Enter a Rotten Tomatoes movie slug to inspect the stored movie, batches, snapshots, and reviews.
Movie ID: 1168
RT slug: proposition
RT URL: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/proposition
Release year: 2006
Runtime: 104 mins
Wide release date: —
Limited release date: —
Festival premiere date: —
Streaming release date: 2017-05-23
Tomatometer final: 86%
Audience score final: 85%
Genres: Action, Drama, Western
Directors: John Hillcoat
Writers: Nick Cave
Producers: Cat Villiers, Chiara Menage, Chris Brown, Jackie O'Sullivan
MPAA rating: R
Executive Producers: —
Created: 2026-08-15 12:42:43
Updated: 2026-08-15 12:42:43
In the 1880s Australia, a lawman offers renegade Charlie Burns a difficult choice. In order to save his younger brother from the gallows, Charlie must hunt down and kill his older brother, who is wanted for rape and murder. Venturing into one of the Outback's most inhospitable regions, Charlie faces a terrible moral dilemma that can end only in violence.
Brutal, unflinching, and violent, but thought-provoking and with excellent performances, this Australian western is the one of the best examples of the genre to come along in recent times.
Canonical reviews: 131
Canonical fresh: 113
Canonical rotten: 18
Canonical calculated Tomatometer: 86%
Latest snapshot UTC: 2026-08-15 11:35:01
Snapshot Tomatometer: 86%
Snapshot review count: 131
Snapshot fresh count: 113
Snapshot rotten count: 18
Source note: Imported from manual review paste batch #2803 (full_snapshot)
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| Autonomouse | production |
| Jackie O Productions | production |
| Surefire Films LLC | production |
| Billing | Name | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guy Pearce | Charlie Burns |
| 2 | Ray Winstone | Capt. Stanley |
| 3 | Emily Watson | Martha Stanley |
| 4 | Danny Huston | Arthur Burns |
| 5 | John Hurt | Jellon Lamb |
| Batch ID | Status | Mode | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1184 | processed | — | 2026-08-15 12:42:43 | Processed successfully into movie_id=1168 using update_mode=merge_non_empty. |
| Batch ID | Local Snapshot | UTC Snapshot | Entered % | Entered Count | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2803 | 2026-08-15 06:35:00 (America/Panama) | 2026-08-15 11:35:01 | 86% | 131 | processed | Mode=full_snapshot. Processed 131 row(s); 0 row error(s). Parsed unique reviews in this batch=131, fresh=113, rotten=18, tomatometer=86%. Net new reviews added=131, fresh=113, rotten=18. Current canonical totals=131 reviews, 113 fresh, 18 rotten, tomatometer=86% (86.260%). Entered review count matched parsed batch count (131). Entered tomatometer matched parsed batch value (86%). |
| ID | Critic | Outlet | Fresh? | Score | RT Time Raw | Approx Published UTC | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 243797 | Patrick Cavanaugh | The Wolfman Cometh | Fresh | 5/5 | 2025-09-11T21:01:01.000Z | 2025-09-11 21:01:01 | A grim, grisly, and gorgeous spin on the Western genre. |
| 243798 | Evan Dossey | Midwest Film Journal | Fresh | — | 2025-05-19T21:38:53.000Z | 2025-05-19 21:38:53 | There’s only a shred of hope in The Proposition, and it almost comes too late, in too small a quantity. But it doesn’t feel, to me, like an exercise in misery. There is more on its mind. |
| 243799 | Matt Brunson | Film Frenzy | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2025-02-05T21:25:46.000Z | 2025-02-05 21:25:46 | The Proposition brings to mind Australia’s Outback flicks from the 1970s, mood pieces in which philosophical renegades seek to come to terms with their own restless souls while navigating merciless and uncompromising territories. |
| 243800 | Alistair Lawrence | Common Sense Media | Fresh | 4/5 | 2023-10-11T17:25:36.000Z | 2023-10-11 17:25:36 | The movie's sunburned and anarchic setting creates a memorable atmosphere that sticks to the screen as much as it does its leads' matted hair and filthy clothes. |
