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The Proposition
Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    A movie you cannot turn away from; it is so pitiless and uncompromising, so filled with pathos and disregarded innocence, that it is a record of those things we pray to be delivered from.
  2. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    100
    Directed by John Hillcoat, this Aussie feature perfectly re-creates the charbroiled landscapes and cruel psychodrama of the old Sergio Leone westerns, with John Hurt particularly fine as a raging old mountain goat.
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    91
    A pitiless yet elegiac Australian Western as caked with beauty as it is with blood.
  4. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Paula Nechak
    91
    In the end, this is a film about retribution and justice within unjust circumstances. Each character has a personal code of honor -- Arthur, Charlie and Capt. Stanley are all given their dignity -- and it's that code that sets the film apart.
  5. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    Despite perpetual rumors of its demise as a genre, the Western is alive and well in the Australian outback.
  6. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    It's a terrific, kinetic experience, and it's also a brilliant showcase for a crackerjack ensemble of great actors.
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    The Proposition, a beautiful, bloody meditation on justice, family, and the trap of retribution, is in every respect an artful addition to the canon of six-shooter morality tales.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    A near-masterpiece of mood and menace, and one that deserves to be seen on the largest screen possible.
  9. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    83
    By turns grisly and hallucinatory, The Proposition is one of those grand, mythic Westerns, full of wide-open spaces and dank little hellholes, detestable bad guys and virginal women, laconic lawmen and wary natives.
  10. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    80
    A fascinating, mythological western.
  11. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    80
    It's the kind of movie we don't often encounter these days, and actually never did: A dramatically dense and morally complicated work, it's also a highly pictorial wide-screen entertainment with a dynamite cast, channeling the legacy of John Ford and Sam Peckinpah (and maybe Joseph Conrad too).
  12. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: F. X. Feeney
    80
    The Proposition is a very hard and harsh movie, but it also has a hypnotic, lyrical velocity. As Arthur, Huston exudes dead charisma.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    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.
  14. Variety
    Reviewed by: Richard Kuipers
    80
    Hillcoat and Cave have here found their most fertile ground yet for allegory-rich examinations of life and death in remote, pressure-cooker environments.
  15. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    A visionary tale -- bleak but visionary all the same -- of a fragile civilizing impulse crushed by family loyalty and a lust for revenge in the vast Outback of the late 19th century.
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  16. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    75
    The Proposition leaves you shell-shocked.
  17. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    Despite all the violence that ensues, The Proposition is 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.
  18. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    75
    A spellbinding Australian Western.
  19. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    75
    A sweat-slicked, near-abstract ballet of blood and sand.
  20. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    75
    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.
  21. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    70
    The cast of The Proposition is reason enough to see the film.
  22. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    70
    The Australian director John Hillcoat makes an audacious, unsettling American feature debut with The Proposition, a revisionist western that brings its own brand of sanguinary honesty to the genre.
  23. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    70
    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.
  24. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    There is life to The Proposition, though, and brutal, pitiless life it is. If it breathed more (and if Huston had spoken less), it might have been remarkable. As it is, it's monotonous, grim and uneven.
  25. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    63
    Huston's performance has a keen edge to it, as do those of the other actors, yet everyone suffers from the same problem -- they're not playing knowable characters so much as thematic points on the broad spectrum of violence.
  26. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Phil Hall
    60
    A good film, but it should've been a great one.
  27. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    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.
  28. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Ethan Alter
    50
    The Proposition can be appreciated as a strong technical exercise, but it fails to resonate on any deeper level.
  29. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Rob Nelson
    50
    Conversation is as meaningless as anything else in this barbarist take on "The Searchers."
  30. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    50
    Despite the pictorial riches, despite the firm performances by Ray Winstone as the captain and Guy Pearce as Charlie Burns, despite the miraculous John Hurt in an eccentric role that was put in just for spice, The Proposition is hollow.
  31. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    42
    The sketchily symbolic characters and flat plot just frame an atmosphere of sticky heat and Biblical reckoning.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.1 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 44 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 24
  3. Negative: 1 out of 24
  1. TimR
    5
    You know, the cinematography was impressive, the cast was well placed, and the setting was very tangible. Ray Winstone as Captain Stanley was, without question, the best part of this film ... his performance and delivery were continually intriguing. This is not to side step the other fine performances, mainly by Guy and Emily. My scoring is mostly due to distaste of the subject matter...it was VERY harsh, and very real in how it delivered the evil and disgusting side of sinful man. [***SPOILERS***] Perhaps I should rate it higher than, because it did such a “good job” of making me almost ill trying to take it all in, especially when half the scenes leave your mind still wondering, "what else happened. How did they do that evil thing. what might it look like..." etc. More of a western-style horror to me. “Tombstone”, this is my golden standard for a western. This movie adds nothing good to the imagination or spirit.… Full Review »
  2. Simon
    1
    One of the most achingly slow and boring films i've sen in a long time, beautifully shot, but cold have been told in 30 mins!
  3. drownsoda
    9
    Beautifully shot, impeccably acted out, cohesively written and a cast worthy of box office stardom but it's modesty is almost immaculate. The film's subtle underlying message is clear and is conveyed without adrenaline-inducing violence but in an odd sense, poetic, almost symbolic, violence. However, though a thorough story and excellently executed, it's lack of action, for a western, leaves a minor gap in the movie. Not to say that's a bad thing...… Full Review »
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