The Proposition
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Movie Reviews of The Proposition
Movie Review: Proposition review by a friend of Australians
Summary: 5 Stars
I have traveled extensively in Australia and followed many of the Australian movies and the history of the country. In my opinion, while this is a tough subject, I think it exceptionally well done, and the background location certainly supports the subject material.
Movie Review: The Violence Of Association
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a movie about cycles of violence. The movie asks the question: What does it take to end cycles of violence? How does an eye for an eye ever end?
And the movie suggests some violence will not stop without relatively innocent men and women standing up against the people they love who are violent. This movie is not about good guys and bad guys. It is not about "us" and "them," where "them" is some foreign group. This movie is about the bad within our own community, our own family, and ourselves.
The Proposition or the question the movie asks is: Would you stop the violence if the person closest to you was the cause of the violence? And if you could not stop the violence, would you be willing to separate yourself from the person you love who is unjustifiably using violence and threats of violence?
This is a very graphically violent film. It does not shy away from focusing on the cruelties of violence. So, if you are a person who has trouble with violent images and getting them out of your thoughts and dreams, I caution you strongly.
This film is great. It is an important film. The film asks the viewer to weigh and compare threats and fears. It suggests that greater fears require greater measures, efforts, and consideration.
Each main character in this film is associated with another character who is using violence to achieve an objective. And each character decides whether or not to stay associated with the violent patterns.
No character "wins" in the end of this film. All of the characters become casualties to violence. And the question each viewer is left to answer for themselves is: Even though none of the characters are left unscarred by violence in the end, is the world better off because of the choices each character made? The answer to that question is not intended to be simple or clear. It is for each person to decide.
Movie Review: nasty
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1880s Australia, a lawman makes a deal with a bandit to bring his murderous brother to justice. Simple story about the brutality of frontier life has direction, cinematography and characters reminiscent of the best 60s spaghetti westerns such as "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1969). Viewers may also enjoy the similar-styled "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" (2005) and "No Country for Old Men" (2007).Movie Review: Nice Images, Shame About the Script
Summary: 2 Stars
The Proposition is a very nicely shot, well-cast (Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt, Danny Huston), but finally uninvolving little gothic Western written by Nick Cave. It is also yet another movie that was absurdly overpraised. Cave currently enjoys the dubious luxury of not being able to take a wrong step with critics - the surest recipe for artistic complacency and stagnation - and it's Cave's script that lets the film down. Admittedly, Cave has come up with a good, archetypal story (a criminal is sent to kill his brother in exchange for freedom), but he doesn't appear to be interested in writing real characters we can sympathize with, or even believe in. The dialogue is functional at best, at worst pretentious and heavy-handed. Cave's presence is felt throughout every scene and every line, and it feels like an intrusion. His penchant for murder, darkness, and quasi-Biblical subtexts works fine when it's the backdrop for Gothic ballads, but here it just seems indulgent, slightly sophomoric. Though it looks beautiful, The Proposition doesn't really amount to much, not least because the film - Cave's script - is so full of itself. It parades its "deeper" meanings and existential violence like some whiskey-soaked barfly trying to be deep but only succeeding in being annoying. The Proposition is somehow smug and self-enamored, and it has a kind of arrogance - it never bothers to develop its themes or characters or bring them to life. When all the blood and thunder is over, however much we may be impressed by the spectacle (critics bought Cave's malarky hook, line, and sinker), we really couldn't give a damn.
Movie Review: a very intense western from australia
Summary: 5 Stars
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.