关键协议

官兵捉强盗的游戏，玩到后来总是分不清谁是官兵，谁是强盗；谁是猎人，谁是猎物。从一场官家围剿强盗的枪战开始的好莱坞电影《猎杀》（“The Proposition”），恐怕就是这么一场官盗难分的格斗。场景，澳大利亚昆士兰内陆；时间，1880年代；背景，无边无际的荒漠，还有如血的残阳。凶悍的强盗，残暴的官兵，粗犷的土著，加上怪石嶙峋的山谷，桀骜不驯的植物，生动地构勒出一副地狱般的图像，从中爆出一群仙人掌一般的人物。







借用剧中人物所念叨的一句莎士比亚台，叫做“这是个什么样的短命地狱！” （“What fresh hell is this?”）当然，这其实不是地狱，而是一部风格雄浑的好莱坞影片。好莱坞似乎很久没有制作如此狂野的片子了，一下子上人回到了遥远的西部片时代。







比起当年的西部片，《猎杀》显然更加狂野和混沌。选择19世纪的澳大利亚内陆作背景，不是为了讲述历史，而是为了将画面做得更加原始。看惯了肥皂剧的美国观众，一定会被混沌初开式的旷野和野兽般的人物震撼得激动不已。在懒洋洋的啤酒中浸泡惯了之后，突然猛喝一口烈酒，会同时杂间火烧火缭和沁人心脾这两种截然相反的感受。







影片在人物塑造上采取了善恶交叉、黑白间杂的手法。强盗中有冷血的大哥阿瑟（Arthur），有小兔子般可怜的小弟麦基（Mikey）；而殖民官府那边，则既有残暴的警察，又有善良美丽的上校夫人，玛莎（Martha）。两位男主角，强盗三兄弟中的老二查理（Charlie）和斯坦利上校（Stanley），则分别站在这两片黑白区域的当中；一个是恶中有善，一个是善中有恶。







基于这样的人物关系结构，影片的两处高潮，分别由可怜的小弟遭笞和善良的上校夫人被奸呈现。上校夫人玛莎在警署里第一次见到才14岁的麦基时，彼此的目光里就同时蕴含了深切的同情。仿佛互为镜子一般，双方都从对方的眼神里，感觉到了自己的命运。后来，玛莎看着可怜的孩子被鞭打得血肉模糊之际，痛苦得晕倒在地。也许是这样的痛苦，致使玛莎最后遭受盗匪带有复仇意味的强奸时，脸上的表情与其说是痛苦的、羞耻的，不如是说麻木的、茫然的。







影片的人物关系结构，仿佛一个刻意安排好的天体运行图。整个宇宙运行的第一个推动，则来自斯坦利上校一个不无古怪又不无慈悲的念头。在一场枪战之后，斯坦利告诉被俘的老二查理，他可以放走查理，条件是把14岁的老三麦基留下作为人质。他让查理回去杀死作恶多端的老大阿瑟，以此换回麦基。于是，查理面临了艰难的选择，在两个兄弟之间，在官府和强盗之间，在和平和暴力之间，也在爱和恨之间，也在善良与邪恶之间，更在个人良心和社会正义之间。







斯坦利上校那个超乎寻常的念头，把查理推进了地狱。虽然影片以相当生动的画面，展示了地狱般的图景；但真正的地狱，却是在查理的内心深处。



最后，查理是如此这般地得以解脱的：救出奄奄一息的弟弟，然后将他埋葬在乱石堆里；再杀死正在强奸上校夫人的同伙，打死恶名昭著的阿瑟、他那个深爱着他查理和麦基的大哥。整个影片的最后一个画面，是查理和垂死的阿瑟，并肩坐在血红的残阳里，坐成二个剪影。阿瑟的脑袋似乎不小心地向前一低，聋拉了下去。镜头轻轻地拉开，一片死寂。







画面是混沌的，手法却是相当精致的，或者说，颇是人为的。影片时不时地让人感觉到明显的雕凿痕迹。比如，麦基被鞭笞的场面，会让人想起梅尔·吉布逊的《基督受难》。饰演玛莎的演员，尽了很大的努力，尽量将角色演得精致和优雅，但导演让她坐在浴缸里向丈夫轻声述梦一段，却处理得犹如恐怖片。那样的构想，还不如让她坐在钢琴跟前、弹奏一曲肖邦来得更富诗意。而且，在钢琴盖上遭受强奸和在书桌上受辱的对比效果，无疑是很不相同的。前者要强烈得多。导演也许被自己设计的画面给征服了，脑子里充满了如何制作恐惧，忘记了影片本意是立足于如何从荒蛮之中拍出诗意。







