Seraphim
Falls (2006)
Sony
Cast:
Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Anjelica Huston.
Rating:
R
Run
time: 112 mins
Genre:
Western
Verdict:
Beautiful
(see rating
system)
Two
Irish guys in a western?
Yup,
that's right pardners - and Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson
do themselves proud in this rough, two-fisted tale of revenge.
Brosnan
is Capt. Gideon, a former Union officer who finds himself
being pursued by ex-Confederate Colonel Carver (Neeson), three
years after the American Civil War has ended.
Carver
blames Gideon for the death of his wife and children during
a wartime incident. We see tantalizing flashbacks of the action
that started Carver's quest for vebngeance, but it's not until
close to the end of the movie that we see exactly what happened
and Gideon's role in it.
Considering
his life ruined, Carver is determined to kill Gideon and has
hired four gunmen to help hunt him down. In the opening sequence,
Carver wounds Gideon, who faces a tough fight for survival
in a snowy mountain range without his horse or food. There's
also the matter of digging a bullet out of his arm with a
knife and trying to stay one step ahead of Carver and his
gang,
While
Neeson is great as the grinly determined Carver, Brosnan really
brings Gideon alive, showing him to be a wily opponent who
digs deep within himself to survive as the pursuit unfolds
in bitter mountain cold then desert heat.
While
this movie tanked in limited theatrical release, it’s
a great advert for the genre, showing that with a decent script
and the right actors westerns can still be entertaining.
The
ending, in which Anjelica Huston suddenly appears, doesn't
quite have the ring of truth about it, but we do see the two
adversaries in a new light as the picture fades to black.
A
featurette on the making of the movie is included.
