‘Pathfinder’ (2007) is the tale of one man’s bloody battle for vengeance against the invaders who have slaughtered his tribe and family while seeking his own true identity. Set in ancient America the film is a fantastic portrayal of slaughter and gore as two different peoples collide in a battle for ownership of the land.
The film stars Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, The Chronicle of Riddick) as Ghost, a young man found by Native Americans as a child in the macabre ruins of a Viking long ship with nothing but a sword. As he grows to manhood he is uneasily adopted and raised by the peace loving Native tribe, but never fully accepted into the community. ‘Pathfinder’ is the simple but spectacular tale of one man battling to come to terms with his own past and divided identity. It just so happens that he also has to do battle with a horde of bloodthirsty Viking invaders as well. Some guys just can’t seem to catch a break.
‘Pathfinder’ is low on main characters, with all but two, Ghost and his love interest Starfire, serving as simple sword fodder. The protagonist Ghost is the only really vaguely developed character in this film, invincibly carving his way through the invading hordes in bloody style and with a little mystic soul searching and a fairly basic love interest thrown in on the side in an attempt to fill out the character. Urban acts as well as can be expected given the script, alternatively being manly and violent and silent and soulful. The lack of dialogue means that he tries to make the most of the significant looks and pregnant silences of the character, and on the whole gives a creditable performance.
Like the characters themselves, the morality of the film is simple and basic. The Vikings invaders are depicted as huge, filthy, near demonic, bearded murders with nothing on their minds but slaughtering the innocent and peace loving Natives with a variety of brutal looking weapons and there is no moral questioning of Ghost’s attempts to kill them all off; it’s very much a bad guys against good guys kind of film.
‘Pathfinder’ is equally low on dialogue but heavy on almost non-stop fighting action adventure, making up for a simple plot – family gets killed, man seeks vengeance, kills a full horde of Vikings single handed – with spectacular gore and heart pounding fight scenes. Filmed in grimy detail, the atmosphere of the film is dark and violent, with bucket loads of flying blood and swordplay but little else. At times it seems to be purely an exercise on a Rambo-like level to see how many different ways one man can kill a much larger group of enemies using nothing but a sword and a series of inventive traps and disguises as well as the landscape itself. Given the almost non-stop violence and literally bloody visuals of the film it’s actually a little surprising that it only warranted a 15 certificate instead of the 18 certificate it almost certainly deserves.
With the exiled warrior, demonic half-human enemies, and the clashing of the main character’s native and adopted cultures, ‘Pathfinder’ can be summed up as in the vein of ‘The Thirteenth Warrior’ but the humour or humanity that made that film a classic.
If you watch ‘Pathfinder’ expecting an epic action adventure with intelligence then you will be sadly disappointed. If however you can turn off your mind and simply accept the simple plot, violence, and sword waving heroics and appreciate the stunning visuals of the film then you may be pleasantly entertained.
Related posts: