Product Details

• Actors: Karl Urban, Clancy Brown, Moon Bloodgood, Russell Means, Jay Tavare
• Directors: Marcus Nispel
• Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Nils Gaup
• Producers: Arnold Messer, Barbara Kelly, Brad Fischer, John A. Amicarella, John M. Jacobsen
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
• DVD Release Date: July 31, 2007
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (179 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000R9U3B0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,987 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Pathfinder (Unrated Edition)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pathfinder 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

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Product Description

The heroic story of a young Norse man raised by Native American Indians who wages a personal war against the Vikings that barbarically raided his tribe.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting premise but what they end up doing with it is rather disappointing August 16, 2007

By Lawrance M. Bernabo HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

The historical question is not whether the Vikings came to North America but rather how far South they came once they made it to Vinland (a Norse settlement has been found on the island of Newfoundland). There must have been interactions between the Norsemen and the "skrćlingar" (Native Americans), and while there is no evidence that the two races engaged in a violent confrontation it does make a neat idea for a movie, which is why we have the film "Pathfinder: The Legend of the Ghost Warrior." Ghost is a young boy who is left behind after a previous Vikings raid and who grows up eighteen years later to be played by Karl Urban (Eomer in The Lord of the Rings" but also Julius Caesar on "Xena Warrior Princess"). When another Viking raiding party led by Gunnar (Clancy Brown) attacks his village, Ghost leads the fight against the invaders, hoping not only to save his adopted people but also win the heart of Starfire (Moon Bloodgood).

Basically what he have here is "Vikings and Indians" instead of "Cowboys and Indians." Couching the film in such terms, of course, is easily understood but not politically correct. But if you think about the latter in contemporary sports terms, the idea of the Minnesota Vikings taking on the Cleveland Indians is certainly in the ballpark for a key dynamic of this film, which features armored warriors against people armed with essentially sticks and stones. The idea of a war being waged in the New World a thousand years ago is pretty compelling: the concept trailer they shot to get the film produced makes that case quite nicely up to the point when the native warrior attacks the hulking Norseman and you see it is the Viking who has the ax and the lad in the buckskin is fighting with a sword.

The genesis for this 2007 film is the 1987 Norwegian film "Veiviseren" ("Pathfinder"), which is based on a Sami legend. The first full-length film in Sami, that movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. This version, written by Laeta Kalogridis and directed by Marcus Nispel, takes the basic story idea of a warrior leading the Sami to victory against a horde of invading Chudes and transplants it from Finnmark to the New World. The Sami become the nameless Native American people rather than the Beothuk people of Newfoundland and the Chudes are transformed into Vikings.

My major problem with this film, quite frankly, is that the hero of this movie is white and the subtext is that if it were not for the kindhearted son of a Viking who was raised by Native Americans the Vikings who come back in Act II of this film would have killed ever native inhabitant of the continent. Well, okay, that would not have happened unless the Vikings infected the local population with a disease that their immune systems could not handle, but you get the idea. At least this movie allows the title character, played by Russell Means, to come up with the obvious strategy that a people armed with Stone Age weapons fighting on their own turf would use against three dragonships worth of Viking warriors, because that is what I really wanted this film to be about.

"Pathfinder" never tries to pass itself off as history, which is a legitimate approach, but a bit more realism would not have hurt. The film was shot in British Columbia, which explains how they get from the ocean shore to snow capped mountains in a relatively short period of time, a direction dictated not by geography but because that is what happened in "Veiviseren." What they should have done was take the premise of a people fighting back against armored invaders in general without being tied to the specifics of the earlier film. Setting up the Vikings to be defeated on terrain and in weather more akin to the land from which they came ends up backfiring.

Whenever possible the film relies on images more than dialogue, although they do not end up going the "Quest for Fire" route. The color palette in the film favors the Vikings for most of the film, tending towards blue, black, white, and silver stressing night, cold, and metal. Eventually these colors overwhelm the film and works against the basic contrast of the Vikings warriors in the lush green forests that I found compelling. The Norsemen speak Icelandic, which is apparently close to the language of the Vikings, leaving English to be the language of Ghost and his tribe.

I ended up rounding down on this film because in the final act of the film the Vikings enter the realm of being too stupid to live. There is a scene that involves going around a frozen lake. Gunnar sees this approach as being an attack on the courage of him and his men, insisting on walking across the ice. At this point I turned to my daughter and said, "Gee, if only they came from a land of ice and snow, and knew something about when not to cross a frozen lake." Besides, I like it when the good guys win a lot more than when the bad guys lose.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DVD Pathfinder September 18, 2011

By Les

Format:Blu-ray

Recently I saw this Movie on TV!! I'm surprised at the negative reviews here, truly I am! When you give a negative review on the basis of it "not being historically acurate", this is really a little ridiculous ! I think I have _yet_ to see an American movie that I can actually _praise_ for it's Historical accuracy, but that doesn't stop me from watching them, and yet most of the reviewers here seem tumble over themselves in regard to this movie. Perhaps historical accuracy would make boring movies ?? Still I love History. I give it 5 stars for being different to the run of the mill action movie, well played, visually very engaging, and unusual also I had a feeling of having enjoyed watching something really different for a change !

I have to agree with another writer here, that the thought also crossed my mind about Vikings falling for *thin ice* and also them not knowing anything about *avalanches*, that really was a bit silly. But other than that - really entertaining. I've seen hundreds if not thousands of films in my life, but I think this movie "Pathfinder" will linger in my mind for a while yet, so from me, a "well done!" to the makers, and the cast for bringing forth an entertaining and original movie, wide from the run of the mill !! I'd love to see these same people tackle an Icelandic, Norwegian or Swedish Saga with the same gusto. If Historically accurate were entered more into the picture, I'm sure it would run well indeed. Those interested might like a read in a book by Snorri Sturluson ? A scholar on the subject.
L.B.

38 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You are the last of your kind in this cursed land February 16, 2008

By Gunner VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

The Pathfinder DVD

The Pathfinder is about a Norse/Viking boy around twelve years old who was abandoned or shipped wrecked on the coast of (I'm guessing Canada) where an young Indian woman finds him and adopts him into the tribe. He, of course, is not accepted by the tribe and has to fight to obtain recognition.

Without giving too much, away this move is full of action. Combining elements of Conan the Barbarian - Collector's Edition,Beowulf (Unrated Director's Cut), ]]Rambo First Blood Part II, 300 (Two-Disc Special Edition), and [[ASIN:6304696531 Jeremiah Johnson. Whew, a good movie for action movie fans.

Highly recommended for fans of for action movies, Conan the Barbarian, Beowulf, Rambo First Blood Part II, the 300, and Jeremiah Johnson.

Gunner February, 2008