the proposition

just a quick jot while it's still fresh in the old noggin.

we saw Nick Cave's The Proposition last night.

i think it can be highly likened to Murder Ballads - it's gorgeous, extremely finely-crafted, well produced, well performed, replete with internal integrity, etc, but at the end of the day it's still a bunch of romantic songs about people killing people, and i just don't enjoy listening to it any more.

about two thirds of the way into The Proposition, i woke to the fact that just because it's gorgeous and finely-crafted, i still don't need to watch it or confuse "gorgeous" for "should be watched" or "should have been made". but i hung in there. until i realized that a rape scene was imminent, at which point i fled the theater. actually i pushed and shoved my way out of the theater and i apologize to my friends for that.

it's a pity because the australian frontier racial & other cultural stuff was pretty darned fascinating and well-done, and the movie in general was incredibly powerful. i believe that Cave can generate that same emotional power & beauty without the vehicle of penultimate violence, and i hope he does so in future films.


also,
one final nit with the hip violent movie industry in general,
specifically Cave the immensely popular Tarantino:
guys, can we dispense with the whole rather tired image of The Deeply Evil And Violent Man Cum Mystical Sage, please ? thanks.