无论是从画面构思、摄影角度、明暗对比着眼，还是从音乐配置上说，此片原初的构思是一部诗意盎然的警匪片。尤其是有关夕阳的拍摄，可谓用心良苦。几度夕照，一派苍凉。影片还有意识地一再运用剪影，给满目的荒蛮，平添一片片不无雅致的凄美。







有些细节是令人难忘的。麦基遭笞时，同时闪现盗匪山姆（Sam）站在山谷里，像天使般地唱着爱尔兰民歌。在斯坦利上校和夫人玛莎恩恩爱爱的当口，画面上交替出现的是，查理在一个脏兮兮的酒气熏天的小屋里，遇见兰博（Lamb），一个喝得醉意朦胧却依然满口莎士比亚台词的怪人。







虽然这些细节看上去似乎都像是天然浑成的，演员也演得相当自然，但细细一品，不难感觉出刻意的雕琢，带有明显的刀工斧迹。







这么说，当然不是挑剔，而是觉得意犹未尽。好不容易看到如此一部狂野奔放的影片，却被过于细心的经营，做得过犹不及。然而，即便如此，在一派或者嘻嘻哈哈逗乐，或者想方没法媚俗的好莱坞风气里，此片也已然可属上乘之作。假如奥斯卡评奖委员会的诸位大人们不像在下这么挑剔的话，那么应该考虑给个小金人。

By Gary Sun

Notes: Hi Brigid, this article was originally written by me - Gary Sun



‘The Proposition’ And The Exploration Of The Australian Western Genre

In the nineteenth century, the Australian mainland started to be colonized by the Europeans. This period of history is composed of barbarous racial and intra-racial massacres, atrocities and countless people’s blood. The 2005 film ‘The Proposition’ directed by John Hillcoat and screen-scripted by Nick Cave is one of the rarest remarkable texts, which highlights the status of Australian Western genre in the world literature. Through the ingenious use of camera and narrative structure, ‘The Proposition’ authentically depicts the complexity and destructiveness of the modern Western civilization on Australian continent and thus leaves us to reconsider and reevaluate this specific period of history.

‘The Proposition’ tells a fictional story of the British Captain Stanley making a deal with Charlie Burns in order to stop his older brother Arthur’s outrages in town. Charlie has to kill Arthur, otherwise his teenage simpleton brother Mickey will be hanged for rape and murder on the approaching Christmas day. In this essay, the text will be discussed in terms of genre, especially by analyzing the last scene: While Captain Stanley and his wife Martha are having dinner for Christmas, Arthur invades their house and violently turns everything into chaos, and later is shot by arriving Charlie.

The genre of the text is generally classified as Western. Since Western genre was initiated by great American directors John Ford and Howard Hawks during twenties of the last century, Western films have always been linked to the Hollywood. ‘The proposition’ as an Australian version of Western genre, obviously shares many similar elements with the American ones. In the last scene, we can tell those characteristics from the vast and desolate desert outside Captain Stanley’s house, Arthur’s revolver, Charlie’s horse and the tragedy of Captain Stanley who symbolizes the power and authority of the colonial government.

However, Australian bushrangers should not simply be considered as equivalent to American cowboys. According to Jack Sargeant, ‘the American outlaw is pursing a variant of the American Dream, albeit by amoral means, while the Australian bushranger is simply trying to survive against the odds, driven to his cold circumstance’ Hence, Australian Western is perceived as a new genre by combining American Western elements and the unique historicity of Australia together; a new genre which is often named bushranger film. Often the heroic and romantic depiction of outlaws is mythologized and reinforced in classic American texts, not as the authentic reflection of the history. However, in ‘The Proposition’, this idea of heroism is challenged and even rejected. Instead of being legends, bushrangers in ‘The Proposition’ are depicted as ordinary human beings who also make mistakes and bear moral ambiguity.

