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The Proposition

 
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The Proposition

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  • Director: John Hillcoat
  • AMG Rating: starstarstarstar
  • Genre: Western
  • Movie Type: Psychological Western, Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film
  • Themes: Sheriffs and Outlaws, Sibling Relationships
  • Main Cast: Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, Danny Huston, John Hurt
  • Release Year: 2005
  • Country: UK/AU
  • Run Time: 104 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: R

Plot

An outlaw is goaded into taking on justice at its most brutal in this hard-edged Western set in rural Australia in the 1880s. Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is a criminal living in the outback. He and his two brothers, Arthur (Danny Huston) and Mikey (Richard Wilson), are on the run from the law for rape and murder. Arthur is a violent and dangerous sociopath with a much longer rap sheet than his siblings and a reputation for hiding out in villages so lawless the police are afraid to visit them, while Mikey is a much younger and more impressionable chap.

The authorities capture Charlie and Mikey after a bloody shootout, and the brothers are handed over to Capt. Stanley (Ray Winstone), a British lawman sent to Australia to help bring order to the colonies. Stanley proposes a deal to Charlie, explaining that it's Arthur he really wants, and that he's willing to spare the childlike and terrified Mikey if Charlie can find Arthur and murder him. Charlie, realizing that this is his only hope to save his simpleton younger brother (who is scheduled to be hanged on Christmas Day), agrees and sets out to find and execute his other brother, who he believes has gone too far into the world of crime. As Charlie scours the backwaters of Australia, he encounters Jellon Lamb (John Hurt), an educated yet thoroughly menacing bounty hunter. In time, Charlie finds his brother, but isn't certain if he can carry out his mission. Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to bring a European sense of civility to the rough and tumble land he now calls home, while his wife Martha (Emily Watson) becomes the focus of the lustful appetites of the men in town. The Proposition was written by rock star and novelist Nick Cave; he previously collaborated with director John Hillcoat on the film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Review

Much like another Western of singular vision, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, The Proposition starts with a bloody gun battle that's more typically seen in a third-act showdown. From this smoky carnage comes a proposition -- that if Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) can hunt down and kill his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston), a sadistic murderer, he'll save his younger brother from the gallows. The Proposition signals its dour intentions from the opening minutes, and never fails to live up to them. The film delves into the themes of screenwriter Nick Cave's harrowing body of song lyrics -- death, loneliness, and betrayal -- which play out brilliantly against this desolate Australian landscape. That he contributes a mournful yet insistent score isn't surprising, but Cave's ease with story structure, dialogue, and characterization is refreshing indeed for a rock musician. Director John Hillcoat makes terrific use of what Cave supplies. The film's violence is inescapable, but never let it be described as gratuitous. In fact, during the film's most brutal beating, Hillcoat uses minimalism as his guide, showing only the terrified reaction of a woman listening to the crashes and overturned furniture in the adjoining room. Craig Walmsley's sound design works in concert perfectly with Cave's score, and the performances drive home the sense of amoral hopelessness that permeated Australia at that time. Huston is a truly ferocious creature, a deceptively calm outlaw with a charming country lilt, who can explode into moments of nearly epileptic rage. Matching subtleties with Huston is Ray Winstone, as the lawman desperate to preserve a sense of normalcy in a lawless world in which power is a mirage. And returning to his Australian cinematic roots, Pearce is strong as a gaunt ghost of a man at the end of his tether, numb from resignation. The Proposition is one of the most exciting Australian exports in years, a dark and chilling poem that adds to the tradition of great deconstructionist Westerns. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

Cast

David Wenham - Eden Fletcher; Noah Taylor - Brian O'Leary; David Gulpilil - Jacko; Leah Purcell - Queenie; Richard Wilson - Mike Burns; Tom E. Lewis - Two Bob; Robert Morgan - Sgt. Lawrence; Oliver Ackland - Patrick Hopkins

Credit

Bill Booth - Art Director, Marita Mussett - Art Director, Gary Davy - Casting, Nikki Barrett - Casting, Margot Wilson - Costume Designer, Darren Mallett - First Assistant Director, John Hillcoat - Director, Jon Gregory - Editor, Michael Hamlyn - Executive Producer, Chris Auty - Executive Producer, Robert Jones - Executive Producer, Sara Giles - Executive Producer, Norman Humphrey - Executive Producer, James Atherton - Executive Producer, Michael Henry - Executive Producer, Nick Cave - Composer (Music Score), Warren Ellis - Composer (Music Score), Christopher Kennedy - Production Designer, Benoit Delhomme - Cinematographer, Chris Brown - Producer, Chiara Menage - Producer, Cat Villiers - Producer, Jackie O'Sullivan - Producer, Craig Walmsley - Sound/Sound Designer, Nick Cave - Screenwriter

