PeaceBang

“The Proposition:” A PeaceBang Film Review

Whooee, this was an amazing film.

It’s essentially an old-school Western set in the Australian outback in 1880’s. Ray Winstone is British captain Morris Stanley who aims to “civilize this land” and Guy Pearce is Charlie Burns, a member of an outlaw gang of brothers who have just massacred a settler family.

In the hair-raising opening scene, Cpt. Stanley and his men catch and imprison Charlie and his simple-minded younger brother Mikey, and Stanley makes a proposition: if Charlie will murder his brother Arthur — the homicidal leader of the Burns gang — his little brother won’t hang on Christmas Day. He has nine days to make good on the deal.

Sounds like your typical morality tale with lots of shoot-em-up, right? Not quite. Factor in that the screenplay and the music were written by none other than Bad Seed Nick Cave, and you’ll understand why I couldn’t get to sleep until almost 3 a.m. last night.

I agree with the reviewer who said that this film deserves to be seen on as big a screen as you can find: I’m really sorry I missed it in the theatre. Yes, it was profoundly upsetting but it was also gloriously beautiful and emotionally affecting, a triumph I attribute to director John Hillcoat and to Nick Cave’s haunting music.

If you can’t stand dirty reality, this is not the film for you. Those flies you see crawling all over the extras in the scene where they flog Mikey in the town square are real, as is the rampant sweat and greasy hair. Temperatures were over 100 degrees during production (necessitating a lot of night filming — we learn in the DVD extras that the cameras often became literally too hot to handle) and that’s a real corset and velvet dress you see on the always-riveting Emily Watson as Cpt. Stanley’s beloved wife, Martha. I’d see the movie again just to marvel at the tragicomedy of her offering hot tea to a visitor and serving a proper English breakfast on a patio surrounded by a valiant desert approximation of a Dorset garden.

Danny Huston has the role of a lifetime as the “family man” Arthur Burns, a kind of sociopathic guru with a slice of fey running through his massive menacing presence. It’s a bit of a scenery-chewing performance but just right as a foil to Guy Pearce’s silent, sinewy turn as Charlie.

For those interested in the sad history of the treatment of aboriginal Australians by white colonizers, this film provides an unflinching look at one of the most brutal periods in this tragic history. Indigenous actors Tom E. Lewis (Two Bob), Leah Purcell (Queenie), David Gulpilil (Jacko) in leading roles, and many aboriginal actors in smaller roles, apparently helped develop this aspect of the storyline and great care was taken to represent their history fairly. I was very happy to learn that the film got big props from the aboriginal community. It’s also great to see indigenous people in fully-fleshed out roles beyond the “noble savage” stereotype. I especially loved Rodney Boschman as the Stanley’s housekeeper. There’s a marvelous moment where he takes off his boots and socks before he leaves for the day with just the right combination of disgust for the white man’s ways and infinite patience.

It’s so rare for me to see a film that stays with me, let alone one that I’m still thinking about the next day, I give “The Proposition” an “A.”