I turned this movie off halfway through because i was bored out of my skull. Then i come here and it's got a high rating. Granted, it's got a good storyline, good acting, nice cinematography, but somehow still managed to bore me to tears. That happens a lot too and those flicks have a high user rating. i know there are tons of wanna be movie buffs out there, and i'm sure they will respond to this, but seriously, why does boring always equal good?
shareJust as "beauty" is in the eye of the beholder, so is "boring." Really a matter of opinion, in other words.
For example, you mentioned "Back to the Future III" as one of the "5 best Westerns":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381849/board/thread/85476185?d=87570681#87570681
Now that's an opinion many people (particularly Western aficionados) will not share. :)
Too bad you turned it off halfway through, because the ending totally rocks.
shareOh no, I've seen the whole movie multiple times.
Definitely a film I won't get tired of any time soon.
Yeah, this is a definite re-watchable film. Really heavy. But never boring. And I for one would love to know the answer to Arthur Burns' last question.
My only real complaint: Spoiler warning:
The spear Charlie takes. You ain't just going to get over that. No way in hell. You won't be aback of a horse in months. That is months plural. That is, if you lived at all. But other than that, the violence was some of the best depictions yet.
"What does it do?" Do? "It doesn't DO anything. That's the beauty of it." Jacques Heim/Louis Reard
yeap, I agree with you.
I think the reason is that most "wanna be movie buffs" can get by on a good storyline, good acting, and nice cinematography. What more could one need? Okay, admittedly: No explosions, no nudity, and no car chases -- all of which I enjoy in a movie, by the way -- but some of us can live without that stuff and not consider a movie boring.
I have to say, though, the landscape was really bleak. Maybe that's why you found it boring?
I liked the movie, but had a nagging feeling that there wasn't a central narrative-- though the individual pieces were well done (acting, sets, etc.). The inevitable violence around the corner of each well-acted part made the experience a bit harrowing, emotionally... though not boring, to me.
Interestingly, for others who didn't think the narrative flowed very well, they felt the landscape was the thing that played a central standout role that tied it all together.
See the following article, which does a good job of "consider[ing] the film’s representation of settler portraits in relation to its themes of indigeneity, family and landscape":
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/38/proposition.html
Excerpt: "...the landscape can... narrate, which is precisely what it does in The Proposition. ...the end result is a masterful (and I think realistic) representation of the Australian outback, which is invariably as vast and majestic as it is claustrophobic and unforgiving. Ideas of land are never far from notions of home and family, and the film thoughtfully recognizes these links."
heres the deal. you are just ONE person. simply YOU finding it boring doesnt mean it officially IS boring. get it??
share"heres the deal. you are just ONE person. simply YOU finding it boring doesnt mean it officially IS boring. get it?? "
Thanks for the update. But i did some research. This movie IS officially boring. Stand by for my findings.
cant wait for the deeply scientific revelation that you just didnt understand it.
share[deleted]
Sense of humour - do some research on that
You've got red on you
1. This movie is not in any form or way trying to conform to what a "Western" is. If you were expecting long dramatic gunfights with explosions, go wacth something else.
2. Often times british (or in someway british related) movies trim down a bit on excess "action" in place for plot twists, interesting characters..smart stuff. I'm cool with it.
3. The movie is a drama flick. The dark-natured, sinister vibe through out the film that just about everyone in the film can play a "bad guy" except Martha + the here and there graphic/different/torture-deaths are the meat of the movie.
Even that prissy,goody-goody britan Flecther is a kind of villan under the mask of "doing right by the law" thing.
Boring is subjective
"Kind" of a villain? There's a few villains in The Proposition, and Fletcher seemed one of the more obvious. Either he should have been dropped from the script(his role is historically incongruous anyway), or had his Spaghetti trappings ramped up; certainly he could have balanced out John Hurt's weirdness.
share"This movie IS officially boring."
Where by "officially" you mean "this is my opinion, but I'm going to state it more loudly."
The Proposition is one of my favorite films. It's not remotely boring.
And that's "official."
