Welcome to spring my dear fellow movie lovers..soon i shall rise like the Phoenix and post about two related films, 'One Week' & 'Time To Leave'.

I have so missed hanging out here and writing but I promise I have been watching watching and watching! I am thrilled to see from the Google Blogger stats report that thousands of you have kept on viewing while I have been away recouperating from illness. AWESOME!!! Keep on coming back, and please- I'd love for you to leave some of your film club discussion questions, opinions and feedback!.

Discussion of 'The Proposition' has Begun!

Note: This is a Guest posting by our much respected contributor 'OLDMAN'!

No intention of writing a full on review of The Proposition here. Just hoping to kick off some discussion. First off, this is an excellent film, easily the best to come out of Australia in a long long time. Performances are uniformly excellent with special mention to be sure for Ray WInstone who plays Captain Stanley, and Guy Pearce and Danny Huston who portray two of the three Burns brothers, desperadoes of the worst sort, given to raping and slaughtering pregnant women and children just for the fun of it. Charlie (Guy Pearce) has developed a bit of a conscious along the way, something Stanley hopes to take advantage of with his "proposition," but Arthur (played brilliantly by Danny Huston) is a psychopath beyond the reach of God or man. Huston underplays Arthur as a laid back poetry spouting character obsessed with the importance of family. Don't know if this was his idea or the director, Hillcoat's, but given Huston's lineage - the son of John and grandson of Walter - it wouldn't surprise me to learn it was his. In any case, it works, and makes the violence and psychotic rage that much more powerful when it comes. John Hurt also appears in a fairly small - but scene stealing - role as bounty hunter Jellon Lamb. Honestly, the film would be worth watching just for his few moments on screen. And Emily Watson, who plays Captain Stanley's wife, is also excellent as usual. The real star in my opinion, however, is Nick Cave - yes that Nick Cave - who does not appear on screen, but both wrote the original screenplay and collaborated on the soundtrack. If you know his music - especially his pre-"Bad Seeds" "Birthday Party" tunes the darkness of The Proposition certainly won't come as any surprise. But there's so much more here. The photography is magnificent, showing a pioneer Australia we've never seen before, the soundtrack haunting, and the script is as near to perfect as these things get. While this is a film I could definitely go on and on about - and you know I can - I really don't want to do that here, just want all of you to watch this movie and put in your two cents.