.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

The John F. Kennedy once said, "There are two types of people in the world. Those that like Western films and those that don't".

Ok, it wasn't JFK. It was me. But if you were as simple minded as myself, you might be able to break the world population down to as basic a principle.

The Unforgiven, Pale Rider, Silverado. They all might find their way on my best films of any particular year, but for most people, the spurs, the horses and the tumbleweeds are all warning signs signaling to them like a lighthouse on a foggy night to stay away.

The proof of my theory is in the box office grosses of the western genre. Only Dances With Wolves and The Unforgiven have crossed the $100 million mark (sorry, Maverick, but I hardly consider you a true western film). Take all the western films released since 1980 and add up their grosses and it still doesn't hold a candle to Titanic's titanic take of one point something something billion worldwide.

This makes westerns a dying breed in a studio system that strives for money making machines that can spawn sequel upon sequel of mindless drabble.

Too bad.

Luckily every once and while, a western does find its way to the screen. Usually it is through an independent label giving a B-list cast a chance to ride horses and yell "yahoo!" as they ride into the sunset.

This week sees the release of Nick Cave's new Australian set western, The Proposition, and for those of you who might pick it off the DVD rental shelf, you are in for a well written, beautifully photographed, violent story that ranks up there with some of the best westerns ever made.

High praise indeed.

The Proposition stars Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) as Charlie Burns, a man living peacefully in the Australian Outback with his brother Mickey. Although you wouldn't know it. The movie begins with a rain of gunfire and within just minutes, Charlie and Mickey are sitting chained across the table from Captain Stanley (Ray Winestone) who has a proposition for the elder Charlie - find and kill your brother Arthur Burns (Danny Huston) in nine days or Mickey will hang from the gallows by his neck until he is dead.

What has caused such a violent proposition was the murder and rape of a local woman in town by the Arthur Burns gang. The town is outraged and wants vengeance and Captain Stanley believes that the proposition to Charlie is the best way of finding, killing and ending the reign of terror of the infamous Burns posse.

With a given horse, and pistol, Charlie sets out to kill one family member in an attempt to save another. But his travels are not without difficulty. While searching for his elder sibling, Charlie will come across violent Aborigines with a penchant for throwing spears and a bounty hunter (the always enjoyable even if he overacts every scene, John Hurt) intent on getting to Arthur long before Charlie arrives.

And while Charlie is struggling with his internal conflicted interests, Captain Stanley is fighting off his own demons. The townspeople hear of the proposal and are outraged at the tactic. They demand immediate reprisal for the Burns' action and Mickey is flogged with 100 lashes in the middle of town long before his scheduled date of torture. Even Captain Stanley's own wife (Emily Watson) demands that her friends suffering be avenged by any means possible.

Being a western, we can anticipate how all this was going to end, and The Proposition does not try and reinvent the wagon wheel. Once Charlie and Arthur come to terms with why Charlie has returned home, the Burns gang rides again into town where Mickey is freed from his captors and where Captain Stanley and wife are in the direct line of path of the retribution that the Burn's believe is just for the torture of their brother.

The Proposition is everything a western should be. It's violent, it has a story of bad guys against bad guys and it ends with the firing of a pistol. Yahooooo!

But what makes The Proposition different from some of the other sand soaked films released in the past few years is the mood which Nick Cave's writing and John Hillcoat's directing is so apt at bringing to life. The film is hot and damp with character and even though the film is very linear, you don't get too far ahead of the story and with the exceptions of the ending, you don't really see the unexpected coming until it is soaked in blood in front of you.

Most people have to be in a certain mood to enjoy a western film, and maybe that is a good thing. The Proposition is slow in parts that are riddled with detailed dialogue and character development. For the Saturday evening movie couple, this might not provide you with A Magnificent Seven type of response, but for those of you able to absorb the atmosphere and the feel of the Australian Outback, you will be in for a wild ride of story and gun fighting that will end in a trail of blood but will live on in ensuring the western is not put out to pasture.