The Big Picture
Seraphim Falls
is a revisionist Western that challenges traditional genre tropes and highlights violence and realism.
The film takes a surprising twist, shifting the viewer’s perception of the lead characters and their motives.
The spiritual undertones and unexpected ending make
Seraphim Falls
a reverent and thought-provoking Western.
At some point or another, it seems that just about every big name in Hollywood ends up making a Western. Some are bad, of course, but sometimes a compelling and thematic horse opera shows up that makes you think a little deeper about the genre. In the case of Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan, two actors well known for their roles in the action genre, that Western is Seraphim Falls, a revisionist Western directed by David Von Ancken that you definitely shouldn’t sleep on. Though Von Ancken is generally known for his work directing episodes of shows like Californication and Hell on Wheels, he first tackled this revenge-fueled period drama in 2006, which pushed Brosnan and Neeson to their absolute limits.
Seraphim Falls
After the end of the American Civil War, a former Confederate colonel hunts down a former Yankee officer with whom he has a grudge.
Release Date January 26, 2007
Director David Von Ancken
Runtime 115 minutes
Writers David Von Ancken , Abby Everett Jaques
Tagline Never turn your back on the past.
‘Seraphim Falls’ Is an Intense Revenge Western
Seraphim Falls opens with a bang as the ex-Union Captain Gideon (Brosnan) is on the run. Hiding out in the snowy Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada, Gideon is living his best Revenant life until former Confederate colonel Morsman Carver (Neeson) shows up at his wooded doorstep. The film wastes no time plunging us into the darkness that is human violence and Gideon nearly drowns in the process in an electric opening scene that reminds us just who these powerhouses are. Carver and his four hired hands are there to kill Gideon, and Gideon knows it. We don’t know why, and we don’t know for how long, but we can only assume that Gideon has been on the run for a long time.
Since this film takes place in the years following the American Civil War, it’s clear that this is some Confederate vs Union vendetta, and Gideon, who fought for the North, has attempted to escape westward to outrun the conflict. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work. Brosnan, known best for his tenure as James Bond from the mid-90s to 2002’s Die Another Day, isn’t exactly the Western star you’d think would lead this picture, but he plays his part with such conviction and weight that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. Part revenge picture and part survivalist epic, Seraphim Falls beats, bruises, and nearly kills Gideon in just the first act, and it’s his tenacity that keeps him alive despite it. Using a Bowie knife to carve a bullet out of his arm and then cauterize the wound really sets the tone for just who this man is.
But every protagonist is only as good as his antagonist, and Liam Neeson fits the bill like no other, even if he wrestles with maintaining a Southern accent. Neeson’s Carver is determined, single-minded, and merciless when it comes to his prey, and his pursuit of Gideon knows no boundaries or detours. Given his Confederate sympathies, it’s easy to see how he might not value human life the same way as, say, Gideon, who does his best to stay away from others. We do see a softer side to Carver on occasion, but his willingness to do whatever it takes to catch his sworn enemy — including threatening young children or shooting his own men and horses — often outweighs any compassion we may have for him.
‘Seraphim Falls’ Is an Adventure Worth Taking
Image via Icon Productions
But powerful performances and the strong visuals by cinematographer John Toll (the man who once shot Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, and The Thin Red Line) weren’t enough to solidify Seraphim Falls in the official Western canon. The film received pretty mixed-to-negative reviews upon its release, being described as “little more than an extended chase scene” by one outlet, for example. The Western has often been compared to the Clint Eastwood epic The Outlaw Josey Wales, though Seraphim Falls plays with its narrative structure in arguably more interesting ways. But while some complain about the film’s admittedly slow-burn, this is precisely Seraphim Falls’s greatest strength.
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The overdrawn chase between Gideon and Carver gives us adequate time to meditate on every interaction, great and small, that these men have with the world around them. We see that Gideon is running from something, not just Carver, and that the horrors of war repentantly haunt him. “Seraphim Falls” is a mysterious code between the two veterans, offered up initially as our only explanation for the events at hand. Carver’s willingness to carry on with or without his hired guns, and his resolve to gun down anyone else who stands in his way, is frightening. He proves himself time and again as a man of honor, despite his apparent dishonorable pursuit of Gideon. Seraphim Falls is as much about Carver’s quest as it is Gideon’s escape, and the seamless mix of the two makes this a Western well worth the time. Sure, this one could’ve probably been a half-hour shorter, but it’s the tired nature of their journey that best emphasizes the conflict.
