by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B Rated R 98 min
This tall tale is based on the true story of the Vikings landing on the coast of North America, Newfoundland to be exact, and making their way inland to the Great Lakes, killing and plundering as they went. Set 500 years before Columbus discovered America, in 1000 AD, a Viking king abandons his 11 year-old boy because he’s disappointed with him for not killing another child. The boy is discovered cowering inside a wrecked Viking ship by an Indian woman who takes him back to her tribe’s village.
After a meeting of the elders, the tribe decides to keep him and raise him as their own. The tribe considered the Vikings, with their armor and boar’s head masks, dragon people. The boy grows up big and strong. He found a sword and kept it. He continued his training alone with the superior weapon to the Indian’s wooden spears. All the tribes know about the dragon people who invade their territory on a regular basis, so they are wary of strange noises and watch for the Vikings’ ships.
The Indians give the boy a name, Ghost (Karl Urban) and he is accepted by the tribe but he hasn’t earned the right to be a brave yet. Another tribe trades with Ghost’s people and their leader is the Pathfinder–a high ranking king who blazes trails and knows the territory. His daughter Starfire (Moon Bloodgood) is smitten by Ghost, who has noticed her. Yeah, they get together in between battles with the Vikings.
While Ghost is hunting game one day, he stumbles across a Viking war party and he fights his way free, but he’s wounded by an arrow. Once back in his village he warns the people they must leave. They can’t win against the dragon people’s superior weapons. But he stays behind to confront them and hold them off while his people escape.
Directed by Marcus Nispel, the film is a remake of a 1987 movie Ofelas. Some of the dialogue is sophomoric, but for the most part, it rings true. Urban is properly buffed up for the role, with Viking blood running through his veins, and a memory of their language. Clearly, he is an important asset to saving his adopted people.
The story focuses on Ghost’s inner conflict between his barbarian roots and his love of his adopted people. He has developed emotional sophisticaton that far exceeds his Viking heritage. In fact, he deplores the Vikings’ murderous methods. Even when he reveals that he speaks their language, he tells them he’s not like them. The Pathfinder tells him that if he can’t defeat the bear by conventional methods, then he should use the bear’s strength against it.
Ghost and Starfire are eventually captured. He feigns his return to his Viking soul, making the Viking commander believe he has switched loyalty. He has to beat Starfire to convince the commander. He then leads the war party to find the other Native Americans. But it’s a trick, and the dragon people are too dumb to understand his cunning plan.
Like the film 300, Pathfinder has a sepia-tone look with CGI manipulation of scenery and characters. Because Ghost was beaten and left for dead by his own father, there is no doubt where is loyalties lie. He cleverly leads the war party up into the mountains where he can pull off a mass killing of the Vikings. But it won’t be easy.
Overall, this is an entertaining macho trip into early America, which was open to any barbarian invader that happened to land on its shores. It was a wild land of promise and death.
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