Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1853 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-12-24
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Out of nowhere, the Western seems to be enjoying its latest mini-resurgence. And while Seraphim Falls isn't quite as high profile as the recent 3:10 To Yuma, it's still a solidly made piece of cinema that's well worth spending some time with.

It centres around the search for a man named Gideon, played by Pierce Brosnan, and the reasons for said search aren't clear at the start of the film. But what is certain is that a small party is on his trail, led by Liam Neeson's Morsman Carver, and that Carver is very determined to get his man. From this set up, Seraphim Falls slowly unfolds as an intelligent, ambiguous mish-mash of Western and thriller, and an intriguing one at that.

Seraphim Falls, it should be said, isn't a ride without a few problems. The pacing isn't consistent, for instance, and the back end of the film doesn't make the most of the build up before it. But there's still plenty in its corner. Its two star actors are in excellent form, with both Brosnan and Neeson revelling in the complexity of their respective characters, while some sequences are genuinely exciting too.

If Serphami Falls, though, fails to quite deliver what it hints it's capable of, then it still leaves enough in place to enjoy. Refusing to dumb down its approach, it's a grown-up, interesting movie, and one that's easily possible to warm to in spite of the aforementioned problems. Roll on more Westerns, say we… --Jon Foster

Synopsis
It's three years after the Civil War, and Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson) is leading a small hired posse, including Pope (Robert Baker) and Parsons (Ed Lauter), to track down Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) through the snow-covered woods of the Ruby Mountains in New Mexico. While his posse is in it for the money, Carver appears to have more personal reasons for going after Gideon--and demanding that he be taken alive. But in David Von Ancken's exciting Western, the audience is kept in the dark for most of the movie as to just why Carver is so determined to hunt Gideon down and meet him face-to-face. In fact, the script, written by Von Ancken and Abby Everett Jacques, also keeps viewers guessing about which of them might be the hero and which the villain, blurring the distinction between good and evil. Gorgeously filmed by John Toll, SERAPHIM FALLS is a stunning film to look at, enhanced by Harry Gregson-Williams's beautiful score and the vast expanse of the wide-open locations. Mixing in elements of such classic Westerns as THE SEARCHERS and UNFORGIVEN (among other Clint Eastwood films) with such survival thrillers as FIRST BLOOD and THE NAKED PREY, television director Von Ancken (OZ, NUMB3RS, COLD CASE) makes a compelling feature-film debut. Neeson and Brosnan are both outstanding in their difficult, complex roles, particularly the latter as he takes on numerous physical challenges, and Oscar winner Anjelica Huston pops up in an unusual way, playing a mysterious woman who likes to make very interesting deals.

Customer Reviews

Very Watchable and Very Forgettable
Firstly,let me say that Seraphim Falls is a welcome addition to the western genre; chiefly because it was made at all in a lean time for Westerns. Secondly let me say that a story as thin as this needs so much more than great locations and earnest, talented actors. Seraphim Falls starts excitingly and a level of tension (despite some heinous editing) is pretty much maintained. Then, after Pierce Brosnan confronts a youthful outlaw, it becomes outlandish, cliched nonsense. It enters into a collection of other, better films (Shane, A Man Called Horse, Unforgiven) aping them poorly and showing itself up as corrupt of any genuine, conclusive ideas. The 'dream' sequence with Anjelica Huston is testimony to this. It's surreal ambiguity a metaphor for the second half of the film.

It seems Seraphim Falls wanted to be another brooding, silent, noir-western (like The Assasination Of Jesse James) but, unlike that excellent piece of work, it didn't have the right people where it really matters - behind the camera and on the script. Shame really. But kudos in particular to Brosnan who's post-Bond freedom (as relished in The Matador) is clearly a welcome Godsend.

Bitter pursuit
Set in the bitter aftermath of the American Civil War, Seraphim Falls is a tale of revenge. Across the extraordinary New Mexico landscape, Neeson relentlessly pursues Brosnan across snowy mountains, torrential rivers, scrubland and finally desert. One consumed by anger and hatred, the other eaten up by remorse. All that keeps them going is pursuit, a fact made clear at the film's climax, when the two protagonists face each other, stripped of everything (even the landscape is featureless) except the means of killing the other. Neeson and Brosnan are excellent as are the rest of the cast. The settings are stunning, huge open spaces, beautifully photographed by John Toll.

Unlike many cowboy pictures, with their black hats and white hats, this is story that refuses to simplify. right down to the ambiguous ending. There are no good guys and bad guys. Only men driven to the edge, trying to do what's right, and oftentimes getting it wrong.

Receiving mixed reviews, Seraphim Falls made little impact in the UK. That did the film a disservice because its landscapes would be ravishing on the big screen, but gives us the chance to see something genuinely fresh now. Seraphim Falls is a very creditable entry in the Western canon.

Tedious & tediouser.
You know where you are when a movie gets glowing reviews from the Daily Star and Daily Mirror.

Seraphim Falls certainly doesn't disappoint, living so far down to expectations that it may well rate some kind of Worst Movie of 2007 Award. But then, it was rushed out onto DVD in a hurry, and seemingly amidst so much embarrassment that the DVD transfer is even worse than the theatrical release itself.

Looking at the outset like a potentially interesting entry from a student film maker for The Sundance festival, Seraphim Falls fairly quickly turns out to be as original as a used sweet wrapper and just about as interesting. Everything that can be plagiarised is plagiarised, but to no effect other than as a reminder of how genre masters like Ford and Leone were so infintely, and effortlessly, superior.

Intriguingly, it seems the writer /director makes a bold move in abandoning the back story altogether, and heading straight into the plot; only afterwards does it become clear that the back story is a re-hash of umpteen Western 'revenge' movies, in this case a sequence so maladroit in its direction that thoughts are again prompted about the ages of those somewhere near, if not actually behind, the camera.

The narrative arc moves from A to B and, er, stops with a palpably absurd ending in which the vengeful Neeson, in a career-killing performance -- and having just been shot by his quarry, Brosnan, in another ditto performance -- go off into the desert together, side by side. Cue Morecambe & Wise, perhaps, and "Bring Me Sunshine".

Ever since the days of early film noir there's been a fine tradition of titling movies on the basis of a street address or other physical location. "Seraphim Falls" tries exactly the same trick, but fails even in this because neither the director nor audience has the faintest idea where the SFs are: if it's the place where the back story began, then no location could have been more misnamed; if it's not, but merely a waterfall into which Brosnan falls early on in the movie and then survives, its significance is of no account whatsoever.

Rubbish from start to finish, the movie -- with its desperate resort to metaphysical resonance in the form of mad spouting Indians and a mad Anjelica Huston roaming the desert -- is less a Western as a mystery: a mystery how it ever came to be made and released.