The Proposition

An outlaw is goaded into taking on justice at its most brutal in this hard-edged Western set in rural Australia in the 1880s. Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is a criminal living in the outback. He and his two brothers, Arthur (Danny Huston) and Mikey (Richard Wilson), are on the run from the law for ...more

Much like another Western of singular vision, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, The Proposition starts with a bloody gun battle that's more typically seen in a third-act showdown. From this smoky carnage comes a proposition -- that if Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) can hunt down and kill his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston), a sadistic murderer, he'll save his younger brother from the gallows. The Proposition signals its dour intentions from the opening minutes, and never fails to live up to them. ...more