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SERAPHIM FALLS Send This Review to a Friend
A classic-style western, “Seraphim Falls” deals with obsession and hunger for vengeance as two men face off, one the hunter, the other the hunted, in a grueling and often grim battle that comes to symbolize the aftermath of warfare and the need to come to terms with the past. Set in the post Civil War period, the story takes us over beautiful but difficult terrain, including an unforgiving desert and features two charismatic stars in the opposing roles. Like other films that attempt to be imposing, “Seraphim Falls” goes on longer than it should, but it also is striking to behold and manages to deliver a surprise that shakes up how we have regarded the film in its early portion.
The antagonists are well cast. Liam Neeson is the hunter, Morsman Carver, a former Confederate army colonel, who with his cronies, is determined to track down and capture Gideon, played by a scruffy looking Pierce Brosnan, who is difficult to recognize at first. As the intense action begins, we are programmed to favor Gideon, who must use all of his strength and ingenuity to stay out of Carver’s clutches against heavy odds.
It takes a good deal of time before we learn why Carver is so obsessed with catching Gideon, and the reason puts the entire film in perspective with respect to its meaning.
But a hunt is a hunt, and most of the story involves the action, which at times becomes brutal. Viewers may turn away at the sight of Gideon using a huge knife to extract a bullet from his shoulder and cauterizing the wound with the blade heated in a fire. Another scene involves a disemboweled dead horse. Such moments are not for the squeamish.
“Seraphim Falls” has been directed by David Von Ancken, who co-wrote the script with Abby Everett Jaques, and apart from the need for tightening, Von Ancken shows full command over the genre. But as with many westerns, credibility problems loom. Both men could probably have been killed many times over, but then, there would be no story.
Toward the end Anjelica Huston plays a strange looking woman traveler, Madame Louise, who roams the desert in her wagon and sells elixir. Madame seems to be symbolic, but such symbolism is hardly necessary. The battle between the men is symbolic enough. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
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