The Proposition

this film was both riviting and exciting, an edge of your seat thrill ride. The directing was notably beautiful and the acting, nothing but sincere. i definatly recomend this film to people everywhere expecting an amaginative story, amazing film making, and exquisit scenery.

Those with ultra-high expectations will of course be disappointed (some crazily over-reactive reviews on this page), but it's basically what you'd expect it to be - a fairly typical, historical/action TV movie made in the late 1990s.

The good sides include the novelty value of a Western-style cattle drive story set in Napoleonic-era Wales; the costumes, location and photography all look good too. There is also some pleasure to be had, albeit a guilty pleasure, in the trashy/camp acting and general feel of it all. Theresa Russell's breathy pouting and eyebrow dynamics reminded me of, say, an episode of Dynasty, with an accent that is sometimes Welsh but mostly an odd hybrid of a leprechaun and Groundskeeper Willie. The plot is the usual stuff - she has a 'quarrelsome-but-lustful' dynamic with her tough-guy ramrod while his brother (the Sheriff) is mad with unrequited love for her, prompting further drama.

It's a bit formulaic and doesn't really engage you emotionally but it flows well enough, as an adventure if nothing else. The fight scenes certainly supply tension. So if light escapism into worlds of historical-action-drama is your thing, then you could do a lot worse than this. Not amazing sure, but watchable.

A lot of movies are so bad they're good. This is not one of them. The brief summary in TV Guide suggested to me that this would be a comedy-western. Western England, maybe. A comedy, definitely not. A drunk does lead a cattle drive for some women who are told women shouldn't be able to do that sort of thing. That concept sounded appealing but never developed the way I would have liked. This movie would likely appeal to the sort of people who liked 'Wuthering Heights.' There is action violence, which might please some people, but in and of itself it didn't do anything for me. A wasted two hours.

Some incredible cinematography... some mediocre acting, a philosophical/ethical storyline.. but I wonder who gave this a 3 and then probably gave Rio Bravo like a 9 or something... sure, this is worthy of some more solidly snotty introspection than I'm probably capable of giving, but going down that road of "western" cinema has led me fairly quickly to this... outside of the cannon of American westerns and Spaghetti westerns.. and the odd Japanese samurai flick.. I thought this was done pretty well.. I laughed at some scenes, I thought of it was trope and I did think there were some better options for the end scenes.. but, all in all, 4 point whatever IMDB?? I mean.. reall?? Look at yourselves... 6.5 for me.. rounded up to 7 just to anger some of you.

I felt that the Proposition was a good period film!

It had a good story line and kept my attention the whole way through!

Overall it is a good film that it worth renting out!