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The Proposition

Promotional poster for The Proposition
Directed by John Hillcoat
Produced by Chris Brown
Chiara Menage
Jackie O'Sullivan
Cat Villiers
Written by Nick Cave
Starring Guy Pearce
Ray Winstone
Emily Watson
Danny Huston
David Wenham
John Hurt
Music by Nick Cave
Warren Ellis
Cinematography Benoît Delhomme
Editing by Jon Gregory
Distributed by First Look Pictures
Release date(s) 6 October 2005 (AUS)
Running time 104 minutes
Country Australia
Language English

The Proposition is a 2005 film directed by John Hillcoat and written by musician Nick Cave. It stars Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt and Danny Huston. The film's production completed in 2004, and was followed by a wide 2005 release in Australia and a 2006 theatrical run in the U.S. through First Look Pictures.

Contents

Plot

Set in the Australian outback in the 1880s, the movie follows the series of events following the horrific rape and murder of the Hopkins family, allegedly committed by the infamous Burns brothers gang.

The film opens in a brothel during a violent gunfight between the police and Charlie Burns' (Guy Pearce) gang, which ends with the deaths of all of the gang except for Charlie and his younger brother Mikey. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) proposes to Charlie: he and Mikey can go free of the crimes they have committed if Charlie kills his older brother, Arthur (Danny Huston). Arthur is a mercurial psychopath who has become something of a legend and is so vicious that the aboriginal tribes refer to him as "The Dog Man" and both the police and the aboriginals refuse to go near his camp. Captain Stanley muses that perhaps the bounty hunters will kill Arthur in time and then states his intention to civilize the harsh wilderness he has been forced to live in by bringing Arthur to justice and uses Mikey as leverage. Charlie has nine days to find and kill Arthur, or else Mikey will be hanged from the gallows on Christmas Day.

We discover why Captain Stanley is intent on taming Australia: he has been forced to move there with his delicate wife, Martha Stanley (Emily Watson), and wants to make it an appropriate place for them to live. The Stanleys were also friends of the Hopkins family, leading Martha to have nightmares about her dead friends and the unborn child one of them is revealed to have carried. Word spreads of Stanley's deal with Charlie, primarily from Stanley's corrupt subordinate, Sergeant Lawrence (Robert Morgan), causing disgust among the townspeople.

Shortly thereafter, Eden Fletcher (David Wenham), for whom Captain Stanley works, orders that Mikey be given one hundred lashes as punishment for the rape and murder of the Hopkins family. Stanley is aghast at this, because he believes that Mikey is innocent and the flogging will surely kill him. It would also break his deal with Charlie. Stanley sends Sergeant Lawrence away with a tracker, Jacko (David Gulpillil) and other men to "investigate" the reported slaying of Dan O'Riley by a group of Aborigines. Captain Stanley attempts to defend Mikey by gunpoint from the bloodthirsty townspeople, but is overruled once Martha arrives, insisting on revenge for her dead friends. Mikey is then brutally flogged, and horrifically wounded. The formerly excited townspeople slowly become disgusted and Martha faints at the ghastly display. After 40 lashes, Mikey has collapsed and the whip is soaked with blood. Captain Stanley grabs the whip and throws it at Fletcher (staining his face and suit with blood), who in turn fires Stanley.

Meanwhile, Charlie rides a great distance in search of Arthur, drinking and apparently reflecting on what he will do. Along the way, he encounters an inebriated old man named Jellon Lamb (John Hurt). In the course of conversation, Charlie realizes that Lamb is a bounty hunter in pursuit of the Burns brothers and knocks him out. Later on, after sleeping on a rock bed, Charlie awakes and, before he can gather what's going on, is speared in the chest by a group of aboriginal men standing over him. Seconds later a gunshot is heard and the head of the man who threw the spear explodes. Charlie then passes out.

