The fictional story focuses on a bounty hunt for a Union soldier by a Confederate colonel following the American Civil War in the late 1860s.

Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Michael Wincott, Tom Noonan, and Ed Lauter star in principal roles.

The film score was composed by musician Harry Gregson-Williams, although a soundtrack version for the motion picture was not released to the public.

Notable similarities have been found between the film and the 1976 revisionist western, The Outlaw Josey Wales directed by Clint Eastwood.

As the group of men approach Gideon's trail, he ambushes them with a bear trap impaling the Kid, who Carver then shoots out of mercy.

Gideon leaps out from within the horse's belly, and puts his knife to Hayes' neck, threatening to kill him if Carver does not give up his gun.

To coerce Carver's wife into revealing his whereabouts, and believing their house was empty, Gideon orders their barn to be set on fire.

Both men find a rare pool of water, guarded by the Indian Charon, who extracts dear payment from each so they might continue their journeys.

David Von Ancken first researched the script for six months before joining Abby Everett Jaques to create the screenplay.

[21] Neeson, who has more presence doing nothing than most actors do playing Hamlet, gives Carver hints of a psycho drive beneath his righteous scowl.

Claudia Puig writing for USA Today thought the film was a "psychological drama with an intriguing ambiguity that challenges the viewer's loyalties and preconceived notions.

"[23] Stephen Holden writing in The New York Times applauded the visuals, saying "Its strongest element is the austere majesty of the cinematography by John Toll ("Braveheart," "Legends of the Fall," "The Thin Red Line"), in which the severe beauty of the Western landscape looms over the characters as a silent rebuke.

"[3] Writing for The Austin Chronicle, Josh Rosenblatt viewed it as "Meditative, beautifully shot, and blessed with a healthy dose of cynicism" and a "morality play without the morality and a Western Purgatorio that, in the end, demands its protagonists resign themselves to their loneliness and brutality and avail themselves of the redemptive power of sheer exhaustion.

"[24] Author Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out commented it "has all the good looks of its wintry Oregon locales, not to mention the equally craggy faces of Liam Neeson and a grizzled-up Pierce Brosnan, embroiled in a Fugitive-like pursuit with the latter on the run.

"[25] Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor called it "essentially one long, bleak stalk-and-kill action thriller", adding "The film functions as a kind of survivalists' guide, and there's a morbid pleasure in seeing how Gideon extricates himself from one impossible situation after another.

In a mixed review, Christy Lemire mused about the lead characters: "Their climactic confrontation is visually arresting in its starkness.

[28] Todd McCarthy of Variety believed the film was "nothing rousing or new" and that Brosnan and Neeson wouldn't be enough "to muster more than modest theatrical B.O.

for this very physical but familiar oater", but praised the cinematography, noting "Toll's work, which emphasizes the blues and greens of the forests, is always a pleasure to behold".

[29] Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times was critical of the ending: "A beautifully shot chase film [...] it moves along with minimalist efficiency before running out of gas during an overlong allegorical final section.

"[30] Columnist Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal noted, "things take a turn from simplicity to sententiousness, then to surreal silliness, and finally to a mano-à-mano contest, on a parched desert floor, over which man gets the best close-ups.