When attempting to breathe new life into a dead genre, the biggest task filmmakers have is to present something new. In “The Proposition” director John Hillcoat and writer Nick Cave attempt to go beyond the traditional Western tale by emphasizing the social and psychological issues that were prevelant in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century.
Set in the Australian outback, the plot circles around a renegade gang of murderers, thieves and rapists known as the Burns gang. Upon being caught by local lawman Captain Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone) nine days before Christmas, Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and his younger brother Mike (Richard Wilson) find themselves headed for the hangman’s noose. Their fortunes change, however, when Stanley offers Charlie a proposition: Find and kill the leader of the Burns gang, Charlie and Mike’s older brother Arthur (Danny Huston), by Christmas and the captain will pardon the two brothers. Using Mike as collateral, Stanley provides Charlie with a horse, gun, ammunition and directions to where his brother is hiding. For Charlie, what ensues is a gauntlet filled with enemies, a bounty hunter, justly angered Aborigines and the torment of killing one’s kin. For Stanley, the arrangement jeopardizes his marriage and his career.
As intriguing as the plot is, it is the social and psychological elements of “The Proposition” that make it engrossing. Hillcoat and Cave go beyond simply showing the chaotic environment of Australia during the 1800s and actually absorb the viewer in it. By emphasizing such nineteenth-century ideals as nationalism, colonialism and social Darwinsim, the film’s creators are able to present a “why” to accompany the film’s “when and where.”
Similar to Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” (1992), John Ford’s “The Searchers” (1956) and Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” (1969), “The Proposition” lays bare the issues, injustices and brutality that were rampant during the mid-to-late-nineteenth century. Hillcoat and Cave’s film, however, addresses the skewed social order prevelant during the time more than past movies have done. During this time, societies operated on the principle that ethnic, racial and national superiority were socially and morally acceptable.
One does not need to look far in this film to witness such a mindset. From Stanley’s declaration that he “will civilize this land,” to the irrational attitudes toward the Irish, to the vulgar, horrific and unexcusable treatment of aboriginal peoples, the film brings the essence of the time to life. This was a period of human history where arrogance and a sense of entitlement were predominant.
These social theories lie at the heart of “The Proposition,” and for the most part, are presented well. Unfortunately, the film presents more issues than its 104 minute running time allows for, leaving the viewer with a sense of incompleteness. This film would have been better suited with an epic running time somewhere in the three-hour range. Despite this, the film’s story and breathtaking cinematography – cinematographer Benoit Delhomme presents the Australian wilderness in a way that would make Ford and his crews at Monument Valley blush – are so well put together, it almost trumps any of the film’s insatiable feelings.
Nevertheless, “The Proposition” offers moments of pure brilliance that have rarely been seen in the Western genre. It is hoped that such moments will prompt other filmmakers to consider returning to the deceased style. “The Proposition” does not reinvent the western, but it does shed light on the reality and brutality of an often forgotten age.
