关键协议

'When?' said the moon to the stars in the sky
'Soon' said the wind that followed them all

'Who?' said the cloud that started to cry
'Me' said the rider as dry as a bone

'How?' said the sun that melted the ground
and 'Why?' said the river that refused to run

and 'Where?' said the thunder without a sound
'Here' said the rider and took up his gun

'No' said the stars to the moon in the sky
'No' said the trees that started to moan

'No' said the dust that blunted its eyes
'Yes' said the rider as white as a bone

'No' said the moon that rose from his sleep
'No' said the cry of the dying sun

'No' said the planet as it started to weep
'Yes' said the rider and laid down his gun



诗一样的西部片
情节、配乐、对话、旁白都透着Nick Cave的调调


Adieu, said the bird in the branch of a tree
Farewell, said the snakes to the dying light
Adieu, said the fish in the river of sleep
Goodbye, said the rider,"Goodbye and good night"

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

这个电影豆瓣上的评论都不靠谱
导演的讲故事的能力有待提高
音乐很好，电影颜色也不赖，台词值得细细品
我根本就不明白一开始的枪战片是怎么回事
寻亲复仇似乎没有逻辑
到结尾杀掉Arthur更没有道理
The Burn's Family三兄弟就这样莫名其妙地被残杀
貌似王家卫的风格，不过故事连不成串
一个叫Eliza Hopkins的poor woman
had a child in her belly
不知道谁是凶手死了
剧中暗示Micky是rapist
可是又说Arthur是一个abomination
so Charlie被派去杀他的哥哥Arthur
中间还有一个疯疯癫癫的老头
不管怎么地，冲着音乐也值得一看。

"When?" said the moon to the stars in the sky.
"Soon," said the wind that followed him home.
"Who?" said the cloud that started to cry.
"Me," said the rider, as dry as a bone.
"How?" said the sun that melted the ground.
"Why?" said the river that refused to run.
"Where?" said the thunder without a sound.
"Here," said the rider, and took up his gun.

"No," said the stars to the moon in the sky
"No," said the trees that started to moan
"No," said the dust that blinded his eyes
"Yes," said the rider and pointed his gun.
"No," said the moon that rose from his sleep
"No," said the cry of the dying sun
"No," said the planets that started to weep
"Yes," said the rider and laid down his gun.

"Adieu," said the bird in the branch of a tree
"Farewell," said the snake to the dying light
"Adieu," said the fish in the river of sleep
"Goodby," said the rider, "Goodbye and goodnight"

先摘录Nick的访谈的几个我很赞同的片段（转自伊万的BLOG，谢谢你的翻译）：
《关键协议》里的英雄比较阴暗，你可能会同情某个人物，同时觉得另一个人物是罪有应得的，但到最后，你却分不清哪个人是值得同情的，而哪个人是罪有应得的。有时候你会觉得自己和某个角色的想法一致，但后来又觉得和另一个角色的想法一致了。这些角色都在被他们的愚蠢所慢慢毁灭。

对我来说，片中唯一的恶棍是那个霸占小镇并且施加暴力的人。

但是从这部电影所要表达的中心意义来说，这是一群本不该待在这片土地上的人的故事，也许地球上本来就该有一些地方不该被人类占据。

看封面似乎不是我喜欢的风格，两个拿枪的男人；看介绍也并不能打动我，3兄弟之间的生死抉择。但是看完后爱不释手，不断回放，欲哭无泪。拍出让人哭的戏很容易，让人笑的戏也很简单，而让观众看完后愣在那里的戏就很难的，要真的有料才可以。

画面很美，音乐很赞，对于暴力画面的处理也恰到好处，很适合我这种暴力阈限很低的人。

这个戏里面没有英雄，只有恶棍，矛盾的恶棍。比起完美的英雄，我更容易被恶棍所打动。坏人ARTHEN和弟弟聊天的那节反反复复看了3遍，即使对于杀人不眨眼的大坏蛋来说family也能让他变得可爱起来。
Cave的剧本写得很赞，一个完美的结局！弟弟杀掉了自己很崇拜却做了很多坏事的哥哥，结束了一场本该无休止的浩劫和苦难。如果说有比家庭更重要的东西，那就是正义和宽恕了吧！这也是让人类高尚起来的原因吧。

音乐，没有统一的主题和色调，但是配合每一个画面又是那么的完美。象戏梦巴黎一样，看完后就会想找原声，可是找到后发现没有了画面的音乐似乎就没有那么的让人惊艳。

里面有的SAMULE似乎是个不折不扣的坏人，可是他的一段SOLO声音美的让人无语。用arthen的话就是you shamed all night bird不知道CAVE赋予这个人物这么美好的声音的原因何在，我想不明白。

记者（以下简称“记”）：《关键协议》是怎么成型的？
Nick Cave（以下简称“NC”）：我和导演John Hillcoat认识有20来年了，在这20年里有18年他都在想着去拍一拍澳大利亚西部，并且由我来负责做音乐部分。我和他一起工作已经18年了，到最后，他拿了个从美国西部故事改编成的澳大利亚西部片剧本给我，其实我们都知道这根本不是我们想要的东西。他说：“好了，滚【文明用语】蛋，你来写。”就这样，我就开始干了并且在三周内完成了剧本。当时我并不想花很多时间，因为我不想花时间在我自己认为根本不可能成功的事上。但是在经过多年的困难之后，John还是成功了。

