I keep coming back to the flies. There are many stirring and memorable things about The Proposition, director John Hillcoat's brutal Australian Western, but the flies made the most potent impression. Maybe this is because they're everywhere; most if not all of the scenes in the film feature the omnipresent buzzing of hundreds of hungry flies. Whether indoors or outdoors, moving or standing still, it matters not - they're there. Their presence is inevitable in the sweltering outback wasteland in which The Proposition is set, and that sense of suffocating inevitability is key to the film's success.
The scenario of The Proposition is as compelling as it is simple. Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is part of an outlaw gang wanted in connection with the vicious murder of a family. At the picture's start, he loses a shootout with the authorities. He's arrested, along with his beloved younger brother Mike (Richard Wilson), by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). Stanley has bigger fish on his mind, though, and to that end he makes Charlie an offer. Charlie will be allowed to go free, but he has to return within nine days with his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston), the gang's ringleader, in tow. If he does this, he and Mike will be pardoned; if not, Mike will be hanged. Either way, one of Charlie's brothers will be dead by Christmas Day. Can he sacrifice one to save the other?
The idea of brother against brother is the stuff of legends. Hillcoat and writer Nick Cave are aware of this; thus, they go for a stripped-down approach in telling the story. There's very little in the way of psychology or explanation - The Proposition works in the arena of the mythic, not the realistic. This streamlines the film's storytelling, but it also does leave the film with one big weakness.
Being that the actors are being asked to portray types rather than characters, a strong actor is needed in the lead, one who can convey worlds of information while saying very little. Huston, Winstone and John Hurt are all actors like that and offer strong support. Guy Pearce, I'd have thought, would have been an actor like that as well. Unfortunately, he doesn't do much with what he's given, which leaves Charlie (the ostensible lead) feeling like the writer's construct that he is. He's not a character, he's a vessel with which to move the plot forward. This hollowness at the film's center, coupled with the storytelling technique (which favors texture over incidence), results in a certain aimlessness.
Article comments
1 - Snarkattack
Ah, the flies, they are an absolute pain in the summer, especially in the bush. Especially those fat March or marsh flies that bite.
I'm surprised you didn't mention (musician) Nick Cave's involvement in this film, I'm pretty sure he wrote the story. That is Nick Cave of 'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' fame. When the film was first made, everyone here (in Australia) seemed to make a fuss over it.
2 - Steve C.
I did give Cave a quick mention in paragraph 3, but the general omission was intention for two reasons:
1) Most every article I've read about this film notes Cave's contributions while giving short shrift to Hillcoat. That seems a bit unfair to me.
2) In truth, I'm a big ol' Nick Cave fanboy, and I really didn't want this article to turn into blind hagiography. Which I tend to do when talking about Cave. He's the tits.
3 - Hugh C
Strangley enough, I saw this film almost back-to-back wtih "The Wind that shakes the Barley" and I think that The Proposition does a much better job of portraying the evil bastard Captain Stanley in a much better, almost compassionate way, than Ken Loach's treatment of the loathsome Black and Tans. (I'm Irish, not that that should make and difference). Whether this is due to Ray Winstone's talent or the direction or the writing is open to debate, but it's almost a masterpiece. I will watch this movie again.
There are some of details about Captain Stanley I'm intrigued by: Is he impotent? Is he an opium eater? Why would he know Shakespeare? After all he is a lowly colonial copper and presumably not well educated. His is an intriguing character, moreso than Guy Pearce's Charlie Burns and Danny Huston's Arthur.
Anyone with insight, please comment...
thanks,
Hugh
4 - Steve C.
About the only part I can help you on is the Shakespeare thing -- Captain Stanley is familiar with Shakespeare undoubtedly because he's a Nick Cave character, and Nick likes himself some high-flown literary references. Not as illuminating as you might have hoped, I'll bet... sorry. :-)
5 - Gary Riedel
I invite you to read my review at the listed site. Thank you.