| 243801 | J. R. Jones | Chicago Reader | Fresh | — | 2022-07-14T00:36:47.000Z | 2022-07-14 00:36:47 | Directed by John Hillcoat, this Aussie feature perfectly re-creates the charbroiled landscapes and cruel psychodrama of the old Sergio Leone westerns... |
| 243802 | Richard Propes | TheIndependentCritic.com | Fresh | 3.5/4.0 | 2020-09-20T21:21:06.000Z | 2020-09-20 21:21:06 | May be one of the most realistic portrayals of how the West was really won. |
| 243803 | Yasser Medina | Cinefilia | Rotten | 6/10 | 2020-07-24T17:40:57.000Z | 2020-07-24 17:40:57 | I know by heart the revisionism of this western. [Full review in Spanish] |
| 243804 | Leigh Paatsch | Herald Sun (Australia) | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2020-05-26T15:41:09.000Z | 2020-05-26 15:41:09 | This self-styled "Australian western" is powerful, punishing drama of the highest class. |
| 243805 | David Lamble | Bay Area Reporter | Fresh | — | 2020-05-07T01:31:15.000Z | 2020-05-07 01:31:15 | As stark a meditation on British colonials marooned in a hellish land as any film since Picnic at Hanging Rock. |
| 243806 | C.H. Newell | Father Son Holy Gore | Fresh | 5/5 | 2019-05-03T05:06:18.000Z | 2019-05-03 05:06:18 | A filthy, disturbing, and poignant Western about a whole host of themes from the Kantian philosophy of morality to the boundaries of love and family. |
| 243807 | Nick Rogers | Midwest Film Journal | Fresh | 4/4 | 2010-09-17T16:00:43.000Z | 2010-09-17 16:00:43 | John Hillcoat's violence-probing Western feels as uncompromisingly bleak, royally widescreen and graphically violent as any Sam Peckinpah opus - a sunburned, grimy-nailed saga of point-blank executions and blood wrung from a cat o' nine tails. |
| 243808 | Fernando F. Croce | CinePassion | Fresh | — | 2009-08-30T14:07:23.000Z | 2009-08-30 14:07:23 | Ferocious yet free of shallow misanthropy |
| 243809 | Rob Nelson | City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | Fresh | — | 2009-08-21T12:22:18.000Z | 2009-08-21 12:22:18 | What the characters have in common--the only thing they have in common, really--is the desire for community amid the well-founded expectation of imminent, violent death. |
| 243810 | Cole Smithey | ColeSmithey.com | Fresh | B+ | 2009-04-19T19:15:35.000Z | 2009-04-19 19:15:35 | ustralian-born singer/songwriter Nick Cave pens his second film (after "Ghosts ... Of The Civil Dead") and generates a prescient allegory about imperialism. |
| 243811 | Jonathan Kiefer | Sacramento News & Review | Fresh | 4/5 | 2008-08-07T03:17:11.000Z | 2008-08-07 03:17:11 | — |
| 243812 | Jeffrey Overstreet | JeffreyOverstreet.com (Ghost.io) | Fresh | A- | 2007-08-22T16:56:55.000Z | 2007-08-22 16:56:55 | Guy Pearce seems to have boiled himself down into some kind of Guy Pearce Concentrate. Winstone looks like he's been sculpted from the Australian wilderness around him. |
| 243813 | Matthew Turner | ViewLondon | Fresh | 4/5 | 2007-06-19T03:15:37.000Z | 2007-06-19 03:15:37 | — |
| 243814 | Brian Tallerico | UGO | Fresh | — | 2007-03-24T11:16:34.000Z | 2007-03-24 11:16:34 | Any movie that can cling to your memory with as much brutal power as this fantastic film is unquestionably a proposition worth taking. |
| 243815 | Chris Barsanti | Film Journal International | Fresh | — | 2007-03-01T03:55:43.000Z | 2007-03-01 03:55:43 | The finest, strangest and most uncompromising western to hit screens since Unforgiven. |
| 243816 | Ted Murphy | Murphy's Movie Reviews | Fresh | A- | 2007-01-12T15:25:15.000Z | 2007-01-12 15:25:15 | Cave's screenplay is masterful in taking the trappings of the western genre and transposing them to the Australian Outback. There's an ebb and flow to his writing and there's also the sense that tragedy is inevitable. He also manages to work in the dep |
| 243817 | Jeffrey Chen | Window to the Movies | Fresh | 8/10 | 2006-12-30T14:57:48.000Z | 2006-12-30 14:57:48 | An Australian western without genre traditions in mind -- instead, their movie explores the complexities of moral relativity. |
