5/8/06 "The Proposition"

On the heels of "Hard Candy," a film that left each member of the Monday Night Movie Club with a refreshing taste of pedophilia in their mouths, comes "The Proposition." And just in time. Having abandoned his instincts for the previous week's selection, our Director of Programming, Tyler Ott, made a gut decision in choosing this masterful western set in the Australian outback. Our hats off to our friend Mr. Ott; "The Proposition" did not disappoint. From the end of the opening credits, to the beginning of the end credits, "The Proposition" sucks the audience into gunslinging, and fighting, redemption and massacre. Soldiers fighting outlaws, trying to establish law in a lawless land. A land of natives taken away by white men, eternally jealous of their infinite tans, fight with collars and suits, acting as savages, believing themselves pious because of the "society" they claim to represent. An eye for an eye, two wrongs making a right. "The Proposition" showcases a human condition where right and wrong merely reflect which side one chooses. Wonderfully tormented as usual, Guy Pearce, gives himself to the role of Charlie Burns, with a mighty fine Irish accent I must say. He understands the abominable acts his brother Arthur committed, not in the way that he believes them to be right, for he seems to take the side of the "law" in claiming the rape and murder of a family as grotesque, yet he is conflicted by his role within the family. He is calm and calculated, unlike Arthur and certainly unlike the youngest Burns boy, Mikey. But to what justice does Charlie owe in turning his older brother Arthur into the British army. A settlement of criminals occupied the late 19th century, the setting of "The Proposition," places an interesting emphasis on right and wrong. Yes, Arthur Burns murdered a settler family, but was he not a product of an environment poisoned by a criminal foundation. Maybe its a stretch to let Arthur Burns slide on rape and murder, but the delicacy with which Charlie treats the proposition Colonel Stanley offers, and the guilt that Colonel Stanley seems to carry for imposing guilt on Mikey and Charlie Burns for the crimes of their brother, foil any clear understanding of right and wrong or good and bad. Not to mention the cinematography and score complimented this melancholy tale beautifully, "The Proposition," is a film to rave about, and in the words of our Director of Programming, "It was fucking sweet." To this someone might ask, "why?" upon which our D of P responds, "Because I said so."