The Proposition (R), directed by John Hillcoat,
opens Friday, August 4, at Little Theatres and Movies 10 | Who Killed the Electric Car?(PG), directed by Chris Paine, opens Friday, August 4, at
Little Theatres and Pittsford Cinema.
Operating within and without the law
A dusty and violent 19th century frontier; the encroachment
of the modern into the traditional; and the wholesale subjugation of indigenous
people by those less brown are just a few of the themes that identify the film
genre known as the Western, widely touted as a uniquely American breed. But if
you go as west as you can on this continent and then paddle a bit wester, you’ll hit Australia, a country that experienced
many of the same growing pains we did and possibly the only other place on
Earth that could host a true Western.
Set in the Australian outback of the 1880s, The Proposition is a beautifully bleak
slice of cinema that takes its title from an offer extended from a lawman to an
outlaw. As the film opens a hideout is being riddled with bullets, and in the
aftermath Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone, Cold Mountain) makes a deal with
prisoner Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce, Memento)
that sends Charlie after the head of bloodthirsty older brother Arthur (Danny
Huston, The Constant Gardener) in
exchange for the life of terrified little brother Mikey,
due to be hanged nine days hence.
While Charlie searches the remote parts for Arthur and his henchpeople, Stanley
stays in town to sate the revenge-minded townsfolk, including slimy superior
Eden Fletcher (David Wenham, Faramir from the Lord of the Rings trilogy). Stanley’s
brutal everyday life is in stark contrast to the genteel domesticity he tries
to enjoy with well-bred wife Martha (the peerless Emily Watson, always looking
as though she’s about to spill all of her secrets), and he’s relatively successful
at keeping his differing existences separate, until one day when business
brutally mixes with pleasure.
Pearce effectively recycles his gaunt and haunted look from
(guilty pleasure alert!) the awesome cannibal period piece Ravenous, and though he gets top billing here, his ethereal
presence is no match for character actors extraordinaire Winstone
and Huston. Both men play against type, with Winstone
tempering his gravelly growl and imposing physicality to channel a decent man
trying to bring order to a place in desperate need of it, and my new crush
Huston finally able to unleash the ferocious allure only hinted at in repressed
roles like 21 Grams and Birth as sadistic Irish fugitive Arthur.
And yes, that’s Noah Taylor (The Life
Aquatic) getting plugged in the opening firefight.
The perfect cast is enough to recommend The Proposition — I didn’t even mention John Hurt’s flawlessly
hammy cameo (hameo?) as a dignified bounty hunter —
but the attention received by the film is mostly due to its screenwriter,
iconic Australian musician NickCave. Director John Hillcoat basically takes the darkness that defines the
music of the famously macabre Cave (fittingly, he also co-composed the film’s
superbly evocative score) and lets it simmer in the scorching Australian sun,
resulting in a vision of defiant violence and gritty despair. It’s certainly
not the feel-good movie of the year, but it’s one of the best thus far.
Last summer’s
documentaries were a collection of inspiring tales (Mad Hot Ballroom, March of
the Penguins, Murderball),
while this summer’s nonfiction offerings seem to be designed to blind us with
rage before propelling us into a debilitating depression. Hot on the heels of An Inconvenient Truth and The Road to Guantanamo is Who
Killed the Electric Car?, a scathing indictment recounting the
shocking shortsightedness of the government, corporations, and you.
Director Chris Paine frames his filmmaking debut as a sort
of murder mystery, using both celebrities (we’ll miss you, Mel Gibson!) and
actual smart people to relate the story of the invention and subsequent
massacre of the battery-powered car. As narrated in bedtime-story cadence by
Martin Sheen, General Motors was the first of the big automakers out of the
gate with the EV1, a sleek and rechargeable little number designed to comply
with the California Air Resources Board’s emission mandates. This made the oil
industry understandably nervous, and since the powers-that-be are snugly in bed
with the cartels, the electric car never really stood a chance.
But while Big Oil is the obvious suspect, it’s not the only
one. Who Killed the Electric Car?runs down a list of those responsible for the green
vehicle’s demise, including the hydrogen fuel cell contingent (though the use
of this technology is still far off) and regular ol’
Americans consumers, our initial indifference resulting in unprofitability
for the automakers. None of this sounds too anger-inducing, until GM calls in
the leases on every single one of their electric cars and then brazenly
flattens them, a fitting image to illustrate the waste and insensitivity that
define this country to much of the world.
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2006.
