Plot: What’s it about?
When I was growing up, for many years my favorite movie to watch was The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I couldn’t get enough of it. The man with no name is Eastwood at his best and I loved all the strangeness inherent to a spaghetti western. The music was radically different. The surroundings didn’t quite resonate as the American west. The actors were dubbed, but did not sound American. As a young child, I think that this movie gave me the love I have today for foreign films. Now I am older and find myself watching a western that takes place in Australia, with Australian actors, and with Nick Cave serving as songwriter and screenwriter. Just like the best westerns growing up, The Proposition electrifies the senses with beautiful scenery and quenches the viewer’s bloodlust. The Proposition is a visceral experience to behold.
The movie begins with credits that show pictures of Aboriginal tribesmen wearing uniforms alongside the European settlers that were trying to civilize their land. The images are pretty striking, and should immediately let the viewer know that this isn’t going to be a standard western. After the credits, the movie blasts into action with a shootout scene within a small metal shack. This scene shows quickly and effectively what the violence in the film looks like. It is quick, somewhat bloody, and over as quickly as it begins. Surviving the shootout are two brothers, Charlie (Guy Pearce) and Mike Burns. They meet head to head with Captain Stanley (a fantastic Ray Winstone) who offers Charlie a proposition. The captain is willing to pardon both Mike and Charlie for a horrendous crime committed by their gang to a family in town if Charlie will kill their other brother, Arthur (a terrific Danny Huston.) Charlie agrees to the deal and sets out across the Australian outback to track down his brother.
Nick Cave and John Hillcoat make some very interesting choices in the film. Hillcoat and Cave were close friends and collaborators before making the film and it comes through in the final product. The film received some harsh criticism for being aberrantly violent. I personally think that the violence that is shown in the film is all necessary to telling the story. The filmmakers chose to show the violence for the horrors it really inflicts upon people. One thing that they do exceptionally well is show how violence leads to grief. In the film, there is nobody who leaves unscarred, and I would argue that includes the viewer. I also enjoyed their very clever ways that they used the western as an excuse to explore themes such as bureaucracy, racism, and manifest destiny. The performances are top notch across the board with Ray Winstone running away with the picture. The cinematography for the film is top notch. Much of the film looks reminiscent of the cinematography in Days of Heaven, because much of the film was shot in the magic hour before sunset.
If you are looking to watch a violent film that has plenty of beauty to behold, and are not afraid of a slower paced film, I would highly recommend checking out The Proposition.
Video: How’s it look?
The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 with an MPEG-4 AVC encoding. The disk itself is only a 25GB Blu-ray, but the video does not seem to suffer from any compression issues. The film looks absolutely fantastic. I owned the standard issue DVD when it was released, and this absolutely destroys it. I will gladly give away my DVD copy, because there is no chance I would watch this on anything but a Blu-ray or in a theatre. Any video purist will be extremely pleased with the quality of the transfer here.
Audio: How’s it sound?
Audio is presented in a DOLBY True HD 5.1 mix. The film itself is rather reserved for the most part, but the mix uses great use of LFE during the more violent outbursts and with the sounds of horses. I was very pleased with the audio presentation. Nick Cave’s score sounds fantastic. I found that overall the track was a very immersive experience. Very solid.
Supplements: What are the extras?
All of these are ported over from the previous DVD in standard definition.
- Audio Commentary with Director John Hillcoat and Screenwriter/Composer Nick Cave. This commentary track was a bit dry for my tastes. There was some interesting bits to it, especially involving the back history of Autralia and some of the research they did for the film. Overall, I would recommend skipping this commentary, but if you are a Nick Cave completist it may work for you. One part of the commentary that I did enjoy was listening to how much they were ragging on the detail being drained out of scenes on the DVD format. Luckily, all that detail is present in the Blu-ray!
- Inside the Proposition (SD; 1:08:13) and The Making of ‘The Proposition‘ (SD, 27:27)-These two features offer up a good amount of information about the shoot with some great interviews. The only problem with this is that between the two features there is a lot of repetition. I would recommend watching one or the other. I personally enjoyed The Making of ‘The Proposition’ more than the other.
- Deleted Scenes (SD; 11:55) These scenes were not necessary viewing. Nice acting, but nothing special to see here.
- Photo Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
- Additional Trailers – The Contract, King of California, The Amateurs, War,Inc., Meet Bill, Sukiyaki Western Django, Blood Brothers
The Bottom Line
The Proposition is harrowing entertainment. The acting is superb. The writing is solid. The directing is spot on (minus a few parts that drag a little.) This film received the Blu-ray treatment that it deserved, and I highly recommend putting it in your collection, especially at the low prices it sells for online and otherwise. If the special features had been a bit more compelling this could have been a 4.5 out of 5.
