History Film / TheProposition

[[quoteright:198:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Menacers.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:198:Arthur, Charlie, and Cpt. Stanley all [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou threaten the camera.]]]]

* DullSurprise: Arthur's reaction when his brother Charlie, fed up with his sociopathic behavior, [[spoiler: shoots him in the stomach after shooting Sam in the head]].

* KarmaHoudini: Eden Fletcher. Other than being humiliated a couple of times, no real harm comes to him even though he was to a large extent responsible for much of what went wrong with Captain Stanley's deal with Charlie.

* SeqsquipedalianLoquaciousness: Both bounty hunter Jellon Lamb and outlaw Arthur Burns pride themselves in being cultured and well-read, and adopt an educated speech that stands in sharp contrast to the way everyone else in the Outback speaks.

* SeqsquipidelianLoquaciousness: Both bounty hunter Jellon Lamb and outlaw Arthur Burns pride themselves in being cultured and well-read, and adopt an educated speech that stands in sharp contrast to the way everyone else in the Outback speaks.

%%* KarmaHoudini: Fletcher.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In the backstory, Charlie and Mikey both abandoned Arthur after his MoralEventHorizon crossing. It's pretty clear that Charlie was himself a robber and probably a murderer as well, but what what Arthur did was unforgivable. Charlie also realizes that it isn't fair to draw his mildly mentally handicapped younger brother Mikey into the life of a bandit and outlaw where the most likely eventual outcome is to be shot or hanged.

** Arthur Burns beats up Captain Stanley but leaves him alive so that he could be forced to watch as Mikey rapes his (Stanley's) wife.

* ForcedToWatch: After the first couple of dozen lashings, it's clear that the flogging has become a slow execution by torture for Mikey, many of the leering townspeople and even Eden Fletcher look away from the gore. Captain Stanley hands Fletcher the bloody lash as if to tell him to at least own up to his own actions by watching.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In the backstory, Charlie and Mikey both abandoned Arthur after his MoralEventHorizon crossing. It's pretty clear that Charlie was himself a robber and probably a murderer as well, but what what Arthur did was unforgivable. Charlie's also realizes that it isn't fair to draw his mildly mentally handicapped younger brother Mikey into the life of a bandit and outlaw where the most likely outcome is to be shot or hanged.

* LargeHam: Jellon Lamb when he's drunk, and Sam [[spoiler: when he's pretending to be a policeman]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Played with in the case of Captain Stanley. He seems like this initially when he pistol whips Mikey, but through the rest of the film, he's shown to be a decent and humane man in comparison to the other policemen.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In the backstory, Charlie and Mikey both abandoned Arthur after his MoralEventHorizon crossing. It's pretty clear that Charlie has done some bad stuff himself, but what what Arthur did was unforgivable.

* AssholeVictim: No tears are shed for the psychopathic [[spoiler: Arthur Burns and Samuel]], nor for most of the policemen that they kill (particularly [[spoiler: Sergeant Lawrence]], who is nearly as depraved as any member of the Burns gang.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Queenie (the female member of Arthur's gang) disappears entirely from the movie after a certain point. Fletcher doesn't appear [[spoiler: after discovering the two prison guards with their heads blown off]]