Set in Australia in the 1880s, the film opens in the middle of
a frenzied gunfight between the police and a gang of outlaws. Charlie Burns
(
Guy Pearce) and his brother Mikey are captured by Captain Stanley (
Ray Winstone). Together with their psychopathic brother Arthur (
Danny Huston),
they are wanted for a brutal crime.
Stanley makes Charlie a seemingly impossible proposition in an attempt to bring an end to the cycle of bloody violence. Charlie is released to hunt down his murderous older brother in order to save his younger brother from the noose.
I really liked this movie, it was a western movie with a twist being done in Australia, I really felt the drama being played out in this show and you really got the feeling of how tough it was in that time period.
Captures the reality of life during the settlement of Australia which was a penal colony for the British Isles. It`s the wild west "Aussie rules" style.
It`s hot, dry and dirty. It`s violent, but more than that it comments on the implications of violence; a violent act can be committed in a moment and then take decaded, if not generations, to run the course of its impact. Wow, this flick has a lot to offer. It`s one of the best westerns I`ve seen in years...and one with a moral complexity which makes the line between `the good, the bad and the ugly` difficult to discern.