Setsuled's Journal

I was finally able to see The Proposition yesterday. I'm glad I did. As Caitlin noted, it's a good movie to see on a big screen, as it's filled with beautiful wide shots of Australian wilderness. Both beautiful and desolate.

I was reminded a bit of Ran, as the movie portrayed humanity as doomed to an existence steeped in violent and unjust death. I was also reminded a bit of the War on Terror, and I almost wonder if it was in Nick Cave's mind as he wrote the screenplay. Because the movie's about a brutally violent family, who commit terrible crimes for little or no reason, and set against them is a "civilisation" composed of corruption, innocent viciousness, and idealism, in some cases misguided, in others dashed.

Guy Pierce in the movie reminded me of a quieter, more sombre version of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name from the Sergio Leone trilogy. And by the end, the "outsider" character seems an acute part of a statement about the relevance of justice without society or family. The movie does an excellent job of illuminating this. Anyway, I highly recommend it.

I didn't think I was going to be able to see it in a theatre. A couple weeks ago, it'd been playing only at the Ken, which only has one screen. I got caught up in Boschen and Nesuko and hanging out with Trisa, and by the time I was done, the movie'd gone. But Thursday I was surprised to find it opening Friday at two mainstream cinemas; at Mission Valley Mall and Horton Plaza Mall. Both cinemas normally show safely homogenised fare. The guy I bought my ticket from didn't even understand me at first when I said "One for The Proposition." I was one of only six people in the theatre. Another of us, a large black man with a cane and a timid voice, walked up to me after I'd sat down and asked, "What's this movie about?"

I tried to explain as best I could, "Uh, it's an Australian Western . . . Written by Nick Cave--a talented musician . . ." Because the guy seemed so meek, I felt compelled to add, "It's extremely violent. From what I hear."

"But it's in English?" he asked.

"Er, yeah; it's Australian."

I'm not sure the guy really needed a cane, though, because he literally ran out of the theatre at one point during the movie. He ran back in a few minutes later, though, so I guess he just went to use the restroom and was in fact really digging the movie.