The Propostion

The Proposition (2005)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/]

The Gist:
In consideration of this film I would like to bring up two very different westerns made by the end all of westerns past the glory days of John Ford et al. That is to say, Sergio Leone and his films The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. After calling up these two films, I want to further state that the Proposition tries to be both kinds of films at the same time. In GBU (abbreviated for the sake of efficiency), you have the spaghetti western at peak badass levels, where every moment in the screen is dedicated to a hyper real, stylized, tension filled epic full on with Mexican stand offs and Clint Eastwood being a serious badass. On the other hand you have Once Upon A Time In the West that makes sparse use of these moments, instead taking a pragmatic approach to the western creating a thoughtful drama that exudes a feeling of nostalgia and antiquity. Once Upon a Time is more careful, more understated, and draws out the natural conflict of men in the semi-lawless environment of the fabled west with little noticable effort. It is possible to make a film that has elements from either style and have it come off as balanced but Proposition is not that film. Instead, it becomes rather jarring when you have a hitman giving a delightfully theatrical drunken performance in one scene and then Ray Winstone sitting subdued with his wife in the next, playing out a quiet drama of the Husband not wanting to share his burdens with his wife. The two styles are at odds with each other, and the whole thing ends up feeling uneven. But man is this film pretty, cinematography on it is insane. I'll be trying to watch this again to see if it bothers me less a second time around because much of this film is truly a marvel of a modern western.