The Proposition

Richard Wilson and Guy Pearce as Mike and Charlie.

Herald rating: * * * *

Written by moody muso Nick Cave and brimming with great acting talent, this unromantic and supremely stylish Australian period drama, set in 1880, is a revenge Western that puts one in mind of early Sergio Leone.

Director John Hillcoat, whose Ghosts of the Civil Dead (also written by Cave) was a brutal high point of Australian film in the 80s, samples everyone from John Ford to Sam Peckinpah, but he conjures an elemental, almost mythical, tone in telling a story of betrayal and revenge.

If the film overdoes the visually baroque touches at times - a shooting near the end, which reminds us what a brain explosion really looks like, seems improbable in an age before dum-dum bullets - it is riveting throughout and one of the best Aussie flicks in years.

The proposition of the title is one put to Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone), an English ranger determined to bring order to a lawless land. After an opening gun battle (which will have you ducking for cover), Charlie and his slightly simple brother Mike (Richard Wilson) are taken prisoner.

They are two of three brothers wanted for the rape and murder of a pregnant woman and Stanley offers Charlie an escape route: find and kill his other brother, Arthur (Danny Huston), the gang's psychopathic leader, or the hapless Mike will hang.

It's not long before Charlie locates Arthur, but the film unfolds slowly. Hillcoat maintains the tension by moving between the sunburnt badlands - a place so malevolent that even the Aboriginal tracker (David Gulpilil) won't go there - and the town where Stanley's marriage to Martha (Emily Watson) is under pressure, and his authority is being challenged by the town's ruthless kingpin, Fletcher (David Wenham).

French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme makes the most of the wide-sky landscapes: every handsome shot conveys both the unholy beauty of the Outback and an almost palpable sense of menace, while the production design is deliciously grimy and flyblown. Cave's soundtrack is wonderful.

The performances, too, are terrific.

That the story has lapses in continuity or plausibility seems, in the end, a trifle. This is a grisly, but powerful, film that is both a great Western and a meditation on power, evil, and the weakness of humans in a hostile landscape.

Verdict: A grisly, often shockingly violent, anti-Western, the most assured Australian film in years.

Cast: Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, Ray Winstone, David Wenham, John Hurt, David Gulpilil, Tom Budge, Danny Huston, Leah Purcell, Richard Wilson
Director: John Hillcoat
Running time: 104 mins
Rating: R16, contains violence, offensive language and content that may disturb
Screening: Academy