Charlie wakes up in the camp of his brother Arthur, which is located in caves among desolate mountains. Arthur's gang consists of Samuel Stoat (Tom Budge), who shot the aboriginal man who had speared Charlie; a woman named Queenie (Leah Purcell) who tends to Charlie's wound; and a muscular aboriginal man called Two-Bob (Tom E. Lewis). As he recovers from his wounds, Charlie has several opportunities to kill his brother, but doesn't. Not too far away from Arthur's camp, Sergeant Lawrence and his men have found and butchered a group of aborigines. Arthur and Two-Bob find Lawrence's group while they sleep, ostensibly to get a horse for Charlie, and proceed to kill Jacko and Sergeant Lawrence. Before Arthur stomps Lawrence to death with his boot, Lawrence tells Arthur that Charlie has been sent to kill him. While this occurs, Jellon Lamb enters Arthur's camp and ties up Samuel and Charlie, both of whom are sleeping. Without his realizing it, Lamb is shot from behind by the returning Arthur. Arthur then proceeds to begin torturing the still-living Lamb with a knife, but Charlie instead performs a mercy-killing.

Charlie decides that he wants to break out Mikey and informs Arthur. Arthur, Samuel and Charlie ride into town dressed in the clothes taken from the officers Arthur and Two-Bob had killed, pulling behind them Two-Bob, posing as an aborigine that they've captured. Once at the jail, the men free Mikey, and Charlie and Two-Bob ride off with him. Arthur and Samuel remain to slaughter the two officers inside the jail. The badly injured Mikey, who has never recovered from the flogging, dies in Charlie's arms. As they bury Mikey, Two-Bob tells Charlie that all of this is Charlie's fault: "You should never have left us."

Captain Stanley and Martha, who had become increasingly paranoid as they were ostracized by the townspeople after the flogging, let their guard down to have a peaceful, civilized Christmas dinner. Just then, Arthur and Samuel shoot open the door and invade their home. Arthur pulls Captain Stanley into the other room and brutally beats him, while Samuel taunts his wife. Arthur then calls Samuel to the room. Samuel drags Martha inside, and Arthur shoots Captain Stanley through the shoulder. As Samuel attempts to rape Martha, Charlie walks in and informs Arthur of Mikey's death; Arthur ignores the news and encourages Charlie to listen to Samuel sing quoting how he does so like a bird. Charlie walks up to the unsuspecting Samuel and shoots him point blank in the head, then shoots Arthur twice, after saying simply, "No more." After this Arthur walks out of the house. Charlie looks at a gun on the table and then tells Captain Stanley "I'm going to be with my brother." Charlie leaves the house and follows a trail of blood to find Arthur hunched over on a hill nearby and sits down next to him. Arthur states that Charlie has finally stopped him and asks what he will do now, and then slowly dies as his brother watches the blood red sunset of the outback.

Cast

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack, titled The Proposition, was released shortly after the film in October 2005. The music was composed and performed by Nick Cave and violinist Warren Ellis.

Critical response

The Proposition has received largely positive reviews from professional film critics, earning an 86% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[1] Roger Ebert, AM New York, Austin Chronicle and Entertainment Insider gave the film 4/4 stars.[2][3]

The Proposition and indigenous culture

Two acclaimed Indigenous Australian actors (David Gulpilil and Tom E. Lewis) have supporting roles in the film.

As noted in behind-the-scenes features included on The Proposition DVD, the film is regarded as uncommonly accurate in depicting indigenous Australian culture of the late 1800s, and when filming in the outback, the cast and crew took great pains to follow the advice of indigenous consultants. In an interview included on the DVD, Lewis even compares the depiction of indigenous cultures in The Proposition to the landmark film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978). In addition, there is a warning before the film which states that it contains photographs of deceased Indigenous Australians, which is a taboo in their culture.[4]

DVD

The DVD was officially released in the United States by First Look Pictures on September 19, 2006.

Tartan Video's Region 2 DVD release in the UK was a two-disc release and contains these special features audio commentary by Nick Cave and John Hillcoat on disc 1, and on disc 2, exclusive interviews with Guy Pearce and Danny Huston (25 mins), a "meet the cast and crew" feature (35 mins), a "making of" feature (118 mins), and a theatrical trailer.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/proposition/ Rotten Tomatoes: The Proposition
  2. ^ :: rogererbert.com :: Reviews :: The Proposition (xhtml)
  3. ^ :: imdb.com :: Photos :: The Proposition
  4. ^ The Proposition (2005) - Crazy credits

External links

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