To Have and to Hold), The Proposition is a harsh, unflinchingly
violent, fly-riddled look at one man’s desperate struggle to do right by one
sibling while possibly sacrificing the other. Set in the rural outback of
in the 1800s, it’s an engagingly brooding and dusty funeral dirge.
Confidential) stars as Charlie Burns, a petty criminal and drifter who
finds himself stuck in the quintessential definition of between a rock and a
hard place. After a shootout with authorities ends in capture, British lawman turned
town sheriff Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone, above) holds the fate of Charlie’s terrified
younger brother Mikey (Richard Wilson) over his head, and makes Charlie an infeasible
proposal: in exchange for Mikey’s release, Charlie must track down his older
brother Arthur (Danny Huston), a vicious, sociopathic outlaw. Charlie consents,
and sets out to locate and execute his other brother, who he believes has gone
too far.
holds no sway, Charlie encounters Jellon Lamb (John Hurt), an educated yet
thoroughly menacing bounty hunter. Charlie eventually finds his brother, but understandably
has conflicted thoughts about carrying out his undertaking.
The Proposition works within the
well-defined grooves of the Western genre, but also has a tinge of exoticness
due to its foreign setting. Cave does a fine job of contrasting
somewhat foolhardy efforts to impress upon the wild outback a European sense of
civility decidedly at odds with local culture with that same sense of unruly abandon
that characterizes the best of American Westerns. Cave’s sense of detail is
spot-on, and the movie is superbly cast, from Pearce’s sweaty, clench-jawed Charlie
— a sinner seeking redemption, but unsure of how to proceed — right on through
the smallest roles, which include Emily Watson as Stanley’s wife, Martha.
sound and English 2.0 stereo audio tracks, optional Spanish subtitles and a
hearty helping of bonus material. Hillcoat and Cave sit for an audio commentary
track, and 12 minutes of deleted scenes offer up a bit more in-depth look at
Charlie’s wanderings. Five behind-the-scenes production featurettes
comprehensively detail the movie’s story, script, history and explored themes,
and offer further illumination of its setting and background detail. A photo
gallery and a collection of preview trailers for other First Look home video releases
rounds out the disc. B (Movie) A- (Disc)
Hollywoodland — very much a film about the warped intersection of celebrity, ambition and regular life — and Adrien Brody had some interesting things to say about an actor’s connection with his audience, and the (false) sense of familiarity that breeds.