- Director:
David Von Ancken - AMG Rating:
- Genre: Western
- Movie Type: Revisionist Western, Period Film
- Themes: Out For Revenge, Obsessive Quests
- Main Cast: Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan, Anjelica Huston, Michael Wincott, Robert Baker
- Release Year: 2006
- Country: UK/US
- Run Time: 115 minutes
- MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Frequent television director David Von Ancken (Oz and The Shield) offers a thrilling meditation on the true nature of revenge with this post-Civil War era tale of a one man's quest to put his nemesis in the ground, and another man's struggle to survive at any cost. Deep in the snowy mountains of the American West, a lone man named Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) basks, lost in thought, in the warm glow of a small fire. When a shot suddenly rings out and a bullet whizzes just inches from his head, Gideon is suddenly pulled from his repose. His reaction is too slow, however, to save him from the impact of a second bullet fired immediately thereafter; a bullet that painfully lodges itself into the soft flesh of Gideon's tired shoulder. The man who fired these bullets is Colonel Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson), and Carver's goal is to hunt Gideon down like an animal and extract painful revenge for a past transgression that left Colonel Carver forever changed. From this point on, there will be no peace in either man's life as a harrowing game of kill-or-be-killed is played out against the backdrop of the awe-inspiring and deceptively treacherous wilderness where the unforgiving law of the land takes deadly precedence over the civility of modern society. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie GuideReview
Though long ago sentenced to hang, the Western genre twice received a reprieve from the gallows in 2007, most significantly with the much-anticipated, big-budget remake of 3:10 to Yuma. First, however, came this independent period drama from respected television director David Von Ancken and screenwriter Abbey Everett Jaques. Its novelistic nature and low profile resulted in predictably modest ticket sales, but Seraphim Falls (2007) is a smart, cynical cowboy epic begging for rediscovery by the genre's fans. The film's opening "attack" sequence, deftly directed by Von Ancken and performed with virtuosity by Pierce Brosnan, establishes the story's essence: it's a chase film, and a pulse-pounding, edge-of-the-seat one that can be enjoyed on that action-oriented level alone.As the script proceeds, however, adhering to the expected structure of pursuit-and-reversal, Seraphim Falls takes a few detours into the deeply cynical, richly character-driven territory frequently visited by novelists Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy. Whether the setting is an isolated farm family's homestead or a rail camp boiling with class and ethnic tensions, the film's frontier is a dirty, racist postmodern West where everyone, including children and indigenous people, is on the take, and where loyalty means a quick, surefire exit to the grave. Brosnan scrambles, panics, quivers, flees, and rages through a career-high performance that is an attention-getting one-two punch on the heels of his welcome display of acting chops in The Matador (2005), while Liam Neeson is solid if just slightly less unhinged than his Captain Ahab-like nemesis role would seemingly require. A third-act shift toward the hallucinogenic and mystical is less welcome than the filmmakers probably realized; it's unclear exactly who or what Anjelica Huston is playing in an intriguing but ultimately puzzling cameo. When Seraphim Falls draws to its conclusion, however, the unexpected but strangely satisfying and thematically honest final scene keeps faith with the rest of the film -- one that, in a fairer world, would inspire filmmakers to take another crack at the genre that can arguably be described as America's version of mythology. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Cast
- Liam Neeson - Carver
- Pierce Brosnan - Gideon
- Anjelica Huston - Madame Louise
- Michael Wincott - Hayes
- Robert Baker - Pope