For example, Arthur is rather portrayed as a romantic and poetic figure in the text: he gallops across the vast desert to rescue his brother; he sits in the sunset and praises the beauty of the nature; he seeks a perfect bond of family; he expresses once that dying alone without the people he loves is horrifying. However in the scene where he takes his revenge on Captain Stanley for the proposition by asking his subordinate Samuel to sing while raping Martha in front of Stanley. When Charlie tells him that Mickey is dead, Arthur doesn’t seem to care and continue praise Samuel’s singing. The image of Arthur suddenly becomes ambiguous. Arthur’s charm and humanism seem to evaporate. Instead, he is turning into a hateful viper.

As the centered character, Charlie’s experience is much more complex than punishing the despicable. He is given the most difficult question in the world: he has to decide which of his brother is going to die. He fails to shoot Arthur on several occasions which demonstrates his struggles. After Mickey’s death, he arrives at Stanley’s house and therefore finds out Arthur’s atrocity. Even though Captain Stanley has breached his proposition, Charlie helps to stop the ongoing tragedy by shooting his brother to death. Charlie’s movements and attitudes are seen as righteous and enlightened since he tries to stop the continuation of violence in town. In fact, however, this character is trapped by great confusion, helplessness and self-contradiction. ‘I’m going to be with my brother.’ Charlie says to Captain Stanley. Even though he is disappointed at Arthur, he still loves his brother. Thus his image is portrayed as passive, struggling and morally ambiguous. What he does should not be seen as a reflection of heroism, but a way to survive under the oppressive and cruel environment. As Jack Sargeant stresses in his article, ‘there is no glamour or heroism here, just the pragmatics of needing to survive over the next few weeks, days, hours, even minutes.’

More importantly, in order to dramatize the epic stories of outlaws, the authority is always depicted as corrupted, oppressive, violent and unjustified in classic American Western films. In fact, ‘The Proposition’ does reflect the brutality of Australian colonial government in Queensland as the authority figure. For instance, to civilize the place, the police office often indiscriminately arrests and tortures local Aborigines, which is referred to the process of assimilation or annihilation. Conflict definitely plays a crucial role in leading and developing the remarkable narratives of Australian bushranger films.

However, character Captain Stanley’s experience slightly contrasts with the classic brutish characteristics of authority figures. ‘I am going to civilize this place’, Stanley’s early line reveals his power and authority straight away to the audience. However, his attempt to seek for real justice shows that he is less insensitive. When Stanley’s superior Captain Fletcher orders him to whip Mickey as punishment, Stanley fights against Fletcher and tries his best to protect Mickey, not only because this would hold the proposition, but also because Stanley believes that it is unfair for Mickey to undertake the punishment. After Mickey being whipped to unconsciousness, Stanley’s talking care of him shows his kindness and humanism. Therefore this character gains some sympathy from the audience in the scene where he gets beaten up and even shot. According to Jane Stadler’s statement, ‘The Proposition’ depicts a series of obliquely related acts of interracial and intra-racial violence and retribution in which heros, villains and innocent parties are ill-defined.’ Therefore, apart from complex racial conflicts, moral ambiguity plays also a key role in making Australian bushranger genre distinctive from the American Western genre.

In addition, a unique Australian Western genre is not only conveyed narratively but also cinematographically in ‘The Proposition’. The text uses the Australian landscape to draw a distinction between Australian and American Western films. Since the story is set in the outback Queensland in the nineteenth century, with the scenery of the desolate and bare desert with numerous flies and unbearable heat, ‘The Proposition’ depicts Australia as an inhospitable and uncivilized ‘fresh hell’. The vast desert landscape in a endless vista is shown in the selected scene where Charlie gallops across the desert to Stanley’s house. Compared with Stanley’s ‘little England’ in the middle of the desert which symbolizes civilization and modernity, the Australian continent seems to be full of dangers and unknowns. This is linked to the argument that, instead of defending something against injustices, Australian bushrangers are more concerned to survive from the dreadful environment. Interestingly, the use of landscapes in ‘The Proposition’ does not only contrast internationally but also intra-nationally. Compared with other Australian bushranger films such as ‘Ned Kelly’, landscapes in ‘The Proposition’ is bright and contrasting in colors. As Rebekah Brammer mentions in her article, ‘silhouettes against blood-orange sunsets are also used at salient point in the story.’ In the selected scene, Arthur sits in the magnificent sunset while bleeding to death. His sad demise contrasted with the landscape emphasizes the conflict between brutality and beauty echoing on the continent.

