Blood Brothers

I've watched me a lot of "Westerns" since starting this here "blog" thingie. But none of them were nearly as Westerly as the one I saw tonight. The Proposition it was called, and it took place so far West, California wouldn't even be a distant pinprick to the East.

The Proposition was set in Australia, you see. But it could've just as easily been the Utah or New Mexico or West Texas of my time, to judge by the clothes and buildings and, most of all, the great clouds of ever-swirling dust. The differences: Instead of Indians, there were "Aborigines," and all the white folks spoke with English or Irish accents. That's about it.

Just as in my West, all that dust and sun seems to drive a certain kind of man loco -- drives the man right out of him, in fact, leaving nothing but animal behind. And at first, it looks like that's what's happened to the Burns brothers. They've been on a raping and killing spree, and in the first scenes, two of the brothers -- Charlie (Guy Pearce) and Mike (Richard Wilson) -- are captured by a marshal-type fellow, Capt. Stanley (Ray Winstone). The locals are anxious to see the boys get their necks stretched, but Stanley, he has something else in mind.

Come on, you can guess it. Just shout it out there at your computer. You know you know it.

It's...a proposition.

Stanley offers to let Charlie go if he'll track down and kill the leader of the Burns gang -- Charlie's elder brother Arthur. If Charlie doesn't follow through, then Mike, the baby of the family, swings alone.

Charlie reluctantly accepts the deal, then sets off into the desert, intent on putting a bullet in his own flesh and blood (something I've been tempted to do on more than one occasion -- my brother's just lucky there's never been a lawman handing me an excuse to do it). Out in the wasteland of the outback, Charlie has to face a devious bounty hunter, deadly rebel Aborigines and, most troubling of all, himself.

Now, as you might've guessed from the care I just took to relate it to you, The Proposition has itself a right dandy story to tell. And it tells it well -- up to a point.

It looks beautiful. The acting's top-rail. There are some truly poetic moments, especially after Arthur (charismatic S.O.B. Danny Huston) finally gets cut loose on the movie.

But all the way through, there's this sense that the tale's not just a tale. It's a parable or a morality play. There are deep truths to be found, if only you know how to look for them.

Well, I looked -- and I didn't see them. And once you start looking too hard for the hidden (and perhaps missing) meanings, you'll start noticing other things. Like the fact that a couple characters simply POOF! vanish from the story, never to return. Or that certain important questions are never answered -- such as who these Burns brothers are, where they come from and whether or not Charlie, who sorta-kinda becomes our sort-kinda hero, ever took active part in that aforementioned raping and killing.

In the end, The Proposition is a fine enough film, but it's not the film it pretends to be. It's rather like a rip-roaring sermon that brings tears to your eyes with its eloquent, impassioned oratory...and it's only when you get home that you realize the damned thing didn't have a point.

Otto "Big Red" Amlingmeyer
October 23, 1893

Comments

[Brett Battles]

Nice review, Big Red. Well thought out and presented. If you're ever looking for another career, you could do movie reviews for newspapers. I hear it pays about the same as cowboying, and you don't have to sleep on the dirt (just write it.)

Oh, well...perhaps if you were born in another time...you know...like now.

[Big Red]

Thanks, Brett! I wouldn't mind low pay if I was to take up movie reviewing professional-like. It'd still beat the sunburn, horseflies, saddle sores and danger of drovering.

Although I suppose film critics face dangers of their own. I hear this "Adam Sandler" character's quite a terror, for instance....

-Big Red