| 243818 | Leo Goldsmith | Not Coming to a Theater Near You | Fresh | — | 2006-08-07T12:25:01.000Z | 2006-08-07 12:25:01 | This Aussie horse opera doesn't so much present an exotic, bizarro version of the Wild West as the apotheosis of it. |
| 243819 | Jack Garner | Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | Fresh | 9/10 | 2006-08-04T16:22:15.000Z | 2006-08-04 16:22:15 | It's as strong a Western as you're likely to see, at least since Clint Eastwood gave us Unforgiven 14 years ago. |
| 243820 | Philip Martin | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | Fresh | 92/100 | 2006-07-04T13:38:09.000Z | 2006-07-04 13:38:09 | ... a movie full of startling and sometimes beautiful moments |
| 243821 | Alan Dale | Blogcritics.org | Fresh | — | 2006-06-28T05:17:06.000Z | 2006-06-28 05:17:06 | The Proposition depicts male brutality, both within and without the confines of the law, in a beautifully measured way that doesn't kill the intensity of the narrative--wild contrasts, ironic similarities, and all. |
| 243823 | Ben Walters | Time Out | Fresh | — | 2006-06-24T04:28:27.000Z | 2006-06-24 04:28:27 | A beautifully shot tracker's western that brings the Fordian poles of garden and desert to bear on the bushrangers' Outback, this is also a revenge drama of substantial horror. |
| 243822 | Marjorie Baumgarten | Austin Chronicle | Fresh | 4/5 | 2006-06-24T04:28:27.000Z | 2006-06-24 04:28:27 | Despite perpetual rumors of its demise as a genre, the Western is alive and well in the Australian outback. |
| 243825 | David N. Butterworth | rec.arts.movies.reviews | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2006-06-24T04:28:26.000Z | 2006-06-24 04:28:26 | Beauty, brutality, some sly social commentary... plus another sweaty, shirtless performance from Guy Pearce highlight this Aussie western from the pen of Bad Seed Nick Cave. |
| 243824 | Shlomo Schwartzberg | Boxoffice Magazine | Rotten | 2/5 | 2006-06-24T04:28:26.000Z | 2006-06-24 04:28:26 | When it comes to condemning the ancient Western code of violence, this film should practice what it preaches. |
| 243826 | Duane Dudek | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-06-23T17:10:16.000Z | 2006-06-23 17:10:16 | It echoes, if not captures, the genre's harshest narrative and poetically visual trademarks -- all that's missing is Monument Valley -- while rejecting any romantic notions about how people shape their worlds, and vice versa. |
| 243827 | Joe Morgenstern | Wall Street Journal | Fresh | — | 2006-06-22T15:50:36.000Z | 2006-06-22 15:50:36 | A visionary tale of a fragile civilizing impulse crushed by family loyalty and a lust for revenge in the vast Outback of the late 19th century. |
| 243828 | Dennis Schwartz | Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews | Fresh | B- | 2006-06-17T17:16:25.000Z | 2006-06-17 17:16:25 | It's well-acted and has a great premise, but doesn't add up to beans. |
| 243829 | Lori Hoffman | Atlantic City Weekly | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2006-06-16T07:42:56.000Z | 2006-06-16 07:42:56 | ...blends the classic existential Western with the violence of a Sam Peckinpah sage saga |
| 243830 | Ken Hanke | Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2006-06-14T14:28:39.000Z | 2006-06-14 14:28:39 | In the end, it feels like Nihilism for Newcomers or maybe Sartre With Six-Shooters. |
| 243831 | Sean O'Connell | Charlotte Weekly | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-12T11:55:14.000Z | 2006-06-12 11:55:14 | Intentionally strips the polish from Hollywood's overproduced outlaw epics. |
| 243832 | Steve Rhodes | Internet Reviews | Rotten | 2.5/4 | 2006-06-09T17:09:46.000Z | 2006-06-09 17:09:46 | It never becomes more than a mood piece. The characters are so overdrawn and exaggerated that I never believed any of them. And, when you don't believe, you don't care. |