In conclusion, ‘The Proposition’ tells its own western story of Australian and more focuses on the authenticity of the brutal Australian colonial history rather than mythology of classic outlaws of Hollywood or famous Australian bushrangers such as Ned Kelly. It really brings Australian western genre into a new level, distinguishable from Western stories elsewhere. As the screen-writer Nick Cave says in an interview, ‘we didn’t want it to sound like an American western that had been dumped in Australia. There is a certain incompetence that exists in the Australian character today, a real savagery and cruelty behind that kind of attitude.’ he adds ‘this film is about an isolated community, people struggling in a place where they really have no right to be.’




 Reference:
Brammer, Rebekah, Ned Kelly vs The Proposition: Contrasting images of Colonialism, Landscape and the Bushranger, Metro Magazine, issue 158, September 2008
Hillcoat, John (director) and Cave, Nick (script writer), The Proposition, 2005
Nick Cave and John Hillcoat: The Proposition Interview, futuremoveis, http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/filmmaking.asp?ID=159, 27 February 2006
Stargeant, Jack, Bloodshed Down Under: Mad Dog Morgan And The Proposition, issue 161, June 2009
Stadler, Jane, Landscape Spaces’ Colonial History, Metro Magazine, issue 163, December 2009

Set in the Australian outback in the 1880s, the movie follows the series of events following the horrific rape and murder of the Hopkins family, allegedly committed by the infamous Burns brothers gang.

The film opens in a brothel during a violent gunfight between the police and Charlie Burns' (Guy Pearce) gang, which ends with the deaths of all of the gang members except for Charlie and his younger brother Mikey. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) makes the proposition to Charlie: he and Mikey can go free of the crimes they have committed if Charlie kills his older brother, Arthur (Danny Huston). Arthur is a mercurial psychopath who has become something of a legend and is so vicious that the Aboriginal tribes refer to him as "The Dog Man" and both the police and the Aboriginals refuse to go near his camp. Captain Stanley muses that perhaps the bounty hunters will kill Arthur in time and then states his intention to civilize the harsh Australian wilderness by bringing Arthur to justice and using Mikey as leverage. Charlie has nine days to find and kill Arthur, or else Mikey will be hanged from the gallows on Christmas Day.

We discover why Captain Stanley is intent on taming Australia: he has been forced to move there with his delicate wife, Martha Stanley (Emily Watson), and apparently wants to make it an appropriate place for them to live. The Stanleys were also friends of the Hopkins family, leading Martha to have nightmares about her dead friends and the unborn child one of them is revealed to have carried. Word spreads of Stanley's deal with Charlie, primarily from Stanley's corrupt subordinate, Sergeant Lawrence (Robert Morgan), causing disgust among the townspeople.

Shortly thereafter, Eden Fletcher (David Wenham), for whom Captain Stanley works, orders that Mikey be given one hundred lashes as punishment for the rape and murder of the Hopkins family. Stanley is aghast at this, not only because he believes that Mikey is innocent and the flogging will surely kill him, but because it would also break his deal with Charlie and thus put him and his wife in grave danger. Stanley sends Sergeant Lawrence away with tracker Jacko (David Gulpillil) and other men to "investigate" the reported slaying of Dan O'Riley by a group of Aborigines. Captain Stanley attempts to defend Mikey by gunpoint from the bloodthirsty townspeople, but is overruled once Martha arrives, insisting on revenge for her dead friends. Mikey is then brutally flogged, and horrifically wounded. The formerly excited townspeople slowly become disgusted and Martha faints at the ghastly display. After 40 lashes, Mikey has collapsed and the whip is soaked with blood. Captain Stanley grabs the whip and throws it at Fletcher, staining his face and suit with blood, who in turn fires Stanley.

Meanwhile, Charlie rides a great distance in search of Arthur, drinking and apparently reflecting on what he will do. Along the way, he encounters an inebriated old man named Jellon Lamb (John Hurt). In the course of conversation, Charlie realizes that Lamb is a bounty hunter in pursuit of the Burns brothers and knocks him out. Later on, after sleeping on a rock bed, Charlie awakes and, before he can gather what's going on, is speared in the chest by a group of Aboriginal men standing over him. Seconds later a gunshot is heard and the head of the man who threw the spear explodes. Charlie then passes out.

