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13/8/2006
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The Proposition (2005)
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Ok the Proposition is effectively a Western film set in the Australian Outback in the 19th Century. It is very hard a gritty with great performances from its cast. It is also racist which is the reason behind there being few films about American Indians these days. The Indians are treated somewhat realisticly however and there is even a nice little disclaimer at the beginning. They are treated as a lower form of life as Indeed native tribesman where in that time.
The film centres around a lawman who sets one of three brother free to look for his brother in exchange for the younger brothers life. His job is to kill the older of the brothers so his younger may live. It is a good Proposition (funnily enough) and the film is well thought out. It is however quite slow in how it does it, sure Westerns are usually slow but this even more so with it building up the strained relationship between the lawman and his wife. I like this as it comes into play later in the film. The plot has twists and turns throughout but is in essence predictable.
Guy Pearce plays the middle brother who must make a choice, he does his role very well in the typical Western way where the hero says very little. In fact all the cast do their jobs very nicely and they really cannot be faulted. Even in hard to act situations nobody slips up and the tension is kept perfectly by the cast members.
At the beginning I said that it was gritty, by this I don't solely mean its set in a wasteland but also the amount of gore present. There is a lot of blood and guts with beheadings and such. It is at times hard to watch but it adds to the realism of the piece however you have to ask what the point is? Sure you might get some odd thrill seeing an Indian have his head shot off but good filmmaking doesn't need this. Did the great Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns need this? No they didn't and they were much more effective. What the gore does do however is portray the violent nature of his gang of miscreants, I'm not sure it needed to be quite this graphic though. I like this film and I enjoyed how the story seemed to come full circle at the end. Not one for the feint heated however and so if you want a Western you may be better with an older film... unless you want to see an Indian get his head blown off. Seriously though the story is top class but very gory, you have been warned!
Review by Jonathan Little
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