Seraphim Falls
Westerns are undoubtedly America’s outstanding contribution to world cinema, but these days there are hardly any and their quality varies greatly. Seraphim Falls, however, is absolutely terrific. This tense, hugely underrated picture has flopped just about everywhere, so I strongly encourage tracking it down now before it disappears from the big screen.
Three years after the American civil war, former Union officer Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) is being relentlessly hunted in the wilderness by a posse led by former Confederate Carver (Liam Neeson). In the riveting opening sequence, Gideon is ambushed in the mountains, and ends up with a bullet in the arm. To evade capture, he dives into an icy river, falls down a waterfall, and once on the other side of the river, desperately struggles to light a fire before he freezes to death. Then he performs an excruciatingly painful bit of impromptu surgery which will have audiences squirming in their seats. This extremely strong sequence sets the tone for this riveting revenge western, essentially a long chase punctuated by vignettes that illustrate Carver and Gideon’s metaphorical descent into hell.
Carver is obsessed with killing Gideon to the point where he is prepared to sacrifice members of his own posse and even innocent parties who get in the way. Just what Gideon has done to deserve this is not known until near the end of the film, but along the way it becomes clear he is an extremely dangerous man, albeit one reluctant to kill unless absolutely necessary. As such, one is kept guessing throughout which of the two are good and bad. And even when the reason for Carver’s revenge quest is revealed, the story takes a curious, quasi-Biblical turn in which not only these men’s lives are at stake, but also their souls.
Brosnan and Neeson both contribute excellent performances, but it is Brosnan who walks away with the film, taking another deliberate step away from James Bond. The other characters don’t get much of a look in, but there are a smattering of interesting minor supporting roles, especially amongst Carver’s posse who eventually realise too late just what lengths their employer will go to.
Director David Von Ancken obviously knows the genre well and extensively references westerns including tough 1950’s Anthony Mann pictures like The Naked Spur or The Man from Laramie, as well as Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales and even the more mystically edged High Plains Drifter. The opening scenes in the snow capped mountains also have gentle echoes of Sergio Corbucci’s rarely shown and hugely underrated spaghetti western The Big Silence.
Speaking of landscapes, cinematographer John Toll makes superb use of widescreen space. From frozen mountains to parching deserts, the spectacular locations will lose much on a television screen. What is particularly gratifying is the merciful absence of CGI augmentations. The barren, hostile plains depicted in this film have no such need for computer generated enhancements.
The pace flags slightly towards the end of the story, where the film begins to get bogged down in slightly overwrought religious metaphors. Yet these are nevertheless intriguing. Characters appear that could be interpreted as God and the Devil – an Indian by a waterhole and female peddler respectively (her wagon is marked “Louis C Fair”). The Indian tries offer Carver and Gideon life in the form of horses and water. He even makes enigmatic statements like “whatever is yours will come back to you”, presumably a warning about the futility of vengeance, and an encouragement for Carver to let Gideon go. On the other hand, the peddler offers bullets in return for horses, trading chances for escaping the desert for the chance to kill one another, thus selling their souls and keeping them in “hell”. The message is heavy handed but clear: Carver and Gideon are damned because of unforgiveness.
The curiously ambiguous ending can be read a number of ways, both as positive and negative. At first, I didn’t find it satisfying, but the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced it was the correct way to end the film.
In short, for those among you who like westerns and don’t have a problem with some strong violence, gore and occasional swearing, this is a must-see.
Simon Dillon, September 2007.
