Seraphim Falls

Seraphim Falls (2006) plies the tired notion that hostilities between North and South did not wane following the end of the Civil War. It does so by focusing on the efforts of Colonel Carver (Liam Neeson) to track and kill Captain Gideon (Pierce Brosnan). The film begins in medias res, as it were, with Gabriel high in the mountains of Colorado. A rifle shot wings him in the shoulder, and he runs down the mountain, apparently aware that he is being tracked. My son and I wagered over how long it would take for this film to offer a flashback that would begin to provide background information about why Carver is tracking Gabriel). My son bet 20 minutes; I bet 10. The first flashback came in 14 minutes, though it offered only brief images, and it is not until late in the film that a substantial flashback provides this information. That mystery is about the only genuine source of tension in the story, other than the question of whether Gabriel will escape or Carver will catch up with him.

The first half or more of the film is fairly naturalistic, following the efforts of Gabriel to escape and Carver to capture him. The narrative is episodic: at one time or the other Carver and Gideon meet a band of thieves, stop at the cabin of settlers, encounter, religious zealots in a wagon train, stop at a camp building a rail line, meet an Indian by a small pool of water, and finally, in the middle of what appears to be Death Valley, meet a woman selling miracle tonic (Angelica Huston). When first Gabriel and then Carver encounter the Indian, the film takes a somewhat surreal turn, and it occasionally seems to recall the films of Sergio Leone, and some of the earlier Eastwood films, by suggesting that these encounters may be allegorical and that it is the struggle of Carver and Gabriel to come to terms with the tragedies of their own lives that is the real focus of this cat and mouse game they are playing. (Gabriel lost his two sons on the same day during the Battle of Antietam; Carver's wife and children were killed in a fire accidentally set by Union soldiers). But the allegory is not very coherent and the film is largely turgid and without suspense. The film does not really draw distinctions between the characters of Carver and Gabriel. Carver is overwhelmed by the fate of his family. Gabriel is haunted by his past and presumably the deaths of his sons. But they could easily change places. The point of their conflict is not in their regional loyalties but rather in the intersection of private and random events that overcame them, events that they personalize and blame on each other.

Brosnan is good at huffing and groaning. Neeson hides his accent. Angelica Huston is effective but out of place.

The film ends in Death Valley—is there an echo here of the ending of McTeague, by Frank Norris?