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Movie Review for Proposition, The
Movie Review for
Proposition, The
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Proposition, The | | |
| Also known as: | |
103 Reviews total.
Release date: 5/5/2006
Run length: 104 mins.
Categories:
Art/Foreign
,
Drama
,
Western
Summary:
Australian director John Hillcoat and singer Nick Cave reconvene for 2006's THE PROPOSITION, with Cave penning the screenplay and providing a soundtrack written with Dirty Three member Warren Ellis. Cave's 19th-century tale begins with the proposition of the title, as Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) captures fugitive brothers Charley (Guy Pearce) and Mikey Burns (Richard Wilson) at a scene of bloody rape and murder. Informing Charley that he must kill his older brother, Arthur (Danny Huston), in order to be set free, Stanley drags Mikey to a decrepit jailhouse while he waits for Charley to carry out the deed.
Hillcoat's western reeks of the dry desert heat, with flies buzzing, temperatures soaring, and emotions spiraling out of control. As Charley reluctantly sets about his task, Hillcoat and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme create a mesmerizing vision of the Australian outback. The slow, meandering pace of the film is peppered with brutal jolts of unremitting violence, and there are fine performances from the entire cast, who are supported in small but significant roles from Emily Watson (BREAKING THE WAVES) and John Hurt (THE ELEPHANT MAN). Cave's screenplay is tight and focused, leaving little room for sentiment--or anyone for the audience to root for--by giving all his principal characters plenty of grimly undesirable personality traits. But it works perfectly, and in Winstone and Pearce, Hillcoat got his casting exactly right. Both actors give dizzying performances as two men unable to escape their personal demons, finding a tragic outlet only in ceaseless acts of aggression. A memorable feature that lingers long after the last frame of celluloid has flickered onto the screen, THE PROPOSITION establishes Hillcoat as a director of major gravitas.
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
John Wirt
of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (7/0)
Initially capricious though the film is, this murder ballad transposed to film reveals a devastat...
By
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/0)
The movie gets at something primal in the pit of your stomach, something that speaks of loyalty a...
By
Lori Hoffman
of Atlantic City Weekly (7/0)
...blends the classic existential Western with the violence of a Sam Peckinpah sage saga
By
Marjorie Baumgarten
of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
Despite perpetual rumors of its demise as a genre, the Western is alive and well in the Australia...
By
Nev Pierce
of BBC (7/0)
It's a savagely entertaining look at the nature of man.
By
Alan Dale
of Blogcritics.org (7/0)
The Proposition depicts male brutality, both within and without the confines of the law, in a bea...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Ty Burr
of Boston Globe (7/0)
Slow yet coiled and mesmerizing...
By
Bryant Frazer
of Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus (7/0)
An ambitious work, thick with history and atmosphere and clearly haunted by the ghosts of an Aust...
By
Sean O'Connell
of Charlotte Weekly (7/0)
Intentionally strips the polish from Hollywood's overproduced outlaw epics.
By
Roger Ebert
of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
...a movie you cannot turn away from...
By
Roger Ebert
of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
Have you read Blood Meridian, the novel by Cormac McCarthy? This movie comes close to realizing t...
By
Michael Wilmington
of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
It's a terrific, kinetic experience, and it's also a brilliant showcase for a crackerjack ensembl...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Michael Wilmington
of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
...a smoldering adventure drama about the ways violence and prejudice can pervert justice and plu...
By
Peter Rainer
of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
The bonds of family are the centerpiece of this highly uneven, hyperviolent film.
By
Jules Brenner
of Cinema Signals (7/0)
An ensemble cast of pure talent in a visceral story of frontier justice and the pursuit of it.
By
Jeffrey M. Anderson
of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
An amazingly rich, vicious Western.
By
Harvey S. Karten
of Compuserve (7/0)
For people who like their Westerns with brains.
By
Randy Myers
of Contra Costa Times (7/0)
The Proposition isn't single-mindedly cruel just to be cynically chic. Cave accomplishes much mor...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Philip Wuntch
of Dallas Morning News (7/0)
It's consistently compelling and thought-provoking. This one will stay with you, and despite its ...
By
Robert Denerstein
of Denver Rocky Mountain News (7/0)
I'm guessing that Hillcoat wants us to see The Proposition as a howling, heartsick message from o...
By
Jeff Vice
of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
Those with strong stomachs, who can stand the assault on their sensibilities, will be rewarded wi...
By
Lisa Schwarzbaum
of E! Online (7/0)
A pitiless yet elegiac Australian Western as caked with beauty as it is with blood...
By
Scott Weinberg
of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
Visually gorgeous, stunningly violent, and entirely gripping throughout.
By
Adam Smith
of Empire Magazine (7/0)
Brutal, bloody and brilliant, this is superior filmmaking, and more evidence of the renaissance o...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Eric D. Snider
of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
It's surprising that a film this unflinchingly violent can be so thought-provoking, and that the ...
