The Proposition (2005)

Director:

John Hillcoat

Writer:

Nick Cave (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 October 2005 (Australia)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Western

Tagline:

This land will be civilized.

Plot:

A lawman apprehends a notorious outlaw and gives him 9 days to kill his older brother, or else they'll execute his younger brother.

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Outlaw | Australia | Gallows | Head Blown Off

Awards:

13 wins & 24 nominations

Cast

Richard Wilson	...	Mike Burns
Noah Taylor	...	Brian O'Leary
Jeremy Madrona	...	Asian Prostitute
Jae Mamuyac	...	Asian Prostitute
Guy Pearce	...	Charlie Burns
Mick Roughan	...	Mad Jack Bradshaw
Shane Watt	...	John Gordon
Ray Winstone	...	Captain Stanley
Robert Morgan	...	Sergeant Lawrence
David Gulpilil	...	Jacko
Bryan Probets	...	Officer Dunn
Oliver Ackland	...	Patrick Hopkins
Danny Huston	...	Arthur Burns
David Vallon	...	Tom Cox
Daniel Parker	...	Henry Clark

MPAA:

Rated R for strong grisly violence, and for language.

Runtime:

104 min | Canada:104 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Australia | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | UK:18 | USA:R | New Zealand:R16 | Ireland:16 | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-15 | Norway:15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:16 | Argentina:13 | Singapore:M18 | France:-16

Filming Locations:

Queensland, Australia

Company:

UK Film Council

Trivia:

The wardrobe was handmade to be as authentic as possible and even the buttons were all handmade for the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the captain takes a drink, he takes the bottle cap off and sets it beside the bottle on the right side of the desk and pours his drink. In the next instant the cap is in his left hand as he caps the bottle.

Quotes:

Jellon Lamb: [speaking about Arthur Burns] "We are white men, Sir, not beasts. Oh, he sits up there in those melancholy hills; some say he sleeps in caves like a beast, slumbers deep like the Kraken. The Blacks say that he is a spirit. The Troopers will never catch him. Common force is meaningless, Mr. Murphy, as he squats up there on his impregnable perch. So I wait, Mr. Murphy. I wait.
Charlie Burns: [Knocks Jellon out with a beer mug] Aye, you wait. You wait here... bounty hunter.

Soundtrack:

Danny Boy

One of the 5 best I've ever watched!

Everyone connected with this film should be extremely proud of the movie they created. I will mention specifically: Delhomme for his extraordinary cinematography; Eden for her beautifully stark Set Decoration; Hillcoat for impeccable direction and especially John Hurt in a small but tremendously evocative early role.

A staggeringly moving and uncompromising examination of contemporary emotions set against our early settlement history. The first thing I noticed about this film was the look of Guy Pearce's character's hair-dirty and stringy-something that Hollywood with it's pretensions and million-dollar babies would never allow. But these people looked bad, acted bad and I'm sure-smelt bad. In short, they were real people and they acted as real people in those monstrously uncompromising times would have acted.

My friend said after viewing the film, that he didn't believe early Australia had the same frontier gun culture that is so often displayed in American films of the same genre. I too do not believe that our early settlement revolved around the gun mania of American settlement but I was not bothered by the gun culture shown in The Proposition. I kept looking for bits that did not play right and I could not find any-the film played real to me from beginning to end. Although extremely violent in those parts where violence was called for, this violence did not seem out of place or overdone. I have tried to know something of our early settlement history and what I saw fitted into that mental picture well. The unimaginable violence we displayed to the Aboriginal people was masked and not really a part of what occurred in this film so if some of that violence was shown towards white settlers then it seemed to blend in this film.

An extraordinary film and I hope against hope that it will be eminently successful and therefore lead to the creation of other films based upon our early settlement history.