Hillcoat and Cave have here found their most fertile ground yet for allegory-rich examinations of life and death in remote, pressure-cooker environments.
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The climactic Christmas Day dinner of dreadful retribution is a terrifying prospect, but for anyone with a yen for our great lost genre, it's also some sort of gift.
80
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
The Proposition is a very hard and harsh movie, but it also has a hypnotic, lyrical velocity. As Arthur, Huston exudes dead charisma.
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The veteran rock musician Nick Cave wrote the screenplay and John Hillcoat directed, both somewhat in thrall to Sam Peckinpah. The bonds of family are the centerpiece of this highly uneven, hyperviolent film.
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A sweat-slicked, near-abstract ballet of blood and sand.
It is one of those movies--Antonioni's "Red Desert" being the most flagrant example--that spend so much time brimming with moral and political suggestion that they almost forget to tell us what's actually going on.