:
Liam Neeson,
Liam Neeson,
Pierce Brosnan,
more...
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David Von Ancken,
David Von Ancken
see all cast/crew...
: 
: Sony Pictures
: Action, Chase, Manhunt, Westerns
: 112 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
see additional details...
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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 Guide
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| Silly Seraphim
by talltale
May 17, 2007 - 5:05 PM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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Spoiler ahead. Or maybe not, since I hate, as you may by now have noted, to dwell on important plot points or the kind of "and then what happens is..." reviewing in which so many of our finer critics indulge themselves. But regarding a certain fake-anti-violence western called SERAPHIM FALLS, I must point out that, in order to reach its super-pacifistic finale, we must first sit through prolonged doses of self-mutilation, other guy-mutilation, disemboweling of man and beast, and quite a few ordinary knife-in-the-face, bullet-in-the-brain killings. (The film arrives via Mel Gibson's Icon production group, after all!). Following these rich bloodlettings, if you can then watch the final frame of artfully rendered swords-into-plowshares symbols that grace the screen without hooting your lungs out, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
I admit that Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson offer up their immense physicality and reticence to the proceedings, and the supporting cast is well-chosen (it's always a treat to see Tom Noonan). John Toll's cinematography and (for awhile) director/co-writer David Von Ancken's tight filmmaking and pleasant lack of over-explanation exert a nice pull. Until disintegration sets in. First, it's the venerable "Gotcha--but I'd better let you escape or else this film will be over after 40 minutes." Then it's just one damned "chase" movie incident after another, with mucho foreshadowing of someone's dark secret soon to be revealed. All of this culminates in a dea-ex-horse-and-buggy moment that beggars (nay, buggers) imagination. And leads us to that preaching-for-peace finale. Sure. Tell that to all the dead people the movie's just amassed. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.58)
12 Votes
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