Pathfinder (2007) - A Tale of Survival and Revenge
"Pathfinder" (2007) is a brutal and visually stunning tale set in the harsh, unforgiving wilderness of North America several centuries before European settlement. It is set in a world where a young Norse boy, left behind by his Viking clan, was brought up by a Native American tribe. It is at once a mythic tale of survival and revenge, serving up the sorry story of when two incredibly different cultures clashed.
It opens with a Norse expedition landing on the shores of North America. These Viking warriors are fierce, relentless, and bent on conquering and plundering, but as they wend deeper into unknown land, so is the resistance by Native American tribes defending their homeland. In one of these raids, a young Norse boy becomes stranded by his fellows when the Vikings have to retreat after an unsuccessful attack on the Native Americans. The woman finds the crying boy and, with pity, decides to raise him as one of her own. Thus, he gets named "Ghost," which referred to his pale complexion and foreign origin.
Ghost grows up among them, learning to live like them and adopting all their ways. With raven hair, he is nonetheless accepted by the tribe and becomes one of them. However, Ghost continues to be plagued by visions from his past and by the violent legacy of his ancestors who were Vikings. It is a constant case of heinous nightmares fueling an inner conflict in him as he tries to make peace with his background as a Viking and the love and loyalty he feels for the tribe that raised him.
As Ghost grows older, he himself becomes a strong warrior; though learning from the Vikings how to fight, he merges this with the tribe's lessons of stealth and knowledge of the land. He engenders respect from his people but is yet somewhat of an outsider to them, caught between two worlds. Just when Ghost thinks everything's okay again, another expedition of Vikings arrives, more brutal and determined than the first. As if ordained with a vendetta, these ruthless Norsemen, led by a chieftain of necessary reputation, are hell-bent on conquering the land, killing off all resistance in their way. The Vikings wage a campaign of terror, massacring entire villages and enslaving any who survive. This peaceful life that Ghost knew was all shattered in an instant when he finds himself dredged back into the horrors of his past. Ghost tries at first to protect his tribe from the raid but falls back to the forest because of the invasions caused by the Vikings. His attempt at warning other tribes fails as the Vikings start their killing spree on every other tribe in sight.
Determined to stop the invaders, Ghost sets out on a dangerous quest to strike back against the Vikings. A few survivors from his tribe join him, including his love interest, Starfire, and Pathfinder, who takes on somewhat of a mentor, elder, and shaman role. Pathfinder tries to convince Ghost to fulfill his destiny by using both his Viking heritage and raising by Native Americans against the invaders.
Ghost uses traps, partisans, and kills the Vikings off one by one in fatal ambushes. His intimate knowledge of the land gives him the best ground advantage as he constantly outmaneuvers the Vikings in a country totally alien to them. The chieftain of the Vikings proves to be an honorable opponent in both strength and wits against Ghost. The climax of the film occurs in an ultimate confrontation between Ghost and the chieftain of the Vikings. This battle is bloody, fierce, with Ghost fighting all that he had learned from the beginning. He fights off Ghost and kills the chieftain, reaping his revenge for the slaughter of his tribe. Leaderless and demoralized, the remaining Vikings either fall or are driven back to their ships.
Though Ghost emerged victorious, he feels how expensive the battle has been: he lost a lot of people he loved; it killed many inhabitants; and the land was spoiled by killing. But Ghost found a sense of peace since he finally accepted himself for who he was: his ancestral heritage and both sides of his identity. He decides to live with the rest of the tribe in order to continue the lives of those people who had once reared him and in memory of those people who had been killed. "Pathfinder" ends somberly with Ghost standing on a mountain, overlooking the land he has fought to protect. It's a very dark and gritty representation of survival and identity when two cultures meet in catastrophe. Ghost's journey—from abandoned child to legendary warrior—becomes a vignette of human spirit strength and the power of heritage and belonging that remains forever.
Pathfinder 2007 Trailer
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