what was wrong with Cpt. Stanley? - The Proposition (2006) Discussion

[–] tuffysmom 17 years ago

I think she was referring to his tendency to keep things bottled up inside his head and brood over them. He does suffer from migraines, probably due to stress.

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[–] nutsberryfarm 13 years ago

he's one of the most sweaty characters ever.

We're not soldiers and he's not the enemy. He's a pizza man.

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[–] Razzbar 12 years ago

"Migraine" is not a synonym for "headache".

A couple of scenes indicated that he was an alcoholic and twice he was shown using something that may well have been (given the times) some sort of opiate.

You don't need to have anything wrong with you to become an alcoholic and drug addict. Start healthy, wind up sick.

Twenty years of service didn't hurt, either. He could have had PTSD from some event in the past.

He was a very well-developed character with a number of interesting contradictions.

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[–] ray-275 11 years ago

Watched this tonight and I thought already the same - some kind of opiate. In those days, opiates were a kind of "cure all" and his character definately gave the impression of opiate side effects, regardless of his true tendancies or compassion.

Excellent film.

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[–] bear022013-909-645034 10 years ago

Opiates are a blessing for those who need them.Captain Stanley may have had chronic pain?
Ray Winstone's character seemed to be in constant pain/his actions twitching etc.
In America,it is against the law to do anything.Hundreds of elderly patients
in insipid chronic pain commit suicide daily because the Government,The Huge Drug commpanies/DEA and the Bilderbergs say NO.

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[–] taimur74 17 years ago

I think its heavily implied that Stanley was impotent

Arthur Burns is a monster .. an abomination

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[–] lilahlambs 17 years ago

IMPOTENT?! EEKS! I thought he just suffered from migraines! Where was it implied in the movie that he was impotent?

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[–] tuffysmom 17 years ago

When the deputies are gossiping in the tent about their mutual lust (putting it politely here) for Mrs Stanley, someone says "well you know she's not getting it from her husband." This could just be nasty speculation on their part, but 1) they don't have any kids and 2) it seems when she touches him he draws back a bit. And early in the movie when they wake up in the morning, she's sleeping in the bed and he's sleeping in the chair. So while they care for each other very much, you don't get a feel of a physical, sexual connection.

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[–] lilahlambs 17 years ago

I mistook that scene of him sleeping in the chair to be keeping an eye out for Arthur Burns and his gang.I thought Capt. Stanley feared Charlie wouldn't keep his word and come back for him and his wife. I do remember that scene with the deputies,but, again, I thought they were referring to his recurring migraines and because they didn't have any children yet.

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[–] Wauchula 17 years ago

*SPOILERS*
He slept mainly in the chair because after Mikey was flogged, he knew Arthur or even Charlie would be after him. Stanley gave his word to Charlie and in my opinion probably should have been killed for what he did. If you watch the scene during/after the flogging, most believed it was brutal and unnecessary.

I also love the prayer before they are attacked by Arthur during the Christmas dinner. "For what we are about to receive. May the lord make us truly thankful." One can interpret that as the dinner, but I believe it's symbolic for what occurred after the dinner.

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[–] cypherpunk-1 15 years ago

The prayer is just saying grace, it's supposed to be symbolic of Martha being English and the two of them going through the motions of a ritual that is absurd in its irrelevance to the setting.

It's got nothing to do with deserving or being thankful for the beating, torture, rape and murder that Arthur and Sammy are about to do.

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[–] torpedoboy4 15 years ago

"For what we are about to receive. May the lord make us truly thankful."

Maybe she's with Child? A true Christmas miracle. an Immaculate conception even!!

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[–] TheHappySpaceInvader 14 years ago

@cypherpunk

"The prayer ... [has] ... nothing to do with deserving or being thankful for the beating, torture, rape and murder that Arthur and Sammy are about to do."

But [SPOILER ALERT] Arthur and Sammy don't get to practise murder in this particular scene do they? Stanley and Martha are saved at the last minute, and perhaps that's what they're thankful for.

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[–] mbove001 15 years ago

I completely agree with you about the prayer Wauchula

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[–] smahman 15 years ago

Absolutely, hadn't thought about that at all, but wow does that make it darker still. Cave is a twisted man.

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[–] clashwho 15 years ago

Or perhaps to be thankful for being delivered from their captors.

"All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all." -- Matt Hooper, JAWS

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[–] jbhutt0 15 years ago

He knew they'd come after him, the interpretation of the prayer seems spot on. I don't really see how you could think he was deserving of it though, I think the wife was moreso than he was. After all, he did take a stand against the townspeople but when his wife showed up he gave up.

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[–] mxlflx 15 years ago

I 3rd the agreement on the prayer as foreshadowing. THEY WERE SPARED FROM BEING (POSSIBLY JUSTLY) MURDERED, by the grace of their own enemy, despite the beating and rape.