| 243833 | John Hartl | Seattle Times | Rotten | 2.5/4 | 2006-06-09T14:26:06.000Z | 2006-06-09 14:26:06 | It doesn't offer much that hasn't already been said about lawless frontier towns, bonds between outlaws or the settling of the West. |
| 243834 | Peter Debruge | Miami Herald | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-09T14:21:06.000Z | 2006-06-09 14:21:06 | In-your-face combativeness is The Proposition's power, and for those of you who value your westerns, the effect is not unlike that of The Wild Bunch or Unforgiven. |
| 243835 | John Beifuss | Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | Fresh | 4/4 | 2006-06-09T13:15:57.000Z | 2006-06-09 13:15:57 | As pitiless an Aussie Western as one might expect from the pen of self-consciously gloomy songwriter Nick Cave, who titled one defining album 'Murder Ballads.' |
| 243836 | John Wirt | Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) | Fresh | 7.5/10 | 2006-06-09T09:30:37.000Z | 2006-06-09 09:30:37 | Initially capricious though the film is, this murder ballad transposed to film reveals a devastating hand. |
| 243837 | Daniel M. Kimmel | Worcester Telegram & Gazette | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-09T03:52:44.000Z | 2006-06-09 03:52:44 | ...a movie that the late director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) would have recognized as coming from a kindred spirit. |
| 243838 | Bill Muller | Arizona Republic | Fresh | 4/5 | 2006-06-08T18:27:35.000Z | 2006-06-08 18:27:35 | It's fitting that The Proposition is set Down Under, because in many ways, it's a reverse Western. |
| 243839 | Paula Nechak | Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Fresh | A- | 2006-06-08T17:46:50.000Z | 2006-06-08 17:46:50 | Hillcoat has made a stunning, meditative, shockingly violent contribution to the Western genre. |
| 243840 | Laura Kelly | South Florida Sun-Sentinel | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-08T14:02:43.000Z | 2006-06-08 14:02:43 | Cave composes music that is nothing less than heart-rending. He does the same with his graphically violent period piece The Proposition, which plays like an exercise in forsaken humanity. |
| 243841 | Ian Grey | Orlando Weekly | Fresh | — | 2006-06-08T03:16:17.000Z | 2006-06-08 03:16:17 | As directed by music video vet John Hillcoat, Cave's vision of 1880s Australia as outlaw inferno becomes an unforgettable exposed raw nerve of a film. |
| 243842 | Sean Axmaker | GreenCine | Fresh | — | 2006-06-04T10:34:31.000Z | 2006-06-04 10:34:31 | Nick Cave's sinewy script looks austere and stripped down but echoes with a rich set of characters and conflicts... |
| 243843 | Robert W. Butler | Kansas City Star | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-02T16:26:10.000Z | 2006-06-02 16:26:10 | Violent but compelling yarn. |
| 243844 | Tom Long | Detroit News | Fresh | B- | 2006-06-02T16:22:05.000Z | 2006-06-02 16:22:05 | An intense piece of wilderness ugliness that mixes family, honor, decency, revenge, racism and mindless blood lust in a manner that satisfies even if it never astounds. |
| 243845 | Jeff Vice | Deseret News (Salt Lake City) | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-02T16:15:28.000Z | 2006-06-02 16:15:28 | Those with strong stomachs, who can stand the assault on their sensibilities, will be rewarded with a thoughtful and well-acted, albeit somewhat disturbing, picture. |
| 243846 | Sean P. Means | Salt Lake Tribune | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-06-02T10:08:07.000Z | 2006-06-02 10:08:07 | Director Jeff Hillcoat leaves room for strong performances by Winstone and Pearce, plus a pleasantly hammy bit by John Hurt as a bounty hunter. |
| 243847 | David Poland | Movie City News | Fresh | — | 2006-06-01T16:01:17.000Z | 2006-06-01 16:01:17 | This may be the best movie you see for a while, so when you have a chance to catch it, jump. Don't get distracted by the blood and guts. Look it in the eyes. |
