Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Trapper runs from violent pursuers; gore, language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
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Seraphim Falls
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In SERAPHIM FALLS, Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) is a scruffy trapper surviving in the snowy mountains of the Old West when a gunshot cracks through the air and hits him in the arm. This begins nearly two hours of running from a posse of bounty hunters after his hide for reasons unknown to him. In minutes, he has lost his horse and fallen into rapids and over a waterfall. Soaking wet and shivering, he removes his shirt, builds a fire for antiseptic purposes, and grits his teeth as he removes the bullet in his arm with a fire-blackened Bowie knife. Peril awaits him at every turn. Even the family kind enough to tend to his wound hold a gun to him and steal his money. And as he runs from his pursuers, led by a vengeful Carver (Liam Neeson,) whose grudge dates to the days after the Civil War, he meets horsemen who are running from the law and want to kill him to keep him from reporting them, a mistake one outlaw won't live to rethink. When Gideon stops for water at a railroad construction site, the foreman takes his horse and imprisons him. Escapes, horse and gun thefts, and survival skills keep him going until he's whittled down the posse and it's one man against another, with a violent, fiery post-Civil War flashback to explain it all.
Is It Any Good?
Seraphim Falls is a violently, articulately anti-war treatise disguised as a Western. It starts with a bang and few false moves mar the nonstop action from then on. And, as in Steven Spielberg's Duel, where a driver is speeding away from a mad, killer truck, the tension is intensified by the fact that neither we nor the victim know why he is being murderously tracked. The director and writer handle the onslaught of suspenseful, violent, and relentless plot turns expertly. Performances by Neeson as the dogged and vengeful pursuer and Brosnan as the canny and quick-thinking Gideon are grittily realistic. The only iffy moments occur toward the end when a Native American pops up every time someone comes to a watering hole, and a woman selling curatives appears out of nowhere in the desert.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the way the action of the movie starts immediately. How does the movie keep our interest in spite of the fact that we don't know why the man is being pursued?
How does the violence of this movie compare to violence in movies with automatic weaponry, car chases, and explosives?
How does the movie tell us that Gideon is smart? How does it make us root for him even though we know little about him?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: January 26, 2007
- Cast: Pierce Brosnan , Liam Neeson , Anjelica Huston
- Director: David Von Ancken
- Inclusion Information: Female actors
- Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films
- Genre: Drama
- Run time: 115 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: violence and brief language
- Last updated: July 2, 2024
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