The Proposition
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| The Proposition | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for The Proposition |
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| Directed by | John Hillcoat |
| Produced by | Chris Brown Chiara Menage Jackie O'Sullivan Cat Villiers |
| Written by | Nick Cave |
| Starring | Guy Pearce Ray Winstone Emily Watson Danny Huston |
| Music by | Nick Cave Warren Ellis |
| Cinematography | Benoit Delhomme |
| Editing by | Jon Gregory |
| Distributed by | First Look Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 5, 2006 (USA) |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Proposition is a 2005 movie directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave. It stars Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, John Hurt and Danny Huston.
Two other films with the same title were released in 1997 and 1998.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
| Principal Cast and Characters | |
|---|---|
| Richard Wilson | as Mike Burns |
| Noah Taylor | as Brian O'Leary |
| Guy Pearce | as Charlie Burns |
| Mick Roughan | as Mad Jack Bradshaw |
| Shane Watt | as John Gordon |
| Danny Huston | as Arthur Burns |
| John Hurt | as Jellon Lamb |
| Emily Watson | as Martha Stanley |
| Ray Winstone | Captain Stanley |
[edit] Plot
Set in the Australian Outback in the 1880s, the movie follows the series of events after the horrific rape and murder of the Hopkins family, allegedly committed by the infamous Burns brothers gang. A violent gun battle between the police and Charlie Burns's (Guy Pearce) gang ensues. All of Burns' gang is killed (along with two Asian prostitutes) except for Charlie's younger, mentally slow brother, Mikey (Richard Wilson), who is wounded. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) offers Charlie a proposition, whereby he and Mikey, can go free of the crimes they have committed, if Charlie kills his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston). Arthur is a mercurial psychopath who has become something of a legend and is so vicious that the aborginal tribes refer to him as "The Dog" and refuse to go near his camp. Captain Stanley is intent on bringing Arthur to justice, and uses Mikey as leverage. Charlie has 9 days to find and kill Arthur, or else Mikey will be hanged from the gallows on Christmas Day.
We discover why Captain Stanley is intent on taming Australia: he has been forced to move there with his delicate wife, Martha Stanley (Emily Watson), and wants to make it an appropriate place for them to live. The Stanleys were also friends of the Hopkins, leading Martha to have nightmares about her dead friends and the unborn child one of them is revealed to have borne. Word spreads of Stanley's deal with Charlie, primarily from Stanley's corrupt subordinate, Sergeant Lawrence (Robert Morgan), causing disgust among the townspeople.
Shortly thereafter, the prisy Eden Fletcher (David Wenham), whom Captain Stanley works for, orders that Mikey be flogged 100 times to make an example of him for the raping and murdering of the Hopkins. Stanley is aghast at this, since 100 flogs would surely kill a person and since he believes that Mikey is essentially innocent. This would also break his deal with Charlie. Stanley sends Sergeant Lawrence away with a group to "investigate" the reported slaying of a family by a group of Aborigines. Captain Stanley attempts to defend Mikey by gunpoint from the bloodthristy townspeople, but is overruled once Martha arrives, insisting on revenge for her dead friends. Mikey is then flogged brutally, screeching in anguish. The formerly excited townspeople slowly become disgusted and Martha faints at the ghastly display. After 40 flogs, Mikey has collapsed and the whip is soaked with blood. Captain Stanley graps the whip and throws it at Fletcher (staining his impeccable suit with blood), who in turn fires Stanley.
Meanwhile, Charlie rides a great distance in search of Arthur, drinking and apparently reflecting on what he will do. Along the way he encounters a verbose, drunken old man named Jellon Lamb (John Hurt). In the course of conservation, Charlie realizes that Lamb is a bounty hunter (after the Burns brothers) and knocks him out. Later on, after sleeping on a rockbed, Charlie awakes and, before he can collect whats going on, is speared through the shoulder by a group of aborigines standing over him. Seconds later the head of the aborginal man who threw the spear is blown off and Charlie passes out.
Charlie wakes up in the camp of his brother Arthur, which is located in caves among desolate mountains. Arthur's gang consists of Samuel Stoat (Tom Budge), the young hothead who had shot the aborginal man who had speared Charlie, a woman named Queenie (Leah Purcell) who tends to Charlie's serious wounds and a muscular aborginal man called Two-Bob (Tommy Lewis). As he recovers from his wounds, Charlie has many opportunities to kill his imposing brother, but still doesn't kill Arthur. Not too far away from Arthur's camp, Sergeant Lawrence and his men has found and butchered a group of aborgnines and seemingly some white people also. Arthur and Two-Bob find Lawrence's group while they sleep, obstentially to get a horse for Charlie, but proceed to swiftly kill Captain Lawrence and all his men. Before Arthur kills Lawrence, Lawrence tells Arthur that Charlie has been sent to kill him. As this occurs, Jellon Lamb enters Arthur's camp and ties up Samuel and Charlie, both of whom are sleeping. Without his realizing it, Lamb is shot from behind by the returning Arthur. Arthur then proceeds to start to torture the still-living Lamb with a knife, but Charlie immediately mercy-kills Lamb.
Charlie decides that he wants to break-out Mikey and informs Arthur. Arthur, Samuel and Charlie ride into town dressed in the clothes taken off of the officers Arthur and Two-Bob had killed, pulling Two-Bob behind as he poses as an aborigine that they've captured. Once at the jail, the men ambush and kill all the policemen there. Charlie and Two-Bob ride off with the badly-injured Mikey, who has never recovered from the flogging, and dies shortly thereafter. As they bury Mikey, Two-Bob tells Charlie that all of this is Charlie's fault since he and Mikey left Arthur's gang.
Captain Stanley and Martha, who had become increasingly paranoid as they were ostracized from the townpeople after the flogging, let their guard down to have a peaceful, civilized Christmas dinner. Just then Arthur and Samuel burst in, with Arthur bent on "revenge" against Stanley. Arthur pulls Captain Stanley into the other room and brutalizes him, while Samuel taunts Martha. Arthur then shoots Captain Stanley in the shoulder, while Samuel prepares to rape Martha. Just then Charlie walks in on the ugly scene. He says simply, "No more" and quickly shoots Samuel, killing him, and Arthur, who stumbles outside. Charlie deliberately leaves a gun out near Martha and the wounded Captain Stanley, but neither of them go for it (probably realizing Charlie has saved their lives). Charlie then finds Arthur hunched over on a hill nearby and sits down next to him. They sit quietly, watching the sunset, as Arthur dies.
[edit] Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack titled The Proposition was released shortly after the film in October 2005.
[edit] DVD
The DVD was officially released in North America on September 19th, 2006.
[edit] Awards
- Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards 2005: Best Musical Score & Best Cinematography
- 2005 Inside Film Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Music & Best Production Design
- 2005 AFI Awards: Best Original Music Score, Best Production Design. Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography
