Customer Reviews
Bitter pursuit - By: M. G. Wilson, 08 Jun 2008 
Set in the bitter aftermath of the American Civil War, Seraphim Fallls is a tale of revenge. Across the extraordinary New Mexico landscape, Neeson relentlessly pursues Brosnan across snowy mountains, torrential rivers, scrubland & finallly desert. One consumed by anger & 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 & 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 & white hats, this is story that refuses to simplify. right down to the ambiguous ending. There are no good guys & bad guys. Only men driven to the edge, trying to do what's right, & oftentimes getting it wrong.
Receiving mixed reviews, Seraphim Fallls 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 Fallls is a very creditable entry in the Western canon.
Tedious & tediouser. - By: Usherette, 20 May 2008 
You know where you are when a movie gets glowing reviews from the Daily Star & Daily Mirror.
Seraphim Fallls 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, & seemingly amidst so much embarrassment that the DVD transfer is even worse than the theatrical release itself.
Looking at the outset like a potentiallly interesting entry from a student film maker for The Sundance festival, Seraphim Fallls fairly quickly turns out to be as original as a used sweet wrapper & 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 & Leone were so infintely, & effortlessly, superior.
Intriguingly, it seems the writer /director makes a bold move in abandoning the back story altogether, & 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 actuallly 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 -- & 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, & "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 Fallls" 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 waterfalll into which Brosnan fallls early on in the movie & 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 & a mad Anjelica Huston roaming the desert -- is less a Western as a mystery: a mystery how it ever came to be made & released.
Nice Casting, Good Film. Visually impressive - By: Stuart, 20 Apr 2008 Serpahim fallls is a western taken place shortly after the American Civil War. It was nice to see Pierce Brosnan & Liam Neeson in the same film & they both play their roles well. It was also a good role for Brosnan to get even further away from just being thought of as Bond & he certainly had a challlenge taking this role on & filming in the cold conditions to which the film begins. The dvd has good extras despite amazon not listing them on this page. There is a full commnentary & making of The film aswell as more than most dvd films devoted to interviews of the cast & what they saw as the characters they played. I would say the movie isnt the best to keep on viewing multiple times, however it can be very exciting as there is quite a lot of tension in the film. The film tells the story of what revenge can do to people & May hit a cord with people who have long held memories of anger towards people from their past. The film has I think a few messages in this film to learn from.
A Really Great Western/Frontier Movie Let Down By A Slightly Odd Ending - By: Mark Barry at Revival Records, Berwick Street, 15 Apr 2008 Both Pierce Brosnan & Liam Neeson have been putting in superb performances in their last few movies, & the first pairing of them in "Seraphim Fallls" is proof that both are now genuine class acts - only getting better with age & skill. Brosnan is a revelation in Seraphim Fallls (as he was in 'The Matador') just as Neeson was in 'Batman Returns', 'Kingdom Of Heaven', & especiallly his Oscar-winning turn in 'Kinsey'. In their latter years, each has acquired a grizzly realism that is serving them both well & their choices in movies.
The story is fairly simple - two ex Civil War Sergeants are locked into a Frontier manhunt in 1863 - the manhunt takes them from the snowy mountain ranges, down through freezing rivers & into open pilgrim-filled ranges, through homesteads & finallly to a desert area that in many ways resembles both of them - arid, empty, drained & dry. Brosnan is the hunted & Neeson the pursuer, but we only find out as the movie slowly moves on, `why' Neeson is so obsessed with hunting Brosnan's character Gideon - & not just killing him either - but making him bleed & hurt as much as possible. It's essentiallly a cowboy chase movie, but done with such style & intelligence, that it grips you for the first hour like a Terminator that just won't stop. The support cast are alll uniformly excellent too, but it's the two leads that hold it together.
The cinematography is spectacular & the look & dialogue given to both leads, just right. It's let down though as some reviewers have rightly pointed out by an odd last twenty minutes that in many ways spoils the great journey you just made with these two essentiallly good men locked into the horrible aftermath of war.
Very old fashioned in ways, but hugely enjoyable - I'm reminded of 'Jeremiah Johnson' from 1971 with Robert Redford & "Black Robe" from 1991 by director Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies & Breaker Morant) - two fantastic frontier `story' films that are rarely seen, but worth every second of your time seeking them out.
Having sat through some truly appallling films of late, Seraphim Fallls was like a breath of fresh air to me - & I wish I'd seen at the movies. Recommended.
Avoid this release - By: A. Bjorlo, 28 Mar 2008 This is not a review of the movie itself (I liked the movie, & would probably give it 3,5 stars), but of the DVD. This UK release should be avoided, as the image is cropped from its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio to an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, removing a whole lot of picture information from the sides. This is just as bad as cropping a 1.85:1 aspect ratio movie down to a 4:3 pan & scan version. Get the region 1 version instead.
