[imagesource:sonypictureshomeentertainment]

Seraphim Falls didn’t exactly have a good start in life.

The Western featuring Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson had a limited theatrical release in 2006 before it spent the better part of two decades in cinematic purgatory.

Then, Netflix added it to its US film library and now everybody is eating the film right up.

It’s not all that surprising when you realise how popular Liam Neeson has proven to be with Netflix subscribers, with another one of his lesser-known movies, Made In Italy, also currently in Netflix’s global top 10 movie list.

It also makes sense that Seraphim Falls is all the rage now, as Neeson and Brosnan have both been established as action stars to note. When the film came out, however, they weren’t exactly in the spotlight, Digital Trends notes:

At the time that Seraphim Falls was released in 2006, it had only been four years since Pierce Brosnan’s final appearance as James Bond in 2002’s Die Another Day. As for Neeson, this film came out four years before he reinvented himself as an action icon in Taken, and he’s been headlining action movies ever since.

At the time, the combined pedigrees of Neeson and Brosnan didn’t attract a wide audience to Seraphim Falls, while the film itself only had a limited release for just six weeks, which has caused it to be an obscure title for close to two decades.

The film’s resurgence is in part thanks to Netflix, but it wouldn’t have gone anywhere now if the characters that Neeson and Brosnan play were absolutely on point.

Neeson’s Colonel Morsman Carver is a man consumed by a desire to avenge himself by killing Brosnan’s Gideon. Whatever humanity Carver had before their feud has seemingly been set aside, and he is now nothing without his revenge.

As for Gideon, he’s a broken man haunted by his guilt. And yet he doesn’t just sit back and do nothing as Carver and his posse pursue him. Gideon fights back and he even picks off many of his pursuers in intriguing ways.

Overall, Neeson and Brosnan’s collective performances elevate what could have just been dismissed as a B-movie Western.

It doesn’t look like Seraphim Falls has reached SA Netflix audiences just yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still add it to your watch list. As a Saffa, I’m sure you have a way of watching what you want, anyway.

[source:digitaltrends]