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Movie Review by:
Jim "Good Old JR" Rutkowski
Directed by:
John Hillcoat
Written by: Nick Cave
Starring: Guy Pearce (II), Emily Watson, John Hurt
Running time: 104 minutes,
Released: 05/05/06.
Rated R for strong grisly violence, and for language |
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 It
is said that revenge is a dish best served cold. The
Proposition illustrates that, extending the metaphor,
revenge is more often bitter than sweet. Gritty to the point
of being disturbing, The Proposition examines the revenge
thriller not as the culmination of righteous indignation,
but as a pyrrhic victory devoid of catharsis. On the
surface, The Proposition may echo Hollywood's storied
Westerns, but the look and the feel of the film are more
disquieting than anything that John Ford or Sergio Leone
ever brought to the screen. Closer cousins might be Clint
Eastwood's Unforgiven and the HBO TV show Deadwood.
The film transpires in Australia during the late 1800s, in a
setting that could easily be the American Old West. Captain
Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone) has been brought from England
to bring order to the lawless land. His immediate targets
are the three Burns brothers, who recently participated in
the rape and murder of a family of settlers. Stanley's
objective is to eliminate the oldest Burns, Arthur (Danny
Huston), whom he believes to be the ringleader and a
monster. So when he captures the other two, Charlie (Guy
Pearce), and Mike (Richard Wilson), he sees an opportunity.
He offers Charlie a chance for freedom for himself and Mike.
If Charlie will find and kill Arthur, Stanley will pardon
both men. If not, Mike will hang nine days hence, on
Christmas Day. Free, at least for the time being, Charlie
goes in search of his sociopath brother, but things don't
play out as either he or Stanley could have predicted.
The film does some interesting things with its characters.
Initially, Stanley looks like he's going to be the kind of
vile, hard-assed villain that Ray Winstone plays so well. As
it turns out, however, he is oddly sympathetic - a tough guy
who is more concerned with meting out justice than pacifying
the crowd with scapegoats. Charlie is not your typical
instrument of vengeance. He's a conflicted man who is torn
between doing what's right and remaining loyal to his
family. Arthur, despite being guilty of horrible crimes, is
developed as a product of his environment. (Darwin is
referenced explicitly.) Even some of the secondary
characters, particularly John Hurt's bounty hunter and Emily
Watson's transplanted Englishwoman (Stanley's wife), are
fascinating. Hurt is almost unrecognizable under layers of
dirt and hair. His performance here is Oscar worthy.
The film is awash in dirt. There's not a lot of spare water
in this territory and it shows. Everyone is dirty. When men
gather in the street to watch a flogging, we see hundreds of
flies crawling all over their clothing. The flogging is the
most brutal of its kind this side of The Passion of the
Christ, with the telling moment coming when the flogger
wrings the blood from his instrument. It's one of those
images that will have even hardened gore-lovers flinching.
There's nothing pretty about the look of The Proposition,
and its visual griminess reflects the souls of its
characters.
The director is John Hillcoat, an Aussie with a handful of
mostly-video efforts to his credit. The writer is musician
Nick Cave. Cave is also the film's co-composer, and his
discordant score serves the production well. It's
unconventional for a Western, and I found it to be more than
effective. In this case, Cave's work as a screenwriter
equals his work as a music-maker.
The strength of The Proposition is its relentless moral
ambiguity. Characters that would be heroic in more
conventional movies show their darker sides, and the
blackguards are given lighter, less ominous shades. It comes
down to survival and justice. In a harsh land where so many
are fighting to attain the former, is the latter an
unreachable dream? And when does revenge as a means of
justice cross over to become revenge as a means of survival?
The Proposition may not answer these questions, but it
addresses them and leaves it to the viewer to draw the
conclusions. The result is as unsettling as it is
compelling. This is one of the years best films so far.
As a side note, The Proposition is playing at a handful of
local suburban screens. I saw it at the Marcus theater in
Orland Park. Take advantage of the opportunity to see it.
The screening I attended was full to near capacity. By
attending these kinds of films when they are shown locally
sends a message to theater owners that we want to see
independent films and not just the Hollywood blockbusters.
Filmgoers on the north side are not the only ones that want
to see quality cinema. |
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THE
PROPOSITION ©
2006 First Look Pictures.
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2006 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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