The Proposition DVD

Advantages: Excellent acting; unique and bizarre; great direction, music, editing and visuals; flawless period piece
Disadvantages: Slightly weak narrative; not really anchored by a character; not for the light-hearted

The Western has long ridden off into the sunset, last seen in 1991 with Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven ... and it has not really returned, aside from the occasional one-off, such as Open Range. All the same, the Western has become a thing of the past, and they were symbolic of mid last century, classics, and would indeed be difficult to resurrect with the same gusto and charisma they used to have. But quietly edging its way in is the Proposition. It's ...
...features of its predecessors, namely the harsh, cutthroat world its protogonists live in, it's very different. The Proposition blends history, drama and Western not to reinvent the genre, but rather to bring to the screen an entirely unique picture, a film not for the light of heart, but one that's in a league of its own. Captain Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone) is the commander of a local police force in 1880s Australia, an uncivilised, brutal, sweat-drenched ... Read review

Advantages: Good Quality Acting
Disadvantages: None Really

The film starts straight off and we meet Charlie (Guy Pearce) and Mikey Burns (Richard Wilson) who are under fire. People who are fighting back are getting shot down. Charlie and Mike are soon captured where they meet Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). He informs them they will hang for the murder and rape they committed at the Hopkins house. But he is willing to grant them a pardon as long as Charlie finds their oldest brother Arthur (Danny Huston) ...
...brother Mikey will hang. The Proposition is set in the Australian outback; it shows life as hard and depressing for the people who have emigrated there. The pace of the film moves quite slowly, which gives you the feeling of the pressure of the heat and atmosphere of the desert. The dialogue is gritty and harsh and the cast are all dirty and rough looking, with flies buzzing round peoples faces in many scenes - even in the nicer places such as Captain ... Read review

Advantages: Loevly cinematography, great performances, strong writing and atmosphere
Disadvantages: Prog rock leanings of the soundtrack

...captured at a shootout in the Australian outback. But their captor Captain Stanley is more interested in catching their elder brother Arthur, a dangerous psychopath responsible for the massacre of a local family. So he offers Charlie a choice; turn in Arthur, or see his younger, simple-minded sibling Mike die on the gallows on Christmas day. Blood may be thicker than water, but can a man really choose between his brothers? Australian director John ...
...of the settlement of Australia. It is presented as a broiling, purgatorial landscape that breeds barbarity. The few oases of tranquillity like Mrs Stanley's formal rose garden are completely at odds with the natural world and the nature of the colony. Just look at the way the townsfolk regard her as some kind of oddity. The film send the message that such a savage land is bound to breed savage behaviour. Even the so-called civilised people are capable ... Read review