The Proposition begins with a bang: a bloody shoot-out that dispatches Noah Taylor to an early grave almost as soon as you recognise him. This is an Australian western, backed by the UK's Film Council, written by rock singer Nick Cave, and directed by John Hillcoat (with whom Cave collaborated nearly two decades ago on the cult prison movie Ghosts… of the Civil Dead).
English army Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) puts the proposition to Irish bushranger Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce): if he wants to save his younger brother from execution, he must bring in his notorious older sibling, the crazed Arthur (Danny Huston). Either way, there will be betrayal and blood on his hands.
At first you think this is a hackneyed romantic outlaw vs sadistic sheriff set-up. The western in its original form may celebrate the pioneering endeavours of white men in the wilderness, but at least since the 1960s that faith in progress has been sullied and overlaid with a melancholy yearning for a natural paradise, pure and unpolluted. In The Proposition the outback is hardly an accommodating Eden: the film is full of stark sunstroke, hard rocks, fetid flies.
Cave and Hillcoat subtly modulate our sympathies. When Stanley says he wants to civilise this god-forsaken land, he really means it. There’s nobility and even love in his quest: he knows he has married above his station and wants to make this place worthy of his bride (Emily Watson). This relationship actually becomes the heart of the movie – unusual in a western – and the mirror image of the sibling ties between the Burns boys. But Stanley is no hero either, and the forces he represents are themselves violent, racist and exploitive. Winstone's subdued performance suggests he knows he’s defeated well before the end plays out, a bloody, brutal showdown on Christmas day.
There’s another grand performance from Danny Huston too. Arthur is a feral psychopath, a ‘dog man’ to the aboriginals. But there’s a touch of genius in his madness. We’re never quite sure how much he knows or what he’ll do next, but there’s no doubt he’s capable of anything.
http://www.lovefilm.com/static.php?tpl=the-proposition....................................................................................................................................................................
Unsurprisingly, I can't wait for this one.
