A Different Kind of Western

The Proposition (5/5 stars)

The Proposition's premise doesn't make it seem very different from most westerns; it begins with a gunfight. Eventually two men who we learn are brothers are captured by a man who seems to be what is like the sheriff (Ray Winstone) of the area. The younger brother (Richard Wilson) is weak and frightened upon capture. He makes an offer and a threat to the older one (Guy Pearce): he will let him go free to find and kill the third remaining brother (Danny Huston), who is whom the sheriff appears to really want, or the younger brother will be hanged on Christmas in only seven days.

What is different here is that the campiness and glorifcations contained in most westerns are removed. The characters do not spend time staring at each other, do not have any honor, but are rather extremely vicious and cruel. There are some scenes of immense cruelty and violence; not merely showboat gun battles where you hear more than you see, but brutal acts where you see the depravity of the characters involved. Fates of the players are not determined by the strength of their morals; the innocent sometimes suffer, the guilty sometimes get off scot-free.

While slowly paced, the sheer intensity and suprising nature of some of the action, compounded by the minimal yet tense score, creates a constant state of tension that is extremely suffocating. The direction is excellent and the cinematography work here is absolutely brilliant, like something out of a Terrence Malick film were he to shoot a Western in the wastelands of Australia. The writing, surpringly enough as it is written by a rock musician, is good as well.

The characters are well defined and their complexities and motivations are not only clear but very interesting. The sheriff isn't simply a maniac who wants to go after the bad guys at all costs, but is troubled by holding an essentially innocent brother (by comparison) hostage and letting one go free in order to get the most misanthropic of the bunch. His wife (Emily Watson) mistrusts him for his tactics, and he has a superior who is perhaps just as sick and twisted as the murdering brothers. An interesting bounty hunter (a show stealer by John Hurt) at times both helps and hurts the quest. Finally, the middle brother who is given the Proposition isn't simple as you might think; while he wants to save his younger brother, he dislikes the sociopathic nature of the brother he is sent to kill and just might not stand for it.

This film is simply just good on several levels; it is simultaneously brutal and beautiful, dreary and intense. Definitely very interesting and perhaps the best movie of the year so far.