Review of The Proposition (2005) by Cal ( — 02 Nov 2008

That the best western in a generation should come from the Outback of Australia is perhaps fitting; while American attempts at it in the last several decades have had some successes, they have had very little to say. Even Eastwood, in the farewell and, perhaps, atonement that was Unforgiven, approached it differently than he ever had, but saw it through the same lens.

Beneath the biblical or Shakespearean drama of brother pitted against brother, of loyalty and betrayal, The Proposition sees raw brutality in a land ungoverned, and it sees raw brutality in its civilizing. A movie like this would not be made by U.S. studios; there is no moral to the story, and there is no redemption in its end. The violence is sudden, relentless, and brutal, the characters are all guilty, all connected by relentless moral ambiguity, and all entitled to retribution. The flies swarm on the living as they do on the dead.

I'm convinced that Guy Pearce is the best actor that, for reasons beyond my understanding, is not a household name. His performances are consistently deep, nuanced, and utterly captivating. The rest of the cast, especially Emily Watson and Ray Winstone, are very good.

It says something that in a movie as blood-soaked as this one is, the hardest moment to watch precedes it, watching a man dragged to the post, because it shows us the naked humanity of the damned and the silent savagery of the righteous.