The Proposition - 2005: Short Review

Directed by John Hillcoat who has since directed The Road, this film is often labelled a Western but if it really is a Western, then it's a very peculiar one. The one thing that all Westerns are supposed share is the location, The Wild West of the USA, this film however takes place entirely in the Australian outback.
It is a British-Australian co-production with very limited US involvement and it has a cast made up almost entirely of British, Australians and Aborigines. The film includes the always fantastic John Hurt, the underrated Guy Pearce, surprisingly talented tough guy Ray Winstone, often overlooked David Wenham and extremely talented Emily Watson, the only American I can recall is Danny Huston who gave an excellent performance.

But despite what one might think, this film is still very similar in themes and in tone to the more familiar Westerns.