Seconded. Searing, unceasing, bleak, The Proposition (2005) is almost an alternative Western. Landing on a separate register than most, the Proposition pulls the Outback into this hellish domain of spiritual purgatory and affliction where endurance and sanity are banished outright. Compounded to this, the actors are landscapes of their own. Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, Danny Huston, David Wenham, John Hurt. The wrinkles and grimaces complement the terrain as they dance together “in the pale moonlight”. The lyricism of the pain and the journey soak in and the encounter basks in its own glow of blight. A gem of the genre and its own beast.
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And it highlights the similarities between the Australian outback and the American frontier during that era so well. The differences are still distinct, but most of the story could easily be relocated and it’d work just as well.
That, to me, might be the most fascinating thing about it- that historical concept. I’m kind of disappointed that we don’t see more in the genre from Australia. There’s a frontier revenge story that is nothing short of a harrowing experience in The Nightingale, from Jennifer Kent (writer/director of The Babadook), and a mediocre modern western in Red Hill, but not much else.
I guess there’s Quigley Down Under as well, but that is definitely more of a fun watch than a particularly good one.
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I’m tempted to coining The Proposition (2005) an Australian lent by how the geography, cinematography, and Nick Cave’s chords transform it to a pitch I hadn’t seen in a Western. You’re right you could relocate the story to the American West and fairly faithfully. What the locale and regional quirks give it is a life that could almost be a subgenre in the Western were more movies made in its footsteps. I vividly reflect on when I ran into it and it is unique among any Western I’ve witnessed. The psychedelic fervently of the visuals, ardent despondency of the acting, and sour feel of the mood place it as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) of the form and were others willing a distinct path to skin the Western.
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There was a short-lived Western series set in Australia starring Peter Graves called ‘Whiplash’ that I have seen a few episodes of and enjoyed.
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Hello, I’m Whiplash and I go to the University of Canberra.
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What does everyone think of the more modern westerns like Longmire? I tried to get into it, watched the first two seasons and likes it okay until it fell apart with all of the love triangles and killing off of the interesting characters.
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@LadyShelley The present Western borders on too bleak and one-noted in my reckoning. Joy, euphoria, amusement, contentment, you fail to bump into that in modern oaters. The contemporary nervousness, nowadays hand wringing, and customary depression in vogue in umpteen contemporary films weighs most of today’s westerns in a grave demeanor not too far from No Country For Old Men (2007). I’m fine with seriousness. Having no variety in tone and being served the same seasoning often grows tiresome. Saying that, good westerns exist these days whereas I deem them less than what came prior.
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I agree. I haven’t watched many of the modern Westerns, but what I have seen are just too dour. I grew up with the oldies where, even with serious themes, the Westerns always ended right. That doesn’t mean there’s no complexity. I saw an episode of Cheyenne that my dad was watching (which coincidentally had the crazy doctor from The Brain that Wouldn’t Die in it) where a person in the town had cheated a number of the residents and then been beaten because of it. He was trying to get away from the justifiably irate townsfolk, and there were murderous threats being made. Cheyenne steps in, mostly to stop the townsfolk from taking that step too far in killing the man. He agrees that the man was wrong, that he was a criminal but he doesn’t want them to go that far.
And they do stop and, if I remember correctly, wait for a marshal to come to the town and see that justice is done.
Still a good ending but some complex discussions. And much more upbeat.
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I agree modern westerns (along with most modern sci-fi) is under the impression it must be dour and bleak in order to be taken “seriously”. I suspect it’s part of the issue with genre productions in general. Westerns and sci-fi were always seen as ‘lesser’ dramas which I always thought was hilarious considering some of the topics they would tackle. It is what it is. Give me a show or a movie with some humor and characters that want to be around each other any day.
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All y’all are describing why I avoid the lae '60s/early '70s era. Nihilism and narcissism reigned supreme. The sometimes hokey aspects of the post-war era was replaced with utter cynicism. It’s a drag, baby. And the damage was permanent*.
