"The Proposition" (2005) Directed by John Hillcoat

With simple opening credits interspersed with Black and White pictures of an Australia of the 1880’s and concentrating on the plight of the native aborigines, we break from the quiet opening and are immediately transported into a violent and bloody shootout and the introduction to three of our main characters, “Charlie Burns”, his brother “Mike Burns” and Police Captain “Morris Stanley”. The Burns brothers are wanted for an unseen gruesome killing and rape and Captain Stanley has a proposition for Charlie — Kill his older brother Arthur and he and his younger brother Mike will be pardoned.

With at times minimal dialogue, but a tremendous and tight screenplay by Nick Cave, Nick also provides another delight in this film, the haunting and beautiful soundtrack with violinist Warren Ellis. This is also at times minimalist, but to great effect and accompanies the film perfectly. As does a whispering, barely audible narration. A special mention is also due to Director of Photography Benoit Delhomme, as with John Hillcoat’s direction, the Australian outback is perfectly shot. Lingering shots of the wide open, dirty and dusty outback set the tone, as does the frequent use of long distance shots of a sun setting on a barren, remote part of a barely inhabited world. There are numerous iconic shots of brilliantly framed setting sun’s, of Arthur Burns sitting atop his mountain retreat and especially of brothers Arthur and Charlie sitting on the same mountain peak, with a setting sun between them.

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original spoiler free review of "The Proposition" penned and published nearly a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 24th December 2022 and which can also be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and the link immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/the-proposition-2005-738061b53dab

This spoiler free review is also integral to my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Only available currently in e-book form, each exhaustive volume of spoiler free film reviews is £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package, you can read each and every volume for free:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

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