The Proposition – finally White Australia tells its story
Hailed as one of the best Australian movies in decades, The Proposition is a true account of White Australia’s violent and disturbing actions to build a nation. The premise of the movie appears simple, a determined frontier policeman captures two brothers from an outlaw gang. He makes an unholy deal with the middle brother that he must hunt down and kill the eldest or the younger one will hang. Yet as the story slowly unravels across the plain of spinifex country the complexities and contradictions of colonial Australia surface. In reviews much has been made of the violence. I commend the director’s restraint at not showing the massacre of an Aboriginal hill tribe. I believe John Hillcoat shows the real aftermath of violence is in people’s relationships, personal and political. Even violence deemed justified in the form of punishment still leaves the town and audience sickened. I suspect the uncomfortable feeling pervading from the audience is psychological dissonance, as white Australia’s pioneering heroes are shown as misfits, brutes and opportunists. It is concerning the violence and darkness of the film has been attributed to Nick Cave personal melancholic tendencies. This near romanticism of the story diminishes the authenticity of the film. The violent and brutal ways are the tools of colonization. I believe this film will not be shocking to Indigenous Australians, as it only further supports the history we have lived and know to be true.