Pathfinder
for strong brutal violence throughout.
Reviewed by: Maggie Hays
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Extremely Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Adults |
| Genre: | Fantasy War Action Adventure Drama |
| Length: | 1 hr. 40 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2007 |
| USA Release: |
April 13, 2007 (wide—1,700 theaters) |
| Featuring | Ken Watanabe, Karl Urban, Moon Bloodgood, Russell Means, Clancy Brown |
| Director |
Marcus Nispel |
| Producer | Rick Alvarez, John Jacobsen, Lee Nelson |
| Distributor |
 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company |
“An Untold Legend. Two Worlds, One War. The Ultimate Battle Begins.”
Oh my… what a movie! Here we have “Lord of the Rings” own Karl Urban fighting against his relatives—the “dragon people” in order to save his adopted people—Native Americans called People of the Dawn. 600 years before Columbus sailed to America, the Vikings landed on some unfortunate northeastern American shore and declared war on the Natives. They wanted to cleanse the land of these gentle Indians before settling it.
One of the Vikings was a little boy, who was adopted by the Indians and raised as one of them. The little boy—“Ghost”—has no real love for his ruthless Viking background or heritage. There is a pretty Indian maiden—Starfire—who he has had eyes for. He loves his family. He is happy with these quiet contented people.
However, one day the Vikings land again on the shores of this village, and the slaughter is exhibited for us in living color on the big screen. No details are hidden from movie goers. Heads are lopped off, blood spurts in red volcanic eruptions—if you like to view this sort of carnage, you will probably like “Pathfinder.” If you do not like grisly violence, you should steer clear of this film.
How violent is it? This film was made by Marcus Nispel of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” fame. That should sum it up for you. Not only do we get to watch a Viking’s eye sliced out with a sword, we also get to see it plop to the ground and roll a bit, then afterward we are treated to seeing his eye socket being stitched closed, and—as he completes the stitching himself, he walks around with the thread dangling from the now empty socket. Have you guessed that this is not a movie for the squeamish or for children?
If you are still unconvinced of the graphic nature of this film, there’s also a scene where the kindly Indian Pathfinder gets pulled apart by horses, and a young brave is dangled upside down with his head in the fire. I’m not trying to “spoil” the movie for you, just showing you how graphic it really is. In between the frequent bursts of cruelty and killing and dismemberment, the story bogs down and becomes downright boring.
The best things about the film are the scenery, which is beautiful and well-filmed and fills this movie, and the soundtrack is exciting and emotional. Other than that, as a Christian Mom, I cannot recommend this movie for family viewing due to the constant and unrelenting graphic violence. “Pathfinder” is bloody murder and mayhem from start to finish. Be warned.
Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: None
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
Offensive / 4
Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
If the film’s plot review is in any way accurate, it strikes me that this is yet another addition to the already vast array of anti-white, anti-European material with which American minds are constantly barraged. The contextual picture is a standard one: white man bad… red man (or any other kind of non-white man) good. In “Pathfinder,” white man can only be “good” if he rejects himself and “becomes” the red man (again, a standard contemporary pattern). Psychologically, the viewer is forced to agree with Ghost’s rejection of his heritage by being confronted with the worst possible example of Anglo-European history on the one hand, and a radically idealized, romantic view of the Native American on the other. Such an approach smacks more of propaganda than innocent entertainment.
Scripturally speaking, white Christians must reject this present attitude of “racial self-hatred” which is so much a hallmark of Anglo-postmodern thinking. Likewise, believers who are of other races must just as vehemently discard as absurd the anti-white stereotypes so prevelent in contemporary media and entertainment.
Truthfully, such an imbalanced interpretation of both European and native American identity and culture isn’t healthy for believers to embrace. On the one hand, it encourages an all-too-prevalent self-hatred in the white viewer’s mind. On the other hand, it could well promote a blindly idealistic self-understanding in the thinking of native Americans, who are, individually and as a culture, just as poisoned by sin’s power and perverting influences as any soul of northen European descent. This is a sobering theological reality that the prejudiced leanings of Pathfinder simply do not communicate.
Beyond “Pathfinder,” Christians must become aware of the prevelence of such patterns in contemporary entertainment, and consciously reject them as both historically skewed and biblically inappropriate.
Extremely Offensive / 3
Very Offensive / 2½
My Ratings: Better than Average / 3½