Seraphim Falls is a great modern Western

Seraphim Falls is an incredible epic Western set a few years after the Civil War. It stars Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan as two veterans who are hunting each other in the mountains of New Mexico. This is a truly excellent film on many levels.

The movie begins with Brosnan’s character living in the snowy mountains and working as a fur trapper. Brosnan’s look is a far cry from his James Bond days, since he sports a rough beard and is wearing a huge animal fur coat. While he’s camping, gunshots ring out and he is struck in the arm. He immediately takes off running down the mountain, forced to leave his horse and most of his supplies behind. Luckily, he’s got a nice Bowie knife strapped to his belt.

After Brosnan is shot, we meet Liam Neeson’s character on another side of the mountain. He’s got four other men with him, and it is revealed that he’s paying these men to help him hunt down and kill Brosnan’s character. Although Brosnan is wounded, it doesn’t stop him from putting up a defense as Neeson and his hired guns give chase down the mountainside and into the flatlands.

This is a story about two men whose souls were shattered by war. Brosnan’s character, a Union commander, had retreated to the solitude of the wilderness to work as a trapper and surely not live to old age in such a harsh environment. Neeson’s character, a Confederate commander, had lost his family after the war and he personally blamed Brosnan for an event that is revealed toward the latter half of the movie. Neeson wants only to find, confront, and kill Brosnan, while Brosnan wants to be left alone. It’s an interesting dynamic when both men find it hard to get what they want.

Part of what makes this movie so brilliant is the way it uses the landscape to help tell the story. In the beginning, they are in a harsh frozen wilderness with snow and freezing water. Toward the end, the men come down from the mountain and find themselves in the desert where water is a sustaining force that seems hard to come by. From the opening scene, both characters and constantly moving downward, both physically and figuratively.

Don’t rent this DVD expecting to see an action movie, because it doesn’t have any big shoot-outs like a typical Western. That being said, I will admit that Brosnan does a couple of really cool things with his knife. He’s like a cowboy Rambo in this movie. This is like Clint Eastwood’s classic Unforgiven where it’s a character-driven story about people dealing with their past and trying to find some type of redemption for the many wrongs they have committed.

Irishmen Neeson and Brosnan were perfectly cast in their roles, and in the DVD extras they both talk about how it has been a dream for them to be in an American Western movie since they both grew up watching them. Both of these actors go beyond the type of characters they usually play, especially Brosnan, and I think they did terrific jobs. Despite being a good story, this movie could have been ruined by bad acting because of the demanding nature of many scenes.

This movie marks the feature film debut of David Bon Ancken, and he shows some major promise with this one. He has a rather extensive history in television, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. The way he used both the actors and the scenery show a real talent for storytelling. It didn’t hurt that he had two-time Oscar winner John Toll (Braveheart and Legends of the Fall) as his cinematographer.

It continues to baffle me that great movies like this only get a limited theatrical release while theater-goers have to endure the constant stream of junky sequels and genre pictures that get all the heavy promotion. Seraphim Falls is an amazing movie that deserves to be seen and pondered.