Pathfinder
by Marcus Nispel
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DVD details
Actor: Clancy Brown, Jay Tavare, Karl Urban, Moon Bloodgood, Russell MeansDirector: Marcus Nispel
Brand: Fox
Producer: Arnold Messer
Producer: Barbara Kelly
Producer: Brad Fischer
Producer: John A. Amicarella
Producer: John M. Jacobsen
Writer: Laeta Kalogridis
Writer: Nils Gaup
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Icelandic (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-31
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
DVD Reviews of Pathfinder
DVD Review: WHAT A MESS...
Summary: 2 Stars
I've been waiting for Pathfinder's release for a very long time since I saw the trailer in a theater. I had big expectations because the trailer looked pretty promising - you know, when you got this feeling the upcoming movie will utterly impress you... I had this feeling, I thought it'd be one of the greatest recent action flicks. And I was extremely disappointed, Pathfinder is such a let-down, definately a multi-million dollar budget down the drain. I'll try to explain.
Many historians believe that about 600 years before Columbus vikings were travelling by sea and reached America. That seems to be true because they had great boats and visited the remotest corners of the world, they were in Greenland and that's pretty close to America. Anyway even if they never came to America it doesn't matter because cinema is here for us to make crazy assumptions and to speculate on something that hypothetically could occur. So - vikings are on the Eastern coast of America. They kill everyone they meet and havoc indian villages. Then a small boy is left behind who is later raised by native americans. After 15 years norsemen come back to bring everyone death one more time, only now the boy who had grown up will stand against them.
I liked Marcus Nispel's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. No matter if it was better or worse than the original, that film was done professionally and masterfully concerning all the aspects of cinematography. So I was expecting the same from Pathfinder. And for its first 5 minutes it lived up to my expectations. But then strange things began. The scene where the main character (played by Karl Urban) is sliding down the hill on a shield trying to escape from the vikings who chase him on indian sleigh reminded me of some worst moments from James Bond movies and made the audience in the theater laugh. To say the least it looked just silly. It was the first moment that made me frown and. There were lots of such moments and lots of flaws. Here's an example - vikings are chasing Urban's character and his girl through the woods at night. They see their traces on the ground and the viking leader says: "Stifle the torches, they're close". In a moment when we see our heroes having a little rest, the distant horn is heard. "We gotta hurry, it's them" - says Urban. Now tell me - what was the purpose of extinguishing the torches and then give themselves away with that horn?! Those flaws don't come unnoticed and along with cheesy dialogs they create an impression of a bad B-movie. How would you explain that Urban's character (named Ghost in the movie) who's the only one in the indian village who has a sword (because native americans just didn't have them), learned to fight with it so well that he was easily killing vikings? Just think - normans used to handle swords since they were probably 5 years old. Ghost never fought anyone because there were just no one else with a sword around. How come he looks so much more skillful or at least no less skillful then the vikings?
It looked like Marcus Nispel had been given the script three days before the shooting began and had only a week to finish the film - everything seems so clueless and incoherent. Along with this the editing "contributed" a lot. During the fight sequences camera shakes so badly you can't see a thing especially given a fact that the flick is deliberately conceived in dark, obscure colours. Who stabbed who and how it happened - you fix your eyes on the screen and try to see something, but all in vain - everything flickers.
Another thing - Pathfinder is full of cliches, actually it's built of them. You know beforehand what is going to happen, when and how. We've seen these patterns in hundreds of movies, so the only thing you can do in today's film to make it successful is to avoid these cliches. But no, filmmakers seem to follow them on purpose. When after the final face-off everyone appears to be dead along with the main character, and then you see Urban walking towards the camera - all battered and limping - I was about to burst into laughter. Don't blame me for spoiling the ending for you - there's no possibility you'd believe it all could've ended some other way.
Vikings in Pathfinder are shown as brute, rigorous killers (which they probably were), they look like orcs and they act alike. You hardly see their faces throughout the film - they are hidden behind the helmets. So when you finally see some (two of them to be precise) you expect them to be monsters from hell, shaggy and grim warriors. I'd prefer to meet some unknown actors - this way you fear the most, familiar faces can distract attention. So here two leading vikings are played by well known to us Clancy Brown and Ralf Moeller. I love Clancy Brown but recalling his roles in other movies I smiled seeing him here. But maybe you'll disagree - it's just my opinion.
Pathfinder's release was delayed in the US till April '07. I don't know why. The only reason I can come up with is the filmmakers decided to re-edit the film. This way maybe it'll look more decent. Although I doubt it's possible to save it.
The only thing one can possibly admire in Pathfinder are the beautiful North American landscapes with their endless forests and snowy mountain tops. The views are just gorgeous, and that's something you can't take away from this film. The thing I also discovered for myself is that Karl Urban can easily act as a main star of a movie - he's really good. Unfortunately his first leading part falls within a not so good picture.
Description of Pathfinder
PATHFINDER - DVD MoviePathfinder is a curious, cross-genre movie with elements of horror, sword-clanging fantasy, historical fiction, and Native American mysticism. A classic story of an outsider-hero, Pathfinder is set approximately five centuries before Columbus? arrival in the New World, a time when Vikings were claiming real estate in Greenland and eastern North America. A young Norse boy is abandoned by his disapproving, conqueror-father and adopted by an aboriginal tribe. He grows up to become Ghost (Karl Urban), almost-but-not-entirely accepted by natives, yet a fierce swordsman and defender of Indians after a terrible assault on those whom he loves best. Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption) plays the fiercest of the invaders, a merciless leader who tangles with Ghost?s inherent prowess as a fighter, and engages in a psychological as well as physical struggle with him in the film?s final third, which involves a harrowing journey through an avalanche-prone mountain path. Russell Means (The Last of the Mohicans) is a typically comforting presence as the all-wise Pathfinder, leader of a tribal nation and Ghost?s supporter, while Moon Bloodgood (Eight Below) is outstanding as a love interest with nerves of steel. Marcus Nispel (who directed the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) guides the brutal if often exhilarating action as if it were amplified history. He makes the point for a contemporary audience that Vikings were as terrifying a danger to those whom they conquered as, say, Klingons are in Star Trek--precisely by making his Vikings seem so reminiscent of Klingons. --Tom Keogh
Beyond Pathfinder
 Pathfinder (Paperback) |  Pathfinder Soundtrack |  Norse Mythology Products |
Stills from Pathfinder
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