Seraphim Falls

Grim, relentless pursuit Western turns mystical in the last act

A vengeful former Confederate colonel (Liam Neeson) leads a small group of hirelings in an unyielding hunt for the former Union officer who horribly wronged him three years earlier (Pierce Brosnan). The only problem is that the latter is an expert fighter and survivalist.

This is a well done revenge Western with spectacular and varied remote Western locations (detailed below). If you thought Brosnan was a pretty boy as James Bond this movie will change your mind as he’s virtually unrecognizable as the skilled Rambo-like militarist. The tone is similar to contemporaneous Westerns like “The Missing” (2003) and “September Dawn” (2007), but with a revenge-chase plot. The final act throws in supernatural elements with characters like Mr. Charon (Wes Studi) and Louise C. Fair (Angelica Huston). You don’t have to think too hard to figure out who they really are.

The movie runs 1 hour, 55 minutes and was shot in Oregon (McKenzie River, Sahalie Falls and Koosah Falls), New Mexico (Lordsburg, Taos, Bramlett and Santa Fe), Arizona (Willcox Playa, Pirtleville, San Bernardino Valley and Chiricahua National Monument) and Death Valley National Park, California.

GRADE: B/B-

Go as you wish. That which is yours will always return to you. That which you take will always be taken from you.

Seraphim Falls is directed by David Von Ancken who also co-writes with Abby Everett Jaques. It stars Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Wincott, Xander Berkeley, Tom Noonan, Kevin J. O'Connor, John Robinson, Ed Lauter, Wes Studi and Anjelica Huston. Music is by Harry Gregson-Williams and cinematography by John Toll.

It's post American Civil War, 1868, the Rocky Mountains, and Gideon (Brosnan) is being hunted by Colonel Morsman Carver (Neeson) and his hired killers. The reason why is not yet known, but it's the beginning of a relentless pursuit that's propelled by rage and hatred, a pursuit that will force both men to the day of reckoning.

The premise is as simple as it gets and on the surface the film holds no surprises until the divisive ending. However, before taking in the thematics of the story, it's refreshing to find a film of this genre type utilising the scenery to the max, whilst simultaneously playing out with sparse dialogue as two grizzled actors tell the story. An obvious forebear to "The Outlaw Josey Wales", Seraphim Falls is ultimately a meditation on revenge and remorse. Moments of violence flit in and out of proceedings, these moments cloaked magnificently by natural surroundings, where the expansive wilderness plays host to the intimate human drama unfolding. It's also a film that pulses with mythical atmosphere, where Carver's pursuit of Gideon plays out like that of the Grim Reaper and his charges sent to capture the soul of the fleeing man. The falls of the title clearly indicates man's decent into hell, because it's not for nothing that the finale is played out on a blistering plain, which as you cast your eyes upon it, it is indeed hellish.

It's also worth noting that we the viewers are never sure who we should be rooting for - if either of them!? Gideon is out on his own, but he is an immensely skilled mountain man,...