SERAPHIM FALLS - DVD review

"Two lads from Ireland, dressed up like cowboys? It's a childhood dream come true," Liam Neesan says on a short behind-the-scenes feature. Co-star Pierce Brosnan, meanwhile, tells how he was always a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, John Ford, and John Wayne Westerns. And with first-time feature director and co-writer David Von Ancken ("The Shield") pointing the way, these two Irishmen turn in some pretty buff-in-buckskin performances.

"Seraphim Falls" is a minimalist Western in the revenge sub-category. As a man named Carver (Neeson) leads a posse of four in pursuit of a Bowie knife-carrying fugitive named Gideon (Brosnan), the land and the way that the men move in it and through it becomes a primary focus. In fact, there's but one exchange of dialogue during the first 30 minutes, and so, curiously, this film is one of the few ("Castaway" is another that comes to mind) that you can actually watch for the first time with the commentary track "on" and not miss much exposition.

Structurally, "Seraphim Falls" bears a slight kinship to another genre--the horror/slasher film--insomuch as there's an apparent "monster" who's being hunted that turns the tables, with narrative-by-attrition proceeding until the odds are finally even. And as in horror/slasher films, the deaths are particularly inventive and gruesome, which is why "Seraphim Falls" earned an "R" rating. Once viewers get the picture that the hunted is deadly, it becomes the same sort of guessing game as in horror/slasher pictures. Who's going to be next?

Unlike horror/slasher films, though, the potential victims aren't just a generic bunch that won't be missed much. These guys have character, and together they're as interesting as any posse this side of "The Wild Bunch." Robert Baker plays Pope, while Ed Lauter is Parsons, Michael Wincott is Hayes, and John Robinson plays "The Kid," a greenhorn that could have come straight out of "The Cowboys." The acting is pretty durned good, too-though, as Baker says on the behind-the-scenes feature, "It's pretty easy to act when it's three degrees and you're on a horse." Which is to say, these guys were reacting as much as they were acting, and so the land truly was a main character. Von Ancken and his crew filmed mostly in the rugged mountains, plains, and deserts of New Mexico. When you see the men tromping through snow, it's real snow. When you see Brosnan falling off a log into a frigid and fast-moving river, that's really him and the water is only slightly above freezing. Dangerous? You bet. And Brosnan bears the brunt of it. "If I'm not running, I'm on a horse," he says, adding that it was 36 below in the water, which didn't freeze because of the movement.

As in the best classic Westerns, the land is captured through the eyes of a cinematographer who understands how best to showcase its grandeur . . . and menacing aspects. Two-time Academy Award-winner John Toll did the cinematography here, and used bounce cards to augment natural light in order to get the right look.

The film opens in the Ruby Mountains, 1868. The opening sequence (shot at just under 12,000 feet) sets the tone. We're dropped right in the middle of this chase, not knowing anything about any party--only the assumption that one man must be bad, and the other good. But if there's any complexity in this Western, it's a moral complexity rather than a narrative one. In the most minimal of flashbacks we get a bare-bones idea of why one man is pursuing the other. Near the end of the Civil War, a union officer (Brosnan) led a party to a farm house looking for a rebel leader. Tragedy results, but we see that the officer didn't revel in it; rather, he appears to take off his uniform right then and there. The rebel leader? The man who now leads that posse, wanting payback.

We're told that the Union officer lost two sons at Antietam, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, and if you pay attention, you'll notice that, as Brosnan says, "Seraphim Falls" is "an anti-war film in many respects." But it's a grim, deterministic Western in other respects. "Son," Neeson says to a lad who will go on to steal his money while he's sleeping, "nobody can protect nobody in this world. The sooner you realize that, the better." There's also the usual line about there being no God in this high country. Only an encounter at a missionary camp, where, again, the hosts end up stealing from the drifters. Von Ancken covers all the bases, with the men stopping at an isolated ranch house, a railroad camp, a missionary camp, and a water hole guarded by a single Indian, who extracts a toll like the troll from "Three Billy Goats' Gruff." And the itinerant peddler turns up as an eerie, surrealistic mirage/devil figure on the mud-cracked desert flats, with Anjelica Huston at the reins.

For a pursuit film, though, "Seraphim Falls" doesn't always maintain its tension, and that's my main quarrel with it. I'd also prefer a little more back story, because the struggle that these two characters are engaged in doesn't seem as epic as it might have had we learned more about them--their thoughts, their feelings, their previous lives. As it is, it's a little too minimalist for my tastes, but still engaging--especially the scenes where nature is as much of a killer as anyone. Fans of intelligent movie-fare will appreciate the symbolism as well, with the title hinting that one or both of these men is a fallen angel. One of the men is even named for the most famous biblical archangel, Gabriel, and there's more if you care to look for it. For many, that will be an unexpected bonus. For others, it's the graphic scenes that will make this film memorable.

Video:
"Seraphim Falls" is presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen (what other aspect ratio would suit a panoramic Western?), and mastered in High Definition. There's a slight graininess that's apparent in some of the low-light scenes, and some scenes the color seems slightly washed-out, but for the most part the picture has a good amount of detail, good contrast levels, and decent color.

Audio:
The soundtrack is English Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English (CC), French, and Spanish. It's free of distortion, and the spread across the speakers is decent, except in a few isolated instances where a sound just seems too confined to the speaker location and can't expand enough to make it sound natural.

Extras:
There are two bonus features: a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a commentary with Brosnan, Von Ancken, and production designer Michael Hanan. The behind-the-scenes featurette doesn't offer too many spoilers, so it's safe to watch before the movie, for those who prefer a teaser. We even see an archaeologist, who talks about his role in making sure that no burial grounds or important places were disturbed during filming. For a short feature, it actually covers a lot of ground, with only a little "this is who my character is" thrown in.

But the commentary is really the main extra. It's full of information, anecdotes, and production notes, with the three men providing three unique but interlacing perspectives on the film. I can guarantee that if you listen to this commentary, you'll appreciate the film even more. I especially liked hearing how a stuntman who went over a waterfall was attached to a helicopter by cable, and that the same stuntman almost died in just three feet of water when his cable tangled him up. No CGI breath was needed for this film; nature provided everything. I won't spoil the film by telling too much, but it was especially interesting for me to hear what the three had to say about some of the graphic survival scenes. I'm sure, too, that Brosnan will get plenty of hate mail for saying that he gave his five-year-old son that Bowie knife, his only souvenir from the film, and that the kid was running around the house with it. Or he'll hear it how he traumatized the kid by having him watch the film and see Dad take that big ol' honkin' knife and try to cut a bullet out of a golf-ball-sized hole in his arm. But for film lovers, the commentary is all good stuff.

Bottom Line:
Despite a minimalist plot and similarities to the horror/slasher genre, "Seraphim Falls" is an intelligent, thoughtful Western that tries to capture the stark reality of the post-Civil War West. Neeson and Brosnan turn in excellent performances, and cinematographer John Toll takes a page from John Ford's book and really elevates the land to where it has equal status to the characters, and is as much responsible for plot as anything.