the proposition Photo

The Proposition

Starring: Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, Emily Watson

Directed by: John Hillcoat

RS: 3.5of 4 Stars

No excuses. The Proposition, a balls-out Western set in the Australian outback during the 1880s, is one of the best movies to bust into the multiplex this year. But did you shell out to see it? Hell, no. The DVD, transferred with optimum picture and sound, is a chance to catch up. Do it. Directed by John Hillcoat from a potent script by rocker Nick Cave, who also contributes to the evocative score, the movie is so gritty you can choke on this unforgiving land where the British settle and murder Aborigines in the name of civilization. Captain Stanley (the superb Ray Winstone), an Englishman who vows to tame the country, builds a kind of pumpkin shell for his delicate wife, Martha (Emily Watson). But fragile decorations can't keep the violence out. When Stanley captures Charlie Burns (a fierce and haunting Guy Pearce) and his brother Mike (Richard Wilson) Ð part of the Irish gang accused of killing a family of homesteaders, including the pregnant mother Ð the noose awaits. That is, until Stanley offers Charlie a proposition: a pardon for him and Mike if Charlie will track down and kill the gang ringleader, Charlie's older brother Arthur. As this near-mythic figure, Danny Huston pours a lilting brogue over Arthur's murderous rage and delivers a career-best performance. In a movie of startling visuals, the most searing is the slaughter that begins at the Stanley Christmas dinner, where civilization gives way to primitive chaos. Hillcoat and Cave offer commentary on that scene and others, but it's the images that speak potently and poetically for themselves.