilistic; his speech is that of an educated man, but his surroundings seem to have dulled whatever moral compass he might once have been directed by. The second Burns, Charles, is equally brutal but more focused in his rages; he is lethal when provoked, whereas Arthur is merely lethal. The third Burns, Samuel, acts much like Arthur, but his evil deeds are mitigated to some degree by the fact that he may be retarded. The youngest Burns, Danny, is certainly retarded; he does as those around him do because he lacks the capacity to do otherwise.
All four of these men are identified at the outset of the drama as killers; none of them are innocent of the crimes for which they are sought. When the film begins, Charles and Danny are in the hands of an English captain who has perceived a division among the brothers, and endeavors to work it to his own advantage. Specifically, he threatens to execute Danny unless Charles kills Arthur; in which case, the remaining brothers will be pardoned. This is the proposition of the title.
A lesser film would provide endless scenes in which Charles considers aloud the moral dilemma he has been placed in with a convenient supporting character to act as a foil, or at least provide a voice-over narration. "The Proposition" relies upon no such devices. Charles treks into the outback in search of his brother, alone, impassive, bereft of any discernable psychological preoccupations. He will find Arthur, and he will act decisively in some way. How, we cannot know until the proper stimulus is given, and he reacts to it. The mysterious, single-minded purposefulness from which he acts reminds one of John Wayne's lone wolf in in "The Searchers," although Charles is, if anything, even more sullen and withdrawn than Wayne's character.
The outback, we are led to believe, breeds such people as this. We meet a bounty hunter, who confesses that for him, God has evaporated; we sense that such divine authority has no place in a land where Arthur Burns' maniacal rages remain unchecked. When the focus of the film shifts to the English captain, who believes he can achieve peace by playing the Burns brothers against one another, and his wife, who is still under the delusion that only good things happen to good people, we cringe, because we know how vulnerable these people are. They are dealing with a force in the Burns gang that they cannot comprehend, that they cannot control, and which sweeps down and destroys whatever it sees fit at a moment's notice, like some hellish sandstorm.
This vision is startling and immensely powerful; the failure of man to civilize his natural surroundings and ultimately being destroyed by them has been the subject of countless works of valuable and compelling literature, Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" being perhaps most valuable of them all. Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" comes to mind as well, with its desert-spawned criminal protagonists wreaking havoc near the Mexican border before the American west was won. However, while McCarthy's vision was often diluted by what seemed like cruelty for its own sake, "The Proposition" does not stray into such territory. Its violence is graphic, but never seems excessive. Even the gory finale unfolds as we imagine it would have to, rather than as some geek preoccupied with bloodshed might wish it would. When people react to the violence in "The Proposition," they're not reacting to the quantity of it, but to the honesty and inescapability of it. "Blood Diamond" contains more instances of violence, and depicts it more graphically than does "The Proposition," but only the violence in the latter film leaves you shaken.
From beginning to end, "The Proposition" consistently strikes the right notes. Calling it a "revisionist" Western, I think, misses the point. "The Proposition" is a proud heir to the tradition of Ford, Leone and Peckinpah, and such brutal early Eastwood projects as "High Plains Drifter." It does not apologize, as such "revisionist" efforts as "Unforgiven" do, for being what it is: a story about brutal men in a brutal land. When the Burns brothers settle their respective scores at the film's climax, one is immensely grateful for the courageous efforts of not only Cave and Hillcoat, but the actors, the cinematographers, and the musical composers, who allow the finished product of the film to match Cave's original vision. This is a film that has the audacity to be about nothing more or less than what it is about, that does not compromise, that does not cheat. The story ends as it had to, the way it had to, for the reasons it had to.
It will be remembered.
Summary of The Proposition
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