The Proposition
Written by Nick Cave
Directed by John Hillcoat
First Look
2006
Rating:


"The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" was Peckinpah sentimentalized, but "The Proposition" is the real deal. Director John Hillcoat, working from singer Nick Cave's script, captures the brutal poetry of Bloody Sam's "The Wild Bunch" and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia," all while setting the American Western in 19th-century Australia.

"The Proposition" begins where Westerns like "The Wild Bunch" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" end: with a shootout in a tin shed. Irish criminals Charlie (Guy Pearce) and Mike Burns (Richard Wilson) exchange fire with British authorities until, their tin shelter streaming with sunlight from all the bullet holes, they're forced to surrender. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) would like nothing more than to hang the Burns Brothers for the rape and murder of a local family, but he realizes that older brother Arthur (Danny Huston) is the real culprit behind the slaying. Wanting Arthur more than the other brothers, Stanley offers Charlie the titular proposition: Stanley will let Charlie and Mike go if Charlie finds and kills Arthur.

Charlie chooses to save Mike and sets out to find Arthur. Legends surround Arthur, even among the Aborigines, and some believe he has transformed into a beastly dog in his cave dwelling. Charlie's quest is one into the "Heart of Darkness," yet the Arthur he finds is not a pure monster. Arthur welcomes Charlie back into the fold with open arms, enjoys a sunset with him and cries when his semi-psychopathic sidekick Samuel Stoat (Tom Budge) sings a ballad in his beautiful tenor.

Like "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Unforgiven," these are morally conflicted characters who don't wear the typical black and white hats of the old oaters. The characters' moral confusion is mirrored by the difficulty they have existing in a disorderly environment that's having structure forced upon it. Stanley encapsulates this most strikingly by using lawlessness to impose order: he not only lets a killer go, he's also content to murder a village of problem-causing Aborigines. Meanwhile his wife (Emily Watson) insists on a Christmas dinner complete with pine tree and ornaments that appear even more fragile given the surroundings. The Burns Brothers ultimately disrupt this ritual for their own form of malevolent justice. It's as vicious and layered an act of violence as Peckinpah ever burned to film, making "The Proposition" impossible to refuse.

Posted Friday, May 26, 2006

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