Pathfinder - A Viking Film

I'll probably go see it, though the plot alone sounds dumb. Vikings are put down as being evil and rotten, and the Native Americans are of course the heroes, and then the Vikings get massacred by their kin they left behind.

..who the hell brings a little boy to battle anyway?
 
Screening review :

Early buzz suggests that Pathfinder is no Braveheart and may not even live up to The 13th Warrior. The general consensus following early screenings seems to indicate that the film totally lacks any content whatsoever beyond the endless action scenes and stereotypical dialogue. The idea that immediately sprung up to my mind when I heard of this story was how the hero’s moral dilemma and sense of belonging would be affected as he gets caught between the two realities: his origins and his life in the New World. Since the film apparently does not pause for character development, it will be difficult to allow such themes to build up. The movie has been described to contain very sparse dialogue that when it is actually uttered, it sounds laughable. Seemingly, there is no historical context within the film, no explanations or explorations of the two tribes, which are broken down into very simplistic movie clichés. The Native Americans are portrayed as a group so inherently good that they cross the line into obnoxiousness. Of course, the Norsemen must therefore accept their thankless role as heartless killers, void of humanity, on a ravenous quest to kill more innocents, without any reasons for their actions. The romantic subplot between the hero and the chief’s daughter doesn’t exactly redeem the film on any level either.

In Conclusion:
With a $45 million budget, the movie appears poised to become a major disaster. The release date has recently been pushed back by a couple of months, which should allow for some extra post-production tinkering. Unless the major issues can be fixed, Pathfinder will remain incoherent. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can do with a film that has a troubled foundation to begin with. If the screenplay is awful, which is probably the case for the dialogue-shy Pathfinder, you can only keep trimming until there is almost no film left. The project that once seemed to have an abundance of life now appears to be heading toward the dreaded “Worst Movies of the Year” lists. While initially I considered the idea as a courageous choice to venture into historical territory not much explored before, now I feel that it might be more likely that the barbaric Viking-Indian warfare will be pure overkill. I believe some things will get fixed up during the editing process, but the future doesn’t look bright for Pathfinder.
 
I watched the trailer and the vikings? look like they came straight out of Mordor (where the hell do the helmets with huge horns and skulls come from?) ... I can see the action side in the trailer and how it might please action fans but if it lacks any type of historical background and turns the whole movie in a Conan type of movie then it has nothing to do with historical vikings before Columbus who are portrayed as savage killers in this movie.

Trailers usually tend to just show a few good pieces of a movie and I don't believe this one will be a correct depiction of vikings circa 900.
It is known that vikings travelled far mainly as traders and not as killing machines as this movie is trying to show us.
 
To my knowledge, Vikings never even fought any Native Americans in Newfoundland.. they landed and settled there, attempted to trade with the locals, who turned out to be lactose intolerant and thought they were being poisoned by the milk. Because of this they then attacked the Vikings who were grossly outnumbered and left the place.

Unless Wikipedia is incredibly wrong here, in which case you may ignore this post entirely :p
 
L33ch said:
To my knowledge, Vikings never even fought any Native Americans in Newfoundland.. they landed and settled there, attempted to trade with the locals, who turned out to be lactose intolerant and thought they were being poisoned by the milk. Because of this they then attacked the Vikings who were grossly outnumbered and left the place.

Unless Wikipedia is incredibly wrong here, in which case you may ignore this post entirely :p
Click to expand...
The story, according to the sagas, go as you have described above. The Norse did fight the "Skraelings" (aka Native Americans - Canada is part of North America - First Nations, Indians, red man) in Newfieland, only because they were attacked by them repeatedly (both Leif Eriksson's crew and the successive crews). The first European that we know of to be born in North America was named Snorri. Children like him were present during the attacks. Similar ideas to this storyline have been floated in a few fictional books, none of which I have found very interesting. I am not holding out too much hope for the movie, but I'll get it on PPV, just so I can make fun of the costuming.
I am curious as to what happened to the third crew that came with Leif's sister Freydis. They just vanished, and then Freydis killed off the second crew. Now, if the third crew came back to avenge the deaths of the second crew, which was lead by the brother of the other crew, then I'd be interested!
 
Ah, that with the children being born there, does make the plot sound somewhat plausible, although I would not think the Vikings would leave behind one of their own kin.

Nonetheless, this movie will be amusing to completely break down over all the things that're wrong :p
 
Here are a few foreboding bits of trivia about the movie: "Actors wore hockey shoulder pads underneath their viking costume to make them appear larger and fiercer...Despite knowing that the Vikings' helmets didn't historically have large animal horns on them, the film makers decided to add them in anyway. This would work with the modern audiences who have an ingrained stereotype of what a Viking should look like in their mind. Moreover, the horns make the Vikings look more terrifying."

Looks shit, if your interested in a far more interesting film check out http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/ it was shot all on location in Iceland, and the director really tried to give it an authentic feel, it's not perfect but it's the best viking movie in a while.

On a side note, I just returned from Iceland, where I visited Eirikstadir, the site of Eirik the Red's homestead and Leif Ericson's birthplace, they rebuilt the original turf house there with all original materials and tools, it's really cool, the picture below is the house. I also went to Glaumbaer, where Snorri Thorfinnsson settled after returning from America.
 
Golden Hall said:
This would work with the modern audiences who have an ingrained stereotype of what a Viking should look like in their mind. Moreover, the horns make the Vikings look more terrifying.
Click to expand...
Because we all know getting rid of stereotypes is a bad idea
 
Fuck! That's it. I'm boycotting. LOL. Having said that, I am unable to find a copy of the new Beowulf. We have a thread about it on the forum here. I am going to check if you can buy it as a DVD yet.
Love the pic. My university is offering a class this year that I'd love to take - we'd get to learn how to build longhouses with iron age tools, then we'd spend the summer at Birka, rebuilding the houses there. It'd eb a lot of work, but it's the kind of work I live for...
 
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