You know how you get to Carnegie Hall don't ya? Practice. ---Lt. Aldo Raines

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[–] covenant12 15 years ago

How would Martha's murder have been in any way, just?

You saw Dingleberries?

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[–] willfor 14 years ago

Stanley was going to call it off, but she made him flog Mikey to death for Arthur's crime. She is just as bad as Arthur, killing for no rhyme or reason and inflicting pain for the sake of it.

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[–] Rick-34 12 years ago

Mikey participated in the rape and murder of her friend and her friend's family. I wouldn't say she desired the flogging just because she enjoyed inflicting pain. She was livid with rage.

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[–] drosen7777 15 years ago

I agree with Pypherpunk-1. The prayer -- like the delicate carving discussion that precedes it -- highlight the contrast between "civilized" British mores and the untamed Outback. No need to overthink this one.

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[–] cmgilliford 14 years ago

When the deputies are discussing Mrs Stanley they do not say that he is impotent they say she is not getting it from her husband because he has other things on his mind like letting one of the brothers go. Yes, the prayer is a standard "grace" said prior to every meal by English and Australian religious households.

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[–] red_wyrn 15 years ago

Its called Irony

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[–] mrkpnkrs 11 years ago

There are a couple of other things as well. Such as her being REALLY affected by the news that her friend was "with child" when she was killed, the recurring dream she has and his reaction to her telling him of it (which, by the way, was one of the best acted scenes in the movie, I thought), and when she was rather sadly looking at children's clothes in a catalog.
I actually didn't pick up on that possibility when watching the movie for the first time, but after thinking back there was quite a few hints.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] TennesseeTarheel 15 years ago

Unless they had Goody's powders back then, I took it to be laudanum or something.

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[–] mmuchall 14 years ago

I agree with the person who suggested that Stanley was impotent. Contrast the barrenness of the landscape with the fecundity of the Burns brothers. The scene after Stanley is attacked with Watson sprawled on the table alludes to a perverse Nativity scene with Stanley as a bloodied newborn. I can't be bothered to watch the ending again but is the final attack carried out by three of the Burns gang? Again this might be suggestive of the 3 Wise Men. And the 'wisdom' they impart is that of our pure, bleak, vicious, evolutionary nature that the John Hurt character has already commented on.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] subase 14 years ago

Stanley's impotency was more psychological than physical. (his wife could have not been able to conceive) His wifes desire for a child was compensative and based on her lack of faith in the world, herself and her husband. Stanley didn't have the stomach to appease her perverted desires. Yet he wasn't able to offer her an alternative either.

Stanley was the only man with a sense of justice in the entire film. Yet he constantly is foiled and betrayed in his attempts, by his own men and even by his own wife.

The lack of fecundity exemplified by him is the death of his ideas and them not growing in this land. Instead the only thing that grows is barbarity, hate and pain.

The ending of the film where Guy Pearce chooses to stop what is taking place. (unlike before) Symbolizes hope for Stanley's ideals. 'the proposition' offered by Stanley to Guy Pearce was rooted in a belief in redemption, justice and forgiveness. At the end of the film even though Stanley's beliefs were naive, his belief in them existing in Guy Pearce turned out to be true.

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[–] rc-108 10 years ago

I like Subase's post.

I agree with that.

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[–] Galtwotwenty 12 years ago

Sorry all of you self-schooled psychics:

The prayer, "for that which we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly grateful" is nothing more than a simple, standard and very frequently used blessing said before meals when those at the table bow for "grace" to be said.

I am not English nor Australian - I am a Southern Baptist in the states and my family iterates this exact line every night before mealtime when someone is called to say "grace". Oftentimes the one saying grace will add another line before or after that one, but some of us just say this one line. No "foreshadowing" or double entendres - y'all are reading way to much into it.

Yet, I digress, I clicked on this thread because I thought it might be speaking to the little packets of powder the Captain was taking for medicinal purposes. He would empty them into his mouth, and his wife was emptying them in his drinks. I was wondering what this substance was. He was taking them I believe for migraines, but what was it?

Someone on here said laudanum, but I'm thinking that it couldn't be that, because that stuff - which is opium - really alters you when you are taking a lot of it. Remember Lily Bart in House of Mirth? So, it could have been chloral hydrate ( ? ) Anyone else have ideas?

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[–] checkerouterofthings 11 years ago

" Oftentimes the one saying grace will add another line before or after that one, but some of us just say this one line. No "foreshadowing" or double entendres - y'all are reading way to much into it."

The difference is this is a film, in which anything, especially during a final climactic scene, is apt to be symbolic. The allegory of the nativity scene mentioned earlier is an interesting read. At some point I intend to have another look at the ending to investigate.

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