I'll admit that the last post was something of a placeholder, as I am still struggling to put into words the sheer wonder that is The Proposition



Bare bones first of all, it's a low(ish) budget Austrailan/UK film with a script and soundtrack by Nick "the Bad Seeds" Cave. Set in the C19th Australian Outback, an outlaw (Guy "Mike from Neighbours" Pearce) has to choose between killing his near-feral elder brother or allowing his seemingly innocent and naive younger brother to be hung.

What that isn't getting accross is the sheer, visceral and emotional impact of what was both a very ugly and very beautiful piece of cinema. The easiest way to put it is how cybermule and myself described it, in that some films you watch and some films you live through. This was a film that you live through, and that becomes part of the way you see the world.

The Victorian outback was clearly a nasty, brutish and in some ways still-forming place, with the 'civilising' of the old culture of the pioneers (and, of course, the even older culture of the aboriginees) not long begun.

Couple this with the sparse dialogue, the seriously impressionistic music and the shockingly beautiful natural landscape and you had something with a seriously primal impact. Gory, dirty - yes - but also very real and very powerful.

Go see.