| 243848 | Phil Villarreal | Arizona Daily Star | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-06-01T06:00:09.000Z | 2006-06-01 06:00:09 | Taking a cue from HBO's "Deadwood," the film kicks its spurs into one of moviedom's standby genres, giving it new life with modern immediacy. |
| 243849 | Cynthia Fuchs | PopMatters | Fresh | — | 2006-06-01T02:58:57.000Z | 2006-06-01 02:58:57 | While Charlie's aim might appear to be less objectionable than Lamb's, the film's circuitous, implacable series of events -- less a plot than an accumulation of horrors -- suggests that intention is, at last, irrelevant. |
| 243850 | Ethan Alter | Premiere Magazine | Rotten | 2/4 | 2006-05-30T03:16:29.000Z | 2006-05-30 03:16:29 | With its bleak worldview and brutal violence, The Proposition is, without question, a visceral experience, but it's also a curiously empty one. |
| 243851 | Laura Clifford | Reeling Reviews | Fresh | B | 2006-05-27T13:46:00.000Z | 2006-05-27 13:46:00 | ...quiet and operatic, stark and stunningly beautiful |
| 243852 | Robin Clifford | Reeling Reviews | Fresh | B | 2006-05-27T12:09:38.000Z | 2006-05-27 12:09:38 | Good and bad reside in all of us and it is shown well by the scribe [Nick Cave] |
| 243853 | Ruthe Stein | San Francisco Chronicle | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-26T15:55:29.000Z | 2006-05-26 15:55:29 | The squeamish should skip this film. But its recurring violence seems justified in terms of the story Cave sets out to tell and is up a familiar alley for the songwriter who has an album called Murder Ballads. |
| 243854 | Gary Thompson | Philadelphia Daily News | Fresh | — | 2006-05-26T15:41:58.000Z | 2006-05-26 15:41:58 | A movie of striking and resonant images. |
| 243855 | Shawn Levy | Oregonian | Fresh | B- | 2006-05-26T15:30:48.000Z | 2006-05-26 15:30:48 | It's richly atmospheric: stifling, sweaty, filthy. |
| 243856 | Amy Biancolli | Houston Chronicle | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-26T15:21:11.000Z | 2006-05-26 15:21:11 | Murder ballad for the slice-and-dice age, a film of sensitive artistry laced with gore. |
| 243857 | Jim Slotek | Jam! Movies | Fresh | 4/5 | 2006-05-26T15:13:59.000Z | 2006-05-26 15:13:59 | Practically redolent with dirt and manure, this ambling, randomly violent depiction of the tenuousness of civilization on the 19th century frontier was a lost gem in the bustle of last year's Toronto International Film Festival. |
| 243858 | Rick Groen | Globe and Mail | Rotten | 2.5/4 | 2006-05-26T15:08:03.000Z | 2006-05-26 15:08:03 | This is the crucial proposition The Proposition misses: To make us truly despair about the face of violence, it must be firmly attached to someone we know, and not merely blown off someone we don't. |
| 243859 | Randy Myers | Contra Costa Times | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-05-26T14:43:31.000Z | 2006-05-26 14:43:31 | The Proposition isn't single-mindedly cruel just to be cynically chic. Cave accomplishes much more, exposing this period's racism, classism and imperialism, then making it seem particularly prescient. |
| 243860 | Ty Burr | Boston Globe | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-05-26T14:37:06.000Z | 2006-05-26 14:37:06 | A near-masterpiece of mood and menace, and one that deserves to be seen on the largest screen possible. |
| 243861 | Thomas Delapa | Boulder Weekly | Rotten | 1/4 | 2006-05-26T14:30:59.000Z | 2006-05-26 14:30:59 | In this godforsaken land, the good, the bad and the ugly are all pretty much the same. |
| 243862 | Frank Swietek | One Guy's Opinion | Fresh | B+ | 2006-05-26T14:25:38.000Z | 2006-05-26 14:25:38 | Strangely compelling, even perversely poetic...its juxtaposition of thematic ugliness and visual beauty is a heady one. |
| 243863 | Jeffrey M. Anderson | Combustible Celluloid | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-05-26T03:17:28.000Z | 2006-05-26 03:17:28 | An amazingly rich, vicious Western. |
| 243864 | Philip Wuntch | Dallas Morning News | Fresh | B | 2006-05-25T17:20:32.000Z | 2006-05-25 17:20:32 | It's consistently compelling and thought-provoking. This one will stay with you, and despite its disturbing moments, you'll welcome it. |