Charlie wakes up in the camp of his brother Arthur, which is located in caves among desolate mountains. Arthur's gang consists of Samuel Stoat (Tom Budge), who shot the Aboriginal man who had speared Charlie; a woman named Queenie (Leah Purcell) who tends to Charlie's wound; and a muscular Aboriginal man called Two-Bob (Tom E. Lewis). As he recovers from his wounds, Charlie has several opportunities to kill his brother, but does not. Not too far away from Arthur's camp, Sergeant Lawrence and his men have found and butchered a group of Aborigines. Arthur and Two-Bob find Lawrence's group while they sleep, ostensibly to get a horse for Charlie, and proceed to kill Jacko and Sergeant Lawrence. Before Arthur stomps Lawrence to death with his boot, Lawrence tells Arthur that Charlie has been sent to kill him. While this occurs, Jellon Lamb enters Arthur's camp and ties up Samuel and Charlie, both of whom are sleeping. Without his realizing it, Lamb is shot from behind by the returning Arthur. Arthur then proceeds to begin torturing the still-living Lamb with a knife, but Charlie instead performs a mercy-killing.

Charlie decides that he wants to break out Mikey and informs Arthur. Arthur, Samuel and Charlie ride into town dressed in the clothes taken from the officers Arthur and Two-Bob had killed, pulling behind them Two-Bob, posing as an Aborigine that they've captured. Once at the jail, the men free Mikey, and Charlie and Two-Bob ride off with him. Arthur and Samuel remain to slaughter the two officers inside the jail. The badly injured Mikey, who has never recovered from the flogging, dies in Charlie's arms. As they bury Mikey, Two-Bob tells Charlie that all of this is Charlie's fault: "You should never have left us."

Captain Stanley and Martha, who had become increasingly paranoid as they were ostracized by the townspeople after the flogging, let their guard down to have a peaceful, civilized Christmas dinner. Immediately following their conclusion of grace, Arthur and Samuel shoot open the door and invade their home. Arthur pulls Captain Stanley into the other room and brutally beats him, while Samuel taunts his wife. Arthur then calls Samuel to the room. Samuel drags Martha inside, and Arthur shoots Captain Stanley through the shoulder. As Samuel rapes Martha, Charlie walks in and informs Arthur of Mikey's death; Arthur ignores the news and encourages Charlie to listen to Samuel's beautiful singing. Charlie walks up to the unsuspecting Samuel and shoots him point blank in the head, then shoots Arthur twice, saying afterward, "No more." After this Arthur staggers out of the house. Charlie looks at a gun on the table that could potentially be picked up to shoot him, and then tells Captain Stanley "I want to be with my brother." Charlie leaves the house and follows a trail of blood to find Arthur hunched over on a hill nearby and sits down next to him. Arthur states that Charlie has finally stopped him and asks what he will do now, to no answer, and then slowly dies as his brother watches the blood red sunset of the outback.

暴力，血腥，污秽；
粗砺，蛮荒，冷冽；
荒野，落日，骑士；
优美，抒情，诗意……
女人是不合时宜的干净和优雅；
男人是暴力之后的悲哀与孤独。
这是一个善良的人讲述的暴力的故事，
历史尘封背后难以尽述的黑与白，好与坏。
 
看完这部电影，对《末日危途》又有了更多期待……
 
 
月亮对星星说：何时？
伴随他回家的风说：很快。
开始哭泣的乌云说：是谁？
形如枯骨的骑士说：是我。
熔化大地的太阳说：怎样？
拒绝流动的河流说：为何？
一声不响的雷神说：哪里？
拿出手枪的骑士说：这里。

澳大利亚西部片，我有史以来看过的最血腥的片（日本片除外）。白人杀黑人、黑人杀黑人、白人杀白人三部分组成。那种神也救不了你的感觉，英系的沉重，和以前看的“风吹稻浪”、“稻草狗”挺像。可最后那个讨厌的政客还是没有死！音乐很棒，尤其是开头的提琴女童声：There is happy land far far away~~