| | | This Land Will Be Civilized.
Features: DVD, Spanish, Subtitled
The Proposition is a visually stunning tale of loyalty, betrayal and retribution set on the frontier of 1880's Australia.In the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the Outback, Charlie Burns is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcer Captain Stanley; the only way to save his younger brother Mikey from the gallows is to track down and kill Arthur, his psychotic older brother. Meanwhile, Captain Stanley has other problems to contend with. Having given up their comfortable life, he is desperate to shield his innocent wife Martha from the brutalities of their new surroundings. He also faces mounting pressure from renegade natives and his superior Eden Fletcher to bring order to the region. An uneasy sense of foreboding grows as events close in and each character faces a punishing moral dilemma that leads to a murderous climax.
"...perfectly re-creates the charbroiled landscapes and cruel psychodrama of the old Sergio Leone westerns..." J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader
"A pitiless yet elegiac Australian Western as caked with beauty as it is with blood." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"...the Western is alive and well in the Australian outback." Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
"Two big thumbs up." Ebert & Roeper
"...a terrific, kinetic experience, and it's also a brilliant showcase for a crackerjack ensemble of great actors." Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
"...a beautiful, bloody meditation on justice, family, and the trap of retribution..." Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
"A near-masterpiece of mood and menace..." Ty Burr, Boston Globe
Editor's Note
Australian director John Hillcoat first teamed up with singer Nick Cave on 1988's disturbing GHOSTS...OF THE CIVIL DEAD, for which Cave co-authored the screenplay and took a memorably brief acting role. The two 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.
| Features | 5 Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes (Over 1 Hour Of Additonal Material!) | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Director & Writer Audio Commentary | | Interactive Menus | | Photo Gallery | | Previews | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: First Look Pictures |
| Release Date: 2/6/2007 |
| Running Time: 104 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2005 | | Catalog ID: 11219 | | UPC: 00687797112194 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Venice Film Festival (2006) |  | Nick Cave, Winner, Gucci Prize |
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| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"Cleverly entwining Australia's colonial history with the Western's mythic structure of betrayal and revenge....Huston in particular is chillingly convincing." 03/01/2006 p.72Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "The film is shot by Benoit Delhomme, who captures the cruel beauty of the Outback, while the score is a mixture of traditional folk and atmospheric instrumentals. The acting is exceptional..." 04/01/2006 p.130-131 New York Times
"There is something heavy and monumental about the way Mr. Huston takes up film space, which makes a nice counterpart to the otherworldly Mr. Pearce....Both actors are memorable..." 05/05/2006 p.E11 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[The film] feels startlingly fresh and original....THE PROPOSITION is a startling parable about man's savagery to man." 06/01/2006 p.100-101 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "Cave and Hillcoat add a new flavour to the oldest genre....A violent, yet lyrical frontier tale." 09/01/2006 p.214 Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[A] movie of startling visuals....[The images] speak potently and startlingly for themselves." 10/05/2006 p.77 Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Films Of The Year" -- "[T]he movie is a dazzle of mood, style, and mythologized history." 12/29/2006 104 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "It's hard to pick a standout performance from the extraordinary ensemble cast....[With] a premise as morally ambiguous as most of the characters that populate the film..." 11/01/2008 p.196 Reel.com 10 of 10
"I will civilize this land," declares Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone), the English officer in charge of a hellish region in the Australian Outback. But words and deeds are two separate things in The Proposition, a brutal, poetic, and eerie Western from director John Hillcoat and screenwriter/composer Nick Cave that transcends genre in its depiction of the forces roiling the land in the late 1800s...This is a fictional story, but Cave colors it with historical detail: the British prejudice against the Irish...For such a bloody movie, The Proposition is uncommonly beautiful. Cinematographer Benoit Delhomme shoots in Panavision, all the better to capture the outback's epic scale. And Hillcoat's fondness for that magic hour when daylight turns to dusk is evident in so many breathtaking scenes. But the pretty pictures are beside the point; this is an Australian Wild Bunch that goes even further than Sam Peckinpah dreamed. Not only are the outlaws about to be trampled by the onslaught of Stanley's precious "civilization," but even those who consider themselves part of that new world are not exempt. It is an enthralling story full of unforgettable characters given life by a group of actors at the top of their form. It is a harrowing, magnificent drama, once upon a time down under. - Pam Grady
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
"The Proposition" plays like a Western moved from Colorado to Hell. The characters are familiar: The desperado brothers, the zealous lawman, his civilized wife, the corrupt mayor, the old coots, the resentful natives. But the setting is the Outback of Australia as I have never seen it before. These spaces don't seem wide open because an oppressive sky glares down at the sullen earth; this world is sun-baked, hostile, unforgiving, and it breeds heartless men...That book features a character known as the Judge, a tall, bald, remorseless bounty hunter who essentially wants to kill anyone he can, until he dies. His dialogue is peculiar, the speech of an educated man. "The Proposition" has such a character in an outlaw named Arthur Burns, who is much given to poetic quotations. He is played by Danny Huston in a performance of remarkable focus and savagery...Why do you want to see this movie? Perhaps you don't...But the director John Hillcoat, working from a screenplay by Nick Cave, has made a movie you cannot turn away from; it is so pitiless and uncompromising, so filled with pathos and disregarded innocence, that it is a record of those things we pray to be delivered from. The actors invest their characters with human details all the scarier because they scarcely seem human themselves. - Roger Ebert
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