Written by Nick Cave, many comparing it in style to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

Decidedly average I thought.
Guy Pierce is too pretty for this sort of thing.


Ghosts of the Civil Dead much better for Cave/Hillcoat.

Too small scale for Blood Meridian comparisons. Meridian would be epic and surreal Proposition wasn't enough of either (though the use of landscape and the score would both go well in such a movie).

Could waste a fiver and a couple of hours on a lot worse mind you. The Da Vinci Code for example.

if you can stick out the first 5 minutes, you can probably sit through the whole thing. i think it's worth it..

I thought it was poor.

Hugely studied (Cormac McCarthy would be turning in his grave if he was dead), and hugely stilted.

The eldest brother's part was laugh-out-loud bad; the notion of the heavy literature-quoting amoral ruffian being painfully cliched.

It had some atmosphere, and some genuine grit, but the story and script were absolute style over content.

CRAP.

I liked it.

Very good script, at least I thought everybody spoke believable language, not arty like you might expect. I liked all the actors, including Pearce, Winstone and Huston, not so much Watson, her scenes dragged. Australia in that era looked like hell on earth. Nobody looked to be having much fun, including the aboriginals and the horses.

Very realistic violence and a lot of it, as you've probably heard. Spears, gunshots, decapitations, fierce beatings and floggings.

8.7 on a ten scale.

I really enjoyed this movie. It looked great--I thought the costume and set design were first-rate. All those fucking flies! I thought it was well-acted, too, especially Ray Winstone, and I liked the script. Occasionally, it felt a bit over-written (generally when John Hurt's character was speaking), but I can imagine folks back in the day speaking a bit more formally and literarily. I liked it better than Unforgiven if not Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.

I have an Australian neighbor who's 70. He talks exactly like William Hurt's character. Same voice, mannerisms... I think he hates black people too.

Good movie.

I was hugely disappointed by this. I'm a big Nick Cave fan, the setting and the detail was great, and the basic "proposition" is so simple and strong that I couldn't believe they could fudge it so badly.

A man choosing which of his brothers to betray/kill, a lawman paying a criminal to do his dirty work for him, great stuff, but both Guy Pearce and Ray Winstone are "let off the hook" by having bad people (the fourth psycho brother, the evil magistrate) swing in to "take the cup away from them". Ended up a weak "Apocalypse Now" retread in the outback

Such a shame.

it looks beautiful and at times is truly uncomfortable to watch, but is let down badly by the dialogue and patchy characterisation, as well some particularly bad Irish accents (ok maybe not as bad as the devils own)

but compared to everything else i've seen in the cinema recently, still not crap

It was good but I expected a few twists and some moments you knew exactly what was about to happen.

I was rather amused by Ray Winstone running into a door and the line "What is an Irishman but a nigger turned inside out?"

I'm always telling people that my being Irish makes me practically black.