When the studios realized they could actually make money (thank you Jaws and Star Wars) they started reviving that old '50s-style ethos in the '80s action films, which is why those are often a lot of fun. But they’re also hyper-shallow. If you look back at the old Westerns, there were plenty of White Hat/Black Hat cartoonish oaters but nuance was the norm. They reflected a troubled attitude about, e.g., Indians and gunfighters and railroads and farmers vs. cattlemen, etc.
Overall, though, there was a conviction that the culture was going to survive, that it deserved to survive, and that we would work things out somehow for the best. The '60s just killed that dead.
* 
Nothing lasts forever
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Agree that most of the modern ones are too dark. Sometimes I find Gunsmoke too dark - anything darker than that is too damn dark.
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I like 'em dark, and many of those 60s-70s films do reflect the times – coming to terms with Vietnam, for example - or in Italy, where you had a lot of anti-heroes, dealing with corrupt powers, bureaucracies, much of this, even their comics, were a reaction to the Mussolini era, a push back, that still found it’s way into 60s cinema and other media (even their comic books).
There are messages and ideas in these if you look close enough - Josey Wales, for example, it’s not just a ‘simple revenge at all costs’ thriller as some say - by the end, you have a call for peace (Wales conversation with Ten-Bears), of forgiveness (come home, the war is over). What does Wales do, but assemble a family of diverse people who’ve been hurt and displaced, and who eventually start anew… survive. Does that sound like the 60s killed hope dead?
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I’m with you, the more grit the better.
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Forget it, Jake. It’s just Chinatown.
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I’m just the opposite. I don’t need gritty, and bleak, and “real” in my fantasy world. The real world has all of that in spades. If I’m going to watch something, or read something, I want to be able to enjoy it, not be brought down even more.
Does that mean everything needs to be sunshine and rainbows? Of course not. But likeable characters? Yes. A storyline that has a reasonably happy ending? Yes.
Call me shallow, but I don’t need any more heavy in my life at the moment.
Give me campy BSG over the everyone is a Cylon and no hope future of recent BSG.
Give me a fun shows like High Chaparral or Wild, Wild West or Maverick over a lot of the more recent western fare. Even Tombstone for as much as I think it is a great movie, I need to be in the right frame of mind to watch it.
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Movies, like any art form, reflect life, be it the happy, or the ugly - some of it is pure entertainment fun, some of it can be painful. Kobayashi’s Harakiri, for one, is brutal, but it’s saying something important that needs to be heard, needs to be brought out into the light.
I want it all, whether it’s escapism or the painful truth, whether it’s grounded in reality or flights of fancy. Inform me, delight me, inspire me, or gut me to the point of tears.
If I need to run away, I can watch a comedy, MST3K makes me feel light and happy. But I also find it cleansing to stare into the dark - listening to an angry or sad song, for example, clears out the poison, it’s cathartic.
Take “Logan”, which dips its toes into western mythos - it can hurt, it’s dark, but there’s also hope. So yeah, even those types of fantasy movies, I’m drawn to them, not because it’s sorrow for sorrow’s sake, but for all the ideas and feelings it brings to the table, amongst that sorrow. I find it moving.
But yeah, I know, forget it Jake…
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But is it… true grit?
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The grittiest grit that ever gritted in Grittown!
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… that IS gritty!
If that were any grittier, it would be a hockey mascot…
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Preach, sister!
I have very broad tastes; my objection is not really about taste. For example, I did go to see Melancholia, The Lobster, Anomalisa, Son of Saul, etc. etc. etc. Some of 'em liked, some of 'em I didn’t. Doesn’t really matter.
What does matter is the message the art of a civilization sends. And if we say, well, yes, some very great movies have come from a dark place (and some even lead to a dark place), but also the prevailing message has shifted. As Will Durant wrote (and as was featured in the opening of Apocalypto):
“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within”
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