the proposition

I've seen it. I thought it was OK. Not that good as all the critics say. 5 stars and that shait.

The violence didn't really disturb me, although the flogging scene did hurt me too. I don't know what else to say. I liked John Hurt as the bounty hunter. Guy Pearce was great. But the movie just didn't kick my ass.

 

I liked it. Great scenery, acting and it gives you a certain feeling which is hard to put your finger on. ''Disturbed'' is a bit too much, but somethin along those lines.

Ray Winstone is the ****. Make no mistake about it.

 

I watched it last night. It was pretty good (had a few problems) but an interesting movie. Sometimes the Austraian accents were a little hard to understand, and I don't think they made some of the plot clear enough (was the one brother mentally ******ed or just a wimp).

 

I recently reviewed it actually:

THE PROPOSITION


The proposition, starring Guy Pearce is return to an old genre, the western. However this is set in Australia and is a British film, so already we expect something different.

The narrative is about a one criminal(Guy Pearce), who has to hunt down his older brother in order to save his younger brother from hanging. Ray Winstone is the leader of the local police, and is the one to offer the deal.

The quality of performances are above and beyond your conventional western, each character being three dimensional and having much more depth. The use of the camera is used to exentuate this, as we are regularly shifted from one characters perspective to the others, generating empathy for a police captain and then a rapist within the same twenty minute stretch.

From the premise of the film and the first ten minutes, we expect a great deal of action in the film, however we are thankfully led into a much more emotional and powerful film instead, that deals with family, freindship, relationships and racism, there is still a reasonable level of action, but it is far from the centre of the films purpose.

The film is paced much like an old western, but with the added benefit of vastly superior cinematography, a great deal of contrast is used to sillhouette out some of the characters at certain times. The open desert scenes are powerfully atmospheric and make the audience truly feel like they are in the hot baking climate.

Although the film has many good point, and surpasses virtualy every other western, it still feels too drawn out. This is a metaphor for life in the desert, the long and heated moments and agression in the new territory, but I feel as if it is drawn out too much. At times, I am fixated on the screen unable to look away for the slightest moment, encaptivated by both the beauty of the images and the intensity of the narrative and acting. Yet at other times, we are given too much time to think, which distances us from the film.

All in all, the film is a definitive western, but at the same time, something completely different. Any fan of the genre will adore this film, and any film fan in general will find this film as a must buy! The Proposition is a remarkable piece of British cinema and really brings back some confidence into the industry, not one of the greatest films ever, but definately better than the majority of films released this year.

 

Good review. The main flaw that I mentioned (the accents) of course is not to be expected to be had by you (you're British)...but I saw it with my wife and parents...and we all had trouble at times understanding some of them.

The cinematography was as you said excellent. I love desert scenery myself...and this movie made good use of it.

David Wenham surprised me with his performance (having seen him in LOTR and Van Helsing) he again turned in another very different characterization from the last thing I saw him in.

 

A good tip for looking for good films, if it has John Hurt in, it's more than liekly very good! lol

 

I've been a Hurt fan for decades.

 

Hurt is the best actor alive I feel, and i'll gladly tell anyone!

 

Yeah, it was about time us Aussies made a decent movie for once. The Proposition at least gave us some credibility in Hollywood.

 

There's been a lot of good Aussie movies...this is just the latest one.

 

Surprising..yeah. But not positively. An absolute cringe-worthy ''performance'' that made his scenes nearly unbearable.