| 243865 | Ann Hornaday | Washington Post | Fresh | — | 2006-05-25T17:00:08.000Z | 2006-05-25 17:00:08 | A revisionist western that brings its own brand of sanguinary honesty to the genre. |
| 243866 | Chris Hewitt | St. Paul Pioneer Press | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-05-25T16:49:19.000Z | 2006-05-25 16:49:19 | One of the most intriguing things about The Proposition is that it's not clear who the main character is. |
| 243867 | Jan Stuart | Newsday | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-25T15:28:16.000Z | 2006-05-25 15:28:16 | Offering proportionate measures of raw violence and lyrical soliloquizing, the Peckinpah-influenced The Proposition is for those who prefer their western action unvarnished but immaculately framed. |
| 243868 | Eleanor Ringel Cater | Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Fresh | B+ | 2006-05-25T13:42:40.000Z | 2006-05-25 13:42:40 | The movie gets at something primal in the pit of your stomach, something that speaks of loyalty and betrayal, of men's souls -- or the lack thereof. |
| 243869 | Peter Canavese | Groucho Reviews | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-25T13:28:07.000Z | 2006-05-25 13:28:07 | Cave uses the taming of Australia as the backdrop for a nasty, dirty western about the implications of violence. |
| 243870 | Sean Burns | Philadelphia Weekly | Fresh | — | 2006-05-23T13:54:41.000Z | 2006-05-23 13:54:41 | One vicious, hypnotic piece of work -- a stark slow burner with heavy biblical overtones that builds to a jarring climax... you know, kind of like a Nick Cave song. |
| 243871 | MaryAnn Johanson | Flick Filosopher | Fresh | — | 2006-05-22T14:13:00.000Z | 2006-05-22 14:13:00 | [I]nvoking horror movies is... perfectly fitting here... All hints of the fairy tale of 'the frontier' have been seared out of this tale... |
| 243872 | Tony Medley | tonymedley.com | Rotten | 3/10 | 2006-05-20T14:50:58.000Z | 2006-05-20 14:50:58 | ...lots and lots of shots of people staring off into space thinking;... a strange juxtaposition of violence and laggardliness... |
| 243874 | Daniel Kasman | d+kaz. intelligent movie reviews | Rotten | C | 2006-05-20T04:21:55.000Z | 2006-05-20 04:21:55 | — |
| 243873 | Lisa Schwarzbaum | Entertainment Weekly | Fresh | A- | 2006-05-20T04:21:55.000Z | 2006-05-20 04:21:55 | A pitiless yet elegiac Australian Western as caked with beauty as it is with blood. |
| 243875 | David Elliott | San Diego Union-Tribune | Rotten | 2/4 | 2006-05-19T16:45:44.000Z | 2006-05-19 16:45:44 | Directed with Sergio Leone sensuality and meager subtlety. |
| 243876 | Robert Denerstein | Denver Rocky Mountain News | Fresh | B+ | 2006-05-19T16:43:56.000Z | 2006-05-19 16:43:56 | I'm guessing that Hillcoat wants us to see The Proposition as a howling, heartsick message from our savage selves. The story is ugly, but there's some beauty in the telling. |
| 243877 | Michael Booth | Denver Post | Rotten | 1.5/4 | 2006-05-19T16:41:59.000Z | 2006-05-19 16:41:59 | Over the top, Down Under. |
| 243878 | Roger Ebert | Chicago Sun-Times | Fresh | 4/4 | 2006-05-19T16:38:57.000Z | 2006-05-19 16:38:57 | Have you read Blood Meridian, the novel by Cormac McCarthy? This movie comes close to realizing the vision of that dread and despairing story. |
| 243879 | Andrew Sarris | Observer | Fresh | — | 2006-05-18T15:07:28.000Z | 2006-05-18 15:07:28 | Mr. Huston, Mr. Pearce and Mr. Winstone give especially luminous performances as Arthur, Charlie and Captain Stanley. |
| 243880 | Michael Wilmington | Chicago Tribune | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-05-18T14:08:09.000Z | 2006-05-18 14:08:09 | It's a terrific, kinetic experience, and it's also a brilliant showcase for a crackerjack ensemble of great actors. |
| 243881 | James Berardinelli | ReelViews | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-18T03:15:48.000Z | 2006-05-18 03:15:48 | The strength of The Proposition is its relentless moral ambiguity. |
