Flies breadwinners

The “proposal” from Nick Cave on the screens of Western according to the script of the Australian rock musician: what could be louder than such a recommendation, especially for Kave's fans. By the way, the music for the film “Offer” is also his, and another question, which of the hypostases - the screenwriter or composer - in this case was more important for the leader of The Bad Seeds. Of course, the picture has a reliable director John Hillkout and charismatic actors, but it so happened that it was Nick Kave that turned out to be the main star of the project, although he did not appear in the frame.

His handwriting and style are already painfully recognizable here: in everything, to the smallest details, it is felt that the author of a tough but bright novel and a donkey of the Angel of God and fascinating albums like “Murder Ballads” had a hand. It is unlikely that anyone else is able today with such a sequence to look for an elevated one in darkness and death, and so literally establish a plot in biblical passions. However, the Kave chose a fertile nature and texture for the tragic history for composed by him: Australia of the 19th century, deserted, wild, albeit pretty. At first, the landscape can recall the Wild West: the scorching sun, the wooden oxits on lean soil, and visiting Anglo-Saxons, which are trying to survive on a horse and survive with a gun in a harsh edge. But unlike America, the white Australians were more closely connected by their origin with exiles and convicts, the outcasts of the empire, and, and, apparently, not so much with the indigenous population as among themselves. And the film immediately makes it clear to the public how dashing the people before us: the “proposal” begins with a deafening shootout, during which the English Captain Stanley (analogue of the local sheriff) tries to cover the Burns brothers in the barn. Representatives of the authorities, of course, win, but among the captured criminals is not the oldest and dangerous brother, whose atrocities are afraid of even natives. Then the captain retires to his middle brother, Charlie Burns, and offers the deal: he will lure the leader from his cave shelter somewhere in the nearby mountains and thereby save the youngest of the brothers from the hanging of the youngest, who still sits hostage. Charlie understands that he cannot abandon the proposal, but also can not betray one brother for another. He is nullly advanced to the den of his brother-zver, without making any decision.

The captain, meanwhile, begins trouble with other representatives of the authorities: why, they say, released the bandit? The initiator of the transaction is also forced to defend his prisoner, that very younger brother, on which the population was eloquent in robberies and robberies. Everything is like in a real strong western: simple and convincing motivations, convex characters without compromises and absolute ledness to concepts of honor - for strong spirit. The selection of actors is accurate: the powerful Ray Winston in the role of the captain leaves no doubt that he will hold back the word at all costs, and the subtle overgrown Guy Pier in the image of Charlie is the very doubt in half with the internal struggle. The piercing lyrical stream in the absolutely masculine story is introduced by the captain’s wife performed by the reverent Emily Watson: the English lady is trying to breed roses and celebrate Christmas with a Christmas tree even in the middle of the desert.

However, the spectators of the "proposal" must keep in mind that the picture could not do without violence and cruelty. It is worth preparing for a significant portion of cannon fodder and an almost constant presence in the frame of buzzing flies: corpses, heat - well, you yourself understand. But these flies, apparently, the same attribute of Australian reality 100-pseudo-years ago, like horses, trunks and wide-brimmed cowboy hats.

04/19/2006 / Ekaterina Chen Material published in the newspaper No. 69 dated 04.20.2006.