记：写这个剧本时，你受美国西部片的影响大吗？
NC：我认为John受70年代的那股反西部片风潮的影响很大。一般澳大利亚人对自己的历史的看法和美国人看待自己历史有很大不同。我们没有接触诸如黑人问题或者恶棍与英雄之类的东西。我们对历史更加有抵触心理，而且感觉到一种不确定性甚至羞耻。我认为我们基本上可以把自己的历史看成是一个失败和无能的过程。我对凯利党的印象很深。《关键协议》里的英雄比较阴暗，你可能会同情某个人物，同时觉得另一个人物是罪有应得的，但到最后，你却分不清哪个人是值得同情的，而哪个人是罪有应得的。有时候你会觉得自己和某个角色的想法一致，但后来又觉得和另一个角色的想法一致了。这些角色都在被他们的愚蠢所慢慢毁灭。

记：能不能再多谈一些澳大利亚人对自己历史的理解？
NC：恩……不知道你有没有看过那些在美国的黑人接受私刑的照片，那些白人就站在那那么看着，甚至还带着他们的孩子，就好象把看私刑当成了一种娱乐。我不认为他们的这种行为说明他们就没希望了。但是从这部电影所要表达的中心意义来说，这是一群本不该待在这片土地上的人的故事，也许地球上本来就该有一些地方不该被人类占据。我发现那种在看鞭打刑罚时挂在人们脸上的对暴力的入迷是我们最原始的本能。我认为，我们越进步，实际上得到的结果却是相反的。这是你的本性，也是我的本性。种族仇恨、种族仇杀、谋杀都是人类最基本的本性。实际上我觉得人类做得比这些还要多，我们手中所拥有的科技手段越发达，也就意味着我们学会了更快更有效的毁灭人的方法。

记：你为什么没演个角色？
NC：这是JOHN的意思。（笑）

记：作为一名剧本创作者，你都受了什么影响呢？
NC：我不是特别爱电影的那种，但是我看了很多很多电影。我对电影的爱好不能和我对音乐或者文学的爱好相提并论。比如说，当我听一首歌的时候我通常会带着分析的眼光来听，我会对这首歌发问，为什么会这样进行？歌词为什么会这样？我对文学也是一样。我对语言及其运用非常感兴趣。对待电影我则比较随意了，来到DVD商店，买4张DVD，回家坐下开始看，不用动脑子。我可能会觉得某部伟大的作品很傻。你只是打开屏幕，开始看，无论好坏通吃。现在我脑子里有一大堆烂片、一般电影和佳片的储备，他们都影响了我。我经常在看电影时发问“他们干嘛要这样拍？”，“这样进行会更有趣嘛”

记：你给《关键协议》写剧本时也在同时制作影片的背景音乐吗？
NC：是的，剧本和音乐的进程是同步的，我觉得这个剧本很音乐化。

记：你有没有让片中某个角色做你的代言？
NC:没有，但是我很同情他们。对我来说，片中唯一的恶棍是那个霸占小镇并且施加暴力的人。

记：那个很有权势架子的人？
NC：是的（笑），我想让其他的角色以不同的方式受到同情，不管他们多么邪恶。唯一能让你觉得同情的角色是那种能够影射到自己的角色。我认为，他们都在我们身上体现出来了。

记：你有没有去片场？
NC：没，但是在开拍前我曾去过一次，并和演员一起做了一次排练，重写了他们认为演起来不舒服的地方。

记：拍摄地看起来很热？
NC：是啊，非常热，接近50度，不是一般人能承受的。好多戏都是在室内完成的，就更热了。场景是在沙漠里建的，由于太热的原因吧，有些设备失灵了。我不太了解具体情况，但确实他妈太热了。

记：西部片是一种很具延展性的片种，你在写剧本时就知道哪些元素会出现在影片里吗？
NC：不，实际上我门也不知道在拍摄中会发生什么。基本上都是JOHN在工作室，而我在做乐队的唱片“No More Shall We Part”。他把一个关于澳大利亚西部的故事拿过来，我看了一下，我们俩都觉得不太理想。随后在录唱片时，我就想到“如果安排三个兄弟怎么样？”，所以之后我就有了故事的前提。我开始写了，很明显得，故事不会朝一个美好结局发展。

记：在《关键协议》里有很多对暴力的想象，这是谁的主意？
NC：JOHN对暴力很感兴趣，他的前两部电影都很暴力。我认为他对暴力的后果和暴力将带你何去何从这样的话题很感兴趣。当他拍摄关于暴力的东西的时候，就会拍得很快很野蛮。人们说这是一部很暴力的电影，但是我不以为然。你看很多HOLLYWOOD出来的片子都非常暴力，有些剧本写出来就是为了表现大量的暴力元素。比如说我一直不太喜欢看塔仑蒂诺的片子。所以我说JOHN处理暴力的方式还是很现实的，暴力其实也是一种讲故事的方式。

记：作曲比你写剧本花得时间长是吗？
NC：是的，给影片配乐是一件非常难的工作，不是简单地垒砖块那么容易。对我个人来说，这也许是最困难的部分。当别人都开始试着写歌的时候，我还坐在办公室里在苦想要写些什么好。我被自己那些累人的想法以及脑子里的乱七八糟的东西搞地很累。这种写歌的习惯很难跨越。但是当我写剧本的时候，我只需要坐在那，有人对我说：“写一个澳大利亚西部故事。”我不需要过分担心，我需要做得就是坐在那，创造一些角色，然后让故事进行下去就行。