| 243882 | Pablo Villaça | Cinema em Cena | Fresh | 5/5 | 2006-05-16T22:34:00.000Z | 2006-05-16 22:34:00 | Atuações e fotografia memoráveis enriquecem uma narrativa surpreendentemente contemplativa que transforma personagens brutalizados em figuras quase poéticas. |
| 243883 | Rob Vaux | Flipside Movie Emporium | Fresh | A- | 2006-05-08T20:38:16.000Z | 2006-05-08 20:38:16 | A darkly brilliant chapter to a genre whose creative spirit hangs by the thinnest of threads. |
| 243884 | Richard Roeper | Ebert & Roeper | Fresh | — | 2006-05-08T11:58:57.000Z | 2006-05-08 11:58:57 | Really intense stuff. |
| 243885 | Eric Lurio | Greenwich Village Gazette | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2006-05-06T04:18:50.000Z | 2006-05-06 04:18:50 | An amazing act of scenery-chewing like none seen in quite some time. |
| 243886 | Brett Buckalew | FilmStew.com | Rotten | — | 2006-05-05T15:40:40.000Z | 2006-05-05 15:40:40 | If there remains any doubt that the MPAA's Ratings Board grants screen violence more leeway than sex, The Proposition effectively quashes such uncertainty. |
| 243887 | Maitland McDonagh | TV Guide | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-05T12:38:18.000Z | 2006-05-05 12:38:18 | [Hillcoat] transforms the stark, surreal beauty of the outback landscape and grinding brutality of frontier life into a sweat-slicked, near-abstract ballet of blood and sand. |
| 243888 | Lisa Rose | Newark Star-Ledger | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-05T12:35:52.000Z | 2006-05-05 12:35:52 | There are intense confrontations and quiet bits of dialogue that delve into the souls of the characters. The stars, especially Pearce and Winstone, fully inhabit complex, unglamorous roles. |
| 243889 | Kyle Smith | New York Post | Rotten | 2/4 | 2006-05-05T12:34:57.000Z | 2006-05-05 12:34:57 | The quality of the acting, Cave's hellfire score and the heavy atmospherics of the directing merely dress up a cliché: Violence leads to more violence. |
| 243890 | Jack Mathews | New York Daily News | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-05T12:34:00.000Z | 2006-05-05 12:34:00 | A psychological Western more in the mold of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven than the John Ford films its stark cinematography resembles. It's about a good man, Stanley, who does bad things, and a bad man, Charlie, fighting his conscience. |
| 243891 | David Germain | Associated Press | Fresh | — | 2006-05-05T12:30:10.000Z | 2006-05-05 12:30:10 | The Proposition is no bloodier than many a schlocky horror flick, but the violence feels real and ruthless, carrying a much more visceral impact. |
| 243892 | Bob Strauss | Los Angeles Daily News | Rotten | 2.5/4 | 2006-05-05T12:27:37.000Z | 2006-05-05 12:27:37 | Hillcoat and Cave clearly have astute ideas to impart, but their passion for gore and grime overwhelms all intellectual activity. |
| 243893 | Daniel Fienberg | Zap2it.com | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-05-05T11:49:17.000Z | 2006-05-05 11:49:17 | If Peter Weir, Sam Peckinpah and Jim Jarmusch could somehow collaborate on a film written by Joseph Conrad, it would probably look something like this. |
| 243894 | E! Staff | E! Online | Fresh | B+ | 2006-05-05T03:16:19.000Z | 2006-05-05 03:16:19 | The Proposition becomes a riveting exercise in bad faith and murderous justice that takes far more than an eye for an eye. |
| 243895 | Kent Turner | Film-Forward.com | Rotten | 2/5 | 2006-05-04T23:51:20.000Z | 2006-05-04 23:51:20 | For audiences accustomed to revisionist Westerns, only the relocation to Down Under will be a novelty since the film follows Sam Peckinpah's blood-soaked template. |
| 243896 | Chris Cabin | Filmcritic.com | Fresh | 4/5 | 2006-05-04T20:38:24.000Z | 2006-05-04 20:38:24 | a breath of dusty air in what has been a surprisingly mundane movie year, |
Showing the latest 100 canonical reviews for this movie.