Photos from The Proposition – John Hillcoat, 2005. Oh, this was a special one. It doesn’t matter that there are slow moments or bits of overly wordy dialogue. When The Proposition hits on all cylinders, it blazes with uncommon energy and tension. These stills don’t do justice to the film’s beauty. The closest visual point of reference I can muster is P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, though there are certainly some thematic similarities (the danger of psychosis that accompanies attempts to tame an unruly land). The film’s climactic portion features a number of sequences in which cinematography, music, and narrative come together to display the truly transcendent power of great cinema. The score alone is often worth the price of admission–to describe it in words is to reduce much of its force. This one takes time, and at first I didn’t like Nick Cave’s highly philosophical and, as mentioned, occasionally verbose script. It all comes together (and I don’t mean that in a loose-ends tied up fairy tale way) and proves to be most satisfying. A stunning, unique, and memorable film.
Nice to see these stills. Great film!