By
Chris Barsanti
of Film Journal International (7/0)
The finest, strangest and most uncompromising western to hit screens since Unforgiven.
By
Phil Hall
of Film Threat (7/0)
A good film, but it should've been a great film.
By
Chris Cabin
of filmcritic.com (7/0)
It's a breath of dusty air in what has been a surprisingly mundane movie year, so far.
By
Chris Cabin
of filmcritic.com (7/0)
a breath of dusty air in what has been a surprisingly mundane movie year,
By
Joe Utichi
of FilmFocus (7/0)
Beautifully told and wonderfully performed.
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Kent Turner
of Film-Forward.com (7/0)
For audiences accustomed to revisionist Westerns, only the relocation to Down Under will be a nov...
By
Brett Buckalew
of FilmStew.com (7/0)
If there remains any doubt that the MPAA’s Ratings Board grants screen violence more leeway than ...
By
MaryAnn Johanson
of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
[I]nvoking horror movies is... perfectly fitting here... All hints of the fairy tale of 'the fron...
By
Rob Vaux
of Flipside Movie Emporium (7/0)
A darkly brilliant chapter to a genre whose creative spirit hangs by the thinnest of threads.
By
Brian Juergens
of Freeze Dried Movies (7/0)
An uncompromising vision of the hell that was Australia's early frontier, The Proposition is a me...
By
Eric Lurio
of Greenwich Village Gazette (7/0)
An amazing act of scenery-chewing like none seen in quite some time.
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Peter Canavese
of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
Cave uses the taming of Australia as the backdrop for a nasty, dirty western about the implicatio...
By
Peter Bradshaw
of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
The spirits of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone are invoked in this horribly brutal outback western...
By
Amy Biancolli
of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
Murder ballad for the slice-and-dice age, a film of sensitive artistry laced with gore.
By
Jay Antani
of I.E. Weekly (7/0)
Delhomme's gorgeously gritty cinematography, and Cave's searing score give The Proposition an ope...
By
Jeff Otto
of IGN Movies (7/0)
Set against the sprawling and striking landscapes of the Australian Outback, the Proposition is a...
By
Steve Rhodes
of Internet Reviews (7/0)
It never becomes more than a mood piece. The characters are so overdrawn and exaggerated that I ...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Jim Slotek
of Jam! Movies (7/0)
Practically redolent with dirt and manure, this ambling, randomly violent depiction of the tenuou...
By
Bob Strauss
of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
Hillcoat and Cave clearly have astute ideas to impart, but their passion for gore and grime overw...
By
David Germain
of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
The Proposition is no bloodier than many a schlocky horror flick, but the violence feels real and...
By
Peter Debruge
of Miami Herald (7/0)
In-your-face combativeness is The Proposition's power, and for those of you who value your wester...
By
Duane Dudek
of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
It echoes, if not captures, the genre's harshest narrative and poetically visual trademarks -- al...
By
Ken Hanke
of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
In the end, it feels like Nihilism for Newcomers or maybe Sartre With Six-Shooters.
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
David Poland
of Movie City News (7/0)
This may be the best movie you see for a while, so when you have a chance to catch it, jump. Don'...
By
Clint Morris
of Moviehole (7/0)
Filled with matchlessness, covered in terrific performances and dished in a screenplay full of ab...
By
Ted Murphy
of Murphy's Movie Reviews (7/0)
Cave's screenplay is masterful in taking the trappings of the western genre and transposing them ...
By
Andrew Sarris
of New York Observer (7/0)
Mr. Huston, Mr. Pearce and Mr. Winstone give especially luminous performances as Arthur, Charlie ...
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (7/0)
This Australian western, written by the darkly moody musician and author Nick Cave, tells a story...
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (7/0)
...the film tells a story of murder in the outback that is as cruel as it is aesthetically flambo...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Jan Stuart
of Newsday (7/0)
Offering proportionate measures of raw violence and lyrical soliloquizing, the Peckinpah-influenc...
By
Leo Goldsmith
of Not Coming to a Theater Near You (7/0)
This Aussie horse opera doesn't so much present an exotic, bizarro version of the Wild West as th...
By
Frank Swietek
of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
Strangely compelling, even perversely poetic...its juxtaposition of thematic ugliness and visual ...
By
Noel Murray
of Onion AV Club (7/0)
Had Cave written The Proposition as a song, the vague grotesquerie and simple, primal storytellin...
By
Roger Moore
of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
By the end, it all pays off exactly the way a hundred earlier Westerns did.
By
Ian Grey
of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
As directed by music video vet John Hillcoat, Cave's vision of 1880s Australia as outlaw inferno ...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Dennis Schwartz
of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
It's well-acted and has a great premise, but doesn't add up to beans.
By
Sean Burns
of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
One vicious, hypnotic piece of work -- a stark slow burner with heavy biblical overtones that bui...
By
Cynthia Fuchs
of PopMatters (7/0)
While Charlie's aim might appear to be less objectionable than Lamb's, the film's circuitous, imp...