I'm with you on this one Brian. Both my husband and I sat there tempted to turn it off, though there was nothing better on at the time so we sat it out. I thought it lacked pace, I thought the story was far from gripping, admittedly it did improve towards the end. Too much gazing at bleak landscapes from Guy Pearce for my liking! First Guy Pearce movie I have seen that I haven't enjoyed.
share"Too much gazing at bleak landscapes from Guy Pearce for my liking!"
But it was bleak. That's the point. Here you have a wasteland where immigrants are thrown into and have to survive. Factor in the unbearable heat and deadly insects/animals and you have the complete opposite of the UK and Ireland.
I thought that the movie perfectly captured that hell.
It's best to lie back, turn out the lights and let yourself absorb the atmosphere of this wonderful piece.
The score is also one of the finest i've heard in a long time. I can't wait to see What John Hillcoat does with 'The Road'.
I will also agree that i was bored at times, considering all of the reviews that this movie got. I also enjoy Guy Pearce a lot and he was the reason I rented this movie, but I wasn't that impressed. I'm sure you could play a good drinking game to how many times Captain Stanley said "martha" in this movie..and that annoyed me too.
share[deleted]
@deadbydesign------------Not very good grammar from someone who is intellectually superior.
You've got red on you
"That happens a lot too and those flicks have a high user rating"
There's your problem right there. It happens a lot. I just think you don't have the patience to appreciate it. Which is a shame, cause it's a great film.
What's funny is that the OP admitted not even finishing the movie before inquiring about its high rating.
The film is not that slow, folks.
Sergio Leone directed a couple of flicks set in the west that move slower than this one, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West.
Of course those two films must be crappy because they move slowly and have a lot of shots of the landscape in them.
I guess it just comes down to the fact that "boring" is an opinion; I loved this film.
shareThis film was boring. The only good part was the blowing of the head. That was the only lively part of the film, that also incorporated humour :)
By the way, I'm Australian, and I'll admit, 9/10 of our movies suck.
Let's see here ... you basically don't like any of your country's movies (90% of the time) thus you think this movie "sucks".
You also think the best part of "The Proposition" was when an aborigine's head is reduced to bloody skull and brain fragments. I didn't see what was humorous about this or other violent parts in the film.
In other words, I don't think you're a very good source for information, "mate".
:)
I'd like to insult you, but to be quite frank, your comment speaks for itself.
shareI'm sorry my standards aren't as high as yours. I obviously do not know anything about movies, because I found a boring movie...boring.
But yeah sorry, you're right. I'm obviously an idiot, and you ARE better then me :)
Ha,...well said man.
You're not a writer Fink, you're a goddamn write off
Ha, I would make fun of you and say "it's called an attention span" or something like that, but I do somewhat agree. I place this movie on my list of "boring, good movies". Most highly-regarded british films (Gosford Park, I believe it was called) bore me to tears.
share[deleted]
Dude, you didn't even finish the movie. Some films require more than one viewing to sink in. It's called art, and if you aren't patient enough to let something work its magic, you'll never progress beyond the most instantly gratifying motion pictures.
Not every movie is a shot or a beer...some are like wine...they require time to breathe.
"Boring" is usually in the eye of the beholder. You seem to like Jerry Maguire, a film I find much more boring than The Proposition. Cliches are boring to me, but you may find them comforting right now. Some people never get beyond the thrill of simply recognizing cliches, I feel bad for those people...they're really missing out on lots of great movies.
The only solution is to work a little. Once you've grown used to the idea that all films aren't going to "immediately" satisfy your need for action or dramatic fireworks, you can start to appreciate the subtleties that are the mark of truly great filmmaking. It's a slow process at first, but a worthwhile one. I can now watch almost any movie and get something out of it...from a trashy action flick to an 18 hour German film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. But it all started when I decided to trust the critics (and their "boring" tastes) and make a distinction between "art" and "entertainment".
Eventually, art BECOMES entertainment, and (later, after you've learned to identify art) entertainment BECOMES art. This second breakthrough is the big one...it lets you know you've moved on to a higher level of film appreciation. You'll know you've hit it when you start to like familiar movies for entirely new reasons...noticing things you never noticed before...camera angles, references to other films, inventive story structure, symbolism, thematic consistency.
Isn't all that preferable to shutting off the best Western in the past 15 years before finishing it?