Of course, the past sins of Seraphim Falls can’t hide forever, and the often striking visuals relay that masterfully. When the picture begins, Gideon and Carver are in the snow-capped mountains. Under the cover of the forest, they hide from one another, with the rushing snow-fueled river acting as a vehicle for Gideon’s initial escape. From there, they wander through a snowy valley before ultimately facing off in the flat, expansive desert. While they could hide from one another in the hills, the film’s final location is barren and unwelcoming. It’s here, in a place they can no longer hide from the other, that they are each exposed as the men they truly are, which brings us to the big twist of Seraphim Falls.
‘Seraphim Falls’ Gives “Revisionist Western” a New Meaning
Image via Icon Productions
A revisionist Western is simply a popularized term for a Western that doesn’t fall under the traditional, sort of “John Wayne”-inspired Westerns of yesteryear. These horse operas moved away from the genre tropes and clichés often associated with such pictures and are said to have highlighted violence and realism, removing the mythic nature of the American West. It’s a term that is somewhat debatable among film scholars (it didn’t become popular until the 1970s), and one that some might consider disingenuous. But Seraphim Falls takes the revisionist portion of its subgenre label seriously and dramatically shifts the viewer’s perception of the film’s lead characters and their apparent motives. In short, flipping the script changes everything we thought we knew about these Civil War vets, and it makes this movie all the better.
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Unlike a film such as, say, Appaloosa, which was released two years later and maintained its traditionalist themes throughout, Seraphim Falls reveals at the end of its second act that Carver might not be the villain we think he is. It turns out, that at the end of the American Civil War, Gideon led his Union officers in a campaign to capture Carver––himself a wanted man after the brutal war––at his home. In the commotion, they burn his barn, which accidentally sets their home on fire as well––with his newborn baby inside. Carver’s wife Rose (Angie Harmon) and young son run inside while Gideon’s men hold Carver down, and they don’t make it out. Carver and Gideon watch in horror as the house burns with the rest of the Carver family inside. Gideon, who didn’t mean for that to happen, deserts his post as a result.
With this, Seraphim Falls shifts its focus from Gideon to Carver, from the Union man to the Confederate, and challenges everything we thought we knew about good and evil. The final act balances its two leads well, though Carver is arguably thrust further into the forefront (despite still being behind his prey). By revising what we thought we knew about “Seraphim Falls” (the location of Carver’s charred homestead), this picture tosses us into the unknown, presenting an ending that might be unsettling to some but remains powerful in its own right.
‘Seraphim Falls’ Spiritual Undertones Foreshadow the Unexpected Ending
There’s no denying that the twist is an important moment for this Western, but it only serves as a vehicle for the true end of Seraphim Falls. When Carver finally does catch up to Gideon, they beat the daylights out of one another before breaking the vicious and bloody cycle of violence, leaving their feud behind forever. While this might seem strange or even unsatisfying to some, it’s an ending well-foreshadowed by the rest of the film, highlighted best by its spiritual undertones. In the first act, Gideon (whose name derives from the biblical warrior of the Old Testament) is nearly killed by a young girl, an end he believes is fitting and poetic as he looks toward Heaven. In the second act, he seems repentant of his past actions after being confronted by a missionary who notes that, “He sees your sin,” which leads into the final act, where he prays a variation of Psalm 114:1 before entering the desert.
This stands in clear contrast with Carver, who continues to delve into increasingly darker acts of violence. Just before his confrontation with Gideon over the corpse of a horse, he finds a charred Bible in the wreckage of a carriage, which he promptly tosses to the ground. This is even after being aided by the same band of Christian missionaries that Gideon passed before, missionaries who also foreshadowed the finale by removing Carver and Hayes’ (Michael Wincott) bullets from their weapons as they slept. But perhaps the most obvious moments of spiritual premonition come from the final act when both Gideon and Carver pass by Charon (Wes Studi) and Madame Louise (Anjelica Huston), mystical figures who make small deals with each man before they duke it out. Gideon gives Charon Carver’s stolen horse for a drink and Madame Louise his horse for a bullet, while Carver receives water, his horse, and later a weapon from them in exchange for his remaining gold and drink. By giving these magical con artists everything else they had, they were left with nothing but rage.
It’s these small moments of build-up and foreshadowing, which become increasingly more obvious by the end, that prepare Gideon and Carver for their final battle. The two nearly kill one another before Gideon finally decides to give up, breaking the cycle once and for all. Carver, stunned, seems to agree, having lost literally everything in his pursuit of this man. Both men are able to forgive the other and walk away silently in separate directions, with Gideon abandoning his signature Bowie knife in the desert. Seraphim Falls might not be a perfect revenge Western, especially given that revenge isn’t enacted in the end, but its surprise ending makes it a more reverent picture, one with a forever-timely message that “he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” By putting theirs down, Gideon and Carver escape with their lives, free to make something new of themselves.
Seraphim Falls is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.
Watch on Netflix