The Proposition (2005, Australian/UK)

I have seen several reviewers use the term “murder ballad” to describe The Proposition. The title of a 1996 album by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, the term may be lazy shorthand, but is still rather apt. Written by Cave and directed by John Hillcoat, The Proposition is both horrifying and beautiful, an atmospheric, character-driven ensemble piece obsessed with themes of love, loyalty, and redemption.

Set in the mid-19th century Australian bush (the bushranger era), a lawless environment only nominally ruled by the British, and bearing no small resemblance to America’s Old West. At the outset, Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce, looking even more tubercular than usual) and his mentally challenged younger brother, Mikey (Richard Wilson) are captured by the local police force led by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). Stanley is desperate to capture the eldest Burns brother, Arthur (Danny Huston), and uses to his advantage the recent falling out between the brothers, promising Charlie that if he brings Arthur in from the bush, dead or alive, Mikey will be saved from the gallows.

Everything that follows turns on this proposal, and impacts both the townsfolk – including Stanley’s wife, played by Emily Watson, as well as his increasingly volatile staff of officers – and the outlaws in the outback. For what is essentially a Western, and an incredibly violent one at that, this is not an action movie – Cave and Hillcoat are more interested in the characters and their relationships to one another, and to the atmosphere of a singular time and place in Australian history.

The cast is perfectly assembled, from Winstone and Watson, who make an odd-looking but deeply resonant pair, to John Hurt, playing the most well-read bounty hunter in fictional history, a wildly forceful man who quotes Darwin and expounds on the various racial inadequacies of Aboriginals and the Irish alike. As the king-like Arthur, Huston is magnetic, playing a man whom the local tribal people claim has the power to turn into a giant dog at will. Though he must certainly be mad, every action he takes is deliberate and unquestionable, and in the face of his charismatic brother, Charlie must make a decision that may undo the entire region.

Above the performances of the actors, the real triumph of The Proposition is its pervasive sense of atmosphere. After a certain point in the film, the final outcome seems almost fully transparent, but this never lessens the tension, the slow wait for an explosion to emerge. It can be almost unbearable to watch, while at the same time impossible to turn away from.