Film Reviews

The Proposition

• Rating:
• Director: John Hillcoat
• Starring: Danny Huston
• Details: Australia, UK, 104mins, 18s.

When the determined Captain Stanley (Winstone) corners two of the infamous Burns gang, Charlie (Pearce) and Mikey (Richard Wilson), in a shack, they have no choice but to surrender. Expecting to be hung, Charlie is surprised when Stanley offers him a 'proposition' - to bring in his mad dog older brother and leader of the gang Arthur (Huston) in exchange for Mikey's life. Charlie accepts but before he finds Arthur, Arthur finds him. Meanwhile, word gets around town that Stanley has let a brutal outlaw go (a fact that alienates him from the community and his wife Emily Watson) and the townsfolk decide to take matters into their own hands and flog young Mikey to death.
This Nick Cave penned script can be mentioned in the same vein as the other 'dirty westerns' like Unforgiven and Once Upon A Time In The West - a fly-ridden, bloody, gritty and unjust film where bad guys win and the good guys have blood on their hands. Set in the outback of Colonial Australia in the 1800s, far away from civilisation (and cliche), The Proposition's slow, patient pacing is interrupted by brief, erratic moments of extreme violence - violence that is never gratuitous and always justified. Although it is the downbeat Pearce in the central role, there is more screen time allotted to the brilliant Winstone whose warm heart is put aside when the necessary brutishness of his job comes to the fore, but he is almost usurped by Danny Huston who stamps his authority on his character. Playing the crazy Arthur, Huston never once 'loses it' on screen, relying on a subtle, low key delivery that threatens to go off at any moment.

Review by Gavin Burke