It's also harsh as a Wisconsin winter, y'unnerstann, being a tale about Guy Pierce has a choice - he can hunt and kill his elder brother, or he and his younger sibling can hang from the gallows come Christmas morning.
Weighty issues to be assessed, and all the while more flies than a fella might encounter this side o' Amityville.
But tell me now, who would expect anything less than gothic tragedy and horrific barbarity and yackin' bout where's God, tell me now, who but the zaniest o' comedy schizos would expect anything different from a flick written by Nick Cave, singer of such gloriously deranged ditties as "The Mercy Seat," about a fella's head melts on the electric chair, an "Where The Wild Roses Grow," about a fella beats Kylie Minogue to death on the banks of some cack-caked river?
Who would expect that there ain't gonna be bloodshed and weighty blather and excessive flogging from the fella once hollered thus;
"'And furthermore, I'll fuck Billy in his motherfucking ass,' said Stagger Lee
'I'm a bad motherfucker, don't you know,
And I'll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get to one fat boy's asshole'"
The most pitifully deranged sons a' bitches this side o' Lago, that's exactly who.
"So how's it similar to Brokeback Mountain, other than it's got a shot o' a fella bein kicked in the knackers?"
Here's how, is how.
Both these glorious slabs o' celluloid (although The Proposition is the better of the two, if'n you wanna get all pernickety like some sorta critic or some damn thing) deal with the bludgeoning of stereotypes, and with far greater success than the shockingly mediocre Crash (Being the flick about don't be racist, and not the flick about don't go fucking a wound in someone's leg, for the love o' blessed Mary, the hell kinda good is that to anyone?).
Brokeback Mountain slaps some cowboys cross the 2:35 and says "You realize, I'll assume, that I've had just about enough a' your insufferable warblin' about who or what those gay folks are 'sposed to be all about. You homophobic foul-hearted fucks are gettin' on my very last tit, an' it's about time somebody done filmed a story about homosexuality that has a smidgen o' reality about it. It's high time we flung this notion o' camp squealing prancing nonces 'front the nearest Greyhound and watched the skulls bust in fifty under the weight a' those wheels."
Hearing all this ruckus in the cliché-dens, The Proposition saddles up 'longisde and says "Aye, and also, I know we're all awful keen on Black And White, Us And Them, God And Pagan or whatever the fuck, but here's a tale about folks rape and murder and flog and sneer, and a fiver to whoever can point at The Baddie."
Article comments
1 - Mary K. Williams
Wow - what a journey you take us on Duke. Speaking of journeys - I love the line:
she's got a passport in the back-pocket burning the flesh off a' her hide
Ya got the gift Lad.
2 - NR Davis
Hard as hell to read, but worthwhile nonetheless. Down with stereotypes! Death to the dominant hate-and-laziness-fueled paradigm!
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Sir Mary, thank you. the good thing about this, as opposed to a review of the films mentioned up yonder, for example, is that i can kinda play around with the themes an stuff in them without feelin all sortsa self-indulgent. maybe this is even MORE self indulgent than usual, but at least it's clearly pointed out at the top. heh, but yes, thank you.
Ms. Davis (i'm right with the ms., yes?) thank you also. i made a conscious effort to try an make at least SOME of this more readable than usual. (it felt very odd putting "g" on the end of words like "putting" again). most of the more unreadable gumpf i tried to fling into quotation marks and the like. Nonetheless, i realise it may be a bit of a bother to wade through some of those paragraphs, but thank you for doin so, an yeah, stereotypes - best we set the fuckers alight here and now whilst the momentum's building.
4 - Aaron Fleming
Ah what a bright shinny new feature this is, and one hosted by no less than The Duke!
I agree on The Proposition, a mightily excellent film, unrelentingly vicious on its bludgeons of harshness.
Brokeback on the other hand I will probably never watch, for no other reason that it looks a bit dull to me.
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Thank you, Sir Fleming!
i'm still coughin chunks of The Proposition out my eyes!
6 - DJRadiohead
The Duke... this is excellent here. As I just told Sir Saleski offline, I will now be unable to speak a decent AmericanEnglish sentence for at least a couple hours on account of having read your piece here and that just makes a fella start flinging fucks and slurring and swearing and muttering and the like.
Enough about me... Be Here Now? You're joking, right? I am. Sort of. Thing is... there are some good moments on that disc and it is made better in my mind by what followed (that being Shoulder of Giants.)
Can't wait until the next Mind Wax drops.
7 - Flapjack
Aye, here...here, aye....here.
Very much enjoyed that. Just wondering did you order the Proposition over the net or did you see it in yonder cinema somewhere? Surely it's not out yet is it? Dying to lay my McGonnagles on it.
8 - DJRadiohead
And how did this not turn into a gigantic Conorfest?
9 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
DJ - thank you, sorry it took a time to get to this. I dig the hell out Be Here Now, although, to be honest, it always sounds better in my head than it does when i go ahead and press play. Fade In / Out, Girl In The Dirt Shirt, I Hope I Think I know, those are great great songs.
As to how we / i avoided detailing further my hetero-conorist disposition, i dunno, to be honest. i'll make up for it in future.
Flapjack, thank you, m'dear. The Proposition is indeed in UK cinema-holes at this minute. whether or not your local multiplex gets it is, alas, a bit of a "who knows?" Hope you get to see it, though, one way or the other.