Seraphim Falls: A Steam Age McGyver

The civil war is over and one officer is on the trail of another. Carver, played by Liam Neeson, pursues Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) through the mountains of Nevada. He pursues him through the wilderness. Then he pursues him through the desert. In short, Gideon has a lot less fun in Nevada than the 80 year old retiree who hangs out at the Reno Peppermill and order the fifty cent screwdriver.

The knife with which Gideon performs surgery on himself,
removes a horses intestine and hops inside the carcass, and kills
lots and lots of men. All in a day's work for this homeless Bond.

We've all had the pleasure of Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Here we get to see him as a cowboy McGyver. With resourcefulness that would give Robinson Crusoe an inferiority complex, Gideon hides inside a dead horse and lunges outwards to attack his pursuers. In one gut-wrenching scene after he is shot by the Carver, Gideon digs a bullet out of his arm with a bowie knife. The intelligent filmgoer surely will ask themselves ask ourselves why the sissy didn't leave it in. He also plunges over a waterfall to escape from Carver's gang. One by one Carver's gang fall to Gideon's superior hand.

Carver with a couple of his hired thugs.

In a most Westerns, the characters gun each other down willy nilly. In others the reason for an obsessive desire for revenge is revealed early in the movie. We do not know if Carver is pissed off because Gideon shuffled playing cards badly or because he did something slightly more upsetting, like murdering his every living relative.

Seraphim Falls starts off fast and tapers off slightly as the chase scene turns into a marathon. It picks up at the end with the arrival of a gypsy woman, played by Angelica Huston, and a mysterious Native American and the revealing of Carver's motivation.

Also impressive is that two Irishmen manage to act like cowboys.

GRADE: TWO BULLET HOLES