By
Ethan Alter
of Premiere Magazine (7/0)
With its bleak worldview and brutal violence, The Proposition is, without question, a visceral ex...
By
David N. Butterworth
of rec.arts.movies.reviews (7/0)
Beauty, brutality, some sly social commentary... plus another sweaty, shirtless performance from ...
By
David Nusair
of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
...an exercise in frustration...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Pam Grady
of Reel.com (7/0)
It is a harrowing, magnificent drama, once upon a time down under.
By
Laura Clifford
of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
...quiet and operatic, stark and stunningly beautiful
By
Robin Clifford
of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
Good and bad reside in all of us and it is shown well by the
scribe [Nick Cave]
By
Donald J. Levit
of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
Here is an unpretentious movie for those who are willing to take a film for its surfaces...and wa...
By
James Berardinelli
of ReelViews (7/0)
The strength of The Proposition is its relentless moral ambiguity.
By
James Berardinelli
of ReelViews (7/0)
...The Proposition examines the revenge thriller not as the culmination of righteous indignat...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Sean Means
of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
Director Jeff Hillcoat leaves room for strong performances by Winstone and Pearce, plus a pleasan...
By
David Elliott
of San Diego Union-Tribune (7/0)
Directed with Sergio Leone sensuality and meager subtlety.
By
Ruthe Stein
of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
A spellbinding Australian Western.
By
Ruthe Stein
of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
The squeamish should skip this film. But its recurring violence seems justified in terms of the s...
By
Paula Nechak
of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
...written and scored by musician Nick Cave with haunting clarity.
By
John Hartl
of Seattle Times (7/0)
It doesn't offer much that hasn't already been said about lawless frontier towns, bonds between o...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Rich Cline
of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
A strong story that's rather flattened by pretentious, over-serious filmmaking
By
Nick Schager
of Slant Magazine (7/0)
A revisionist Western coated in flies, mud, and sweat that exudes an appreciation for, and fearfu...
By
Ben Walters
of Time Out (7/0)
A beautifully shot tracker’s western that brings the Fordian poles of garden and desert to bear o...
By
Tony Medley
of tonymedley.com (7/0)
...lots and lots of shots of people staring off into space thinking;... a strange juxtaposition o...
By
Maitland McDonagh
of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
[Hillcoat] transforms the stark, surreal beauty of the outback landscape and grinding brutality o...
By
Brian Tallerico
of UGO (7/0)
Any movie that can cling to your memory with as much brutal power as this fantastic film is unque...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Urban Cinefile Critics
of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
This is the film Ned Kelly should have been. The Proposition is a superbly crafted, hard-hitting ...
By
Dan Fienberg
of Zap2it.com (7/0)
If Peter Weir, Sam Peckinpah and Jim Jarmusch could somehow collaborate on a film written by Jose...
By
John Beifuss
of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
As pitiless an Aussie Western as one might expect from the pen of self-consciously gloomy songwri...
By
Phil Villarreal
of Arizona Daily Star (3/4) No reference
Taking a cue from HBO's "Deadwood," the film kicks its spurs into one of moviedom's standby genre...
By
Shlomo Schwartzberg
of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
When it comes to condemning the ancient Western code of violence, this film should practice what ...
By
Staci Layne Wilson
of Buzzine Magazine (3/4) No reference
The Proposition is an epic drama on a grand scope.
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Michael Booth
of Denver Post (3/4) No reference
Over the top, Down Under.
By
Richard Roeper
of Ebert & Roeper (3/4) No reference
Really intense stuff.
By
Robert W. Butler
of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
Violent but compelling yarn.
By
Kyle Smith
of New York Post (3/4) No reference
The quality of the acting, Cave's hellfire score and the heavy atmospherics of the directing mere...
By
Lisa Rose
of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
There are intense confrontations and quiet bits of dialogue that delve into the souls of the char...
By
Shawn Levy
of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
It's richly atmospheric: stifling, sweaty, filthy.
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Steven Rea
of Philadelphia Inquirer (3/4) No reference
This Down Under horse opera is violent, grim and stunningly good.
By
Jack Garner
of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (3/4) No reference
It's as strong a Western as you're likely to see, at least since Clint Eastwood gave us Unforgive...
By
Laura Kelly
of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/4) No reference
Cave composes music that is nothing less than heart-rending. He does the same with his graphicall...
By
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
One of the most intriguing things about The Proposition is that it's not clear who the main chara...
By
Jeffrey Chen
of Window to the Movies (3/4) No reference
An Australian western without genre traditions in mind -- instead, their movie explores the compl...
By
Daniel M. Kimmel
of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (3/4) No reference
...a movie that the late director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) would have recognized as coming ...
Reviews of Proposition, The
By
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/1) Not Reachable
Takes-no-prisoners powerful. And not for the squeamish.
Movie Distributors Production Companies
Surefire Film Productions LLP
Jackie O Productions
Autonomous Films
Pictures in Paradise Movie Studios
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