Starfire’s weapons expertise, keen eye, and agility are especially helpful when it comes time for Ghost’s havoc-wreaking. Starfire, along with a second sidekick, the seemingly goofy and wholly formulaic Jester (Kevin Loring), is a proficient fighter (and predictable occasion for still more vengeance).
She defies her father to accompany Ghost on his traipse across the wilderness in order to set traps and, eventually, confront the Vikings (who are in turn chasing him, determined to avenge his violence against one of their own, as he gouged out one warrior’s eye). If Starfire isn’t precisely Mallory Knox, she is a valiant partner in mayhem.
“You are still haunted by the demons of your past,” notes Pathfinder, recalling Means’ still resonant warning to those crazy spree-killing kids in Natural Born Killers (“Too much TV”). Obsessed with getting payback, Ghost isn’t ready to realize the import of Pathfinder’s estimation, who argues that this course will not yield the peace or sense of justice the young man desires. This makes him a typical reluctant hero, pressed into fearsome displays of violence despite his upbringing with the Wampanoag, confirming one brave’s early warning about him: “Blood runs true: he will turn into a monster like his father.” Conventional in most every way, Pathfinder wants it both ways: he is that monster, but it’s okay because he’s forced into it.
And how could she not? As Pathfinder emphasizes repeatedly, he’s sensitive, sad, and pained, as well as cunning and powerful. It happens that the old shaman’s daughter, Starfire (Moon Bloodgood), has a crush on the white boy. Now orphaned for a second time, Ghost finds both support and doubt in another group of Indians led by Pathfinder (the venerable Russell Means, yet again offering wisdom to naïve youngsters. And the movie makes sure he has plenty of chance to seek and achieve it. Ghost’s chance to “prove himself” comes tragically: the Vikings (also known as the Dragon Men) attack, destroying his village, killing his adoptive parents and adorable little sister (Nicole Muñoz). Ghost’s in-betweenness is illustrated in his swordplay training: having been schooled early on by his Viking father (shown in flashbacks to be an onerous sort who beats the boy when he refuses to kill a young Indian boy), Ghost keeps his skills and body taut in secret sessions, augmented by filtered light and mystical music. “If I cannot be a brave,” he worries, “Then who am I?,” helpfully articulating the film’s primary existential question. Ghost, as he is called, is initially identified as an enemy by his very paleness: “His skin, his eyes,” observes one elder, “Like some kind of evil spirit that has never seen the sun.” He matures into a robust wannabe brave (Karl Urban), bland and determined to prove himself to those who see him as an outsider. And so the boy’s legend begins to unfurl, hitting on the usual touchstones. Here she runs into consternation: the Wampanoag are not inclined to be kind to Vikings, given their experiences with these aliens. Barker) - does the right thing: she embraces the frightened child as the camera dramatically pulls out and up. The woman - who happens to be partner to her tribe’s chief (Wayne C. At last she finds the reason she’s on screen: a 12-year-old Viking (Burkley Duffield) who survived the ship’s ruin and now gazes on her with eyes wide with fear, his sword pointed directly at her head.
As she makes her way inside the wreckage, she’s serially startled by little-jump-shots of decaying bodies and skulls. The Native Americans, by contrast, are at first embodied by a single, gentle woman (Michelle Thrush) who stumbles on a Viking ship, broken and creaking on the shore. The invading, non-English-speaking Vikings are towering, mean, and heavily armored, while the Wampanoag Indians are nurturing, generous, and loin-clothed, as well as “nobly” in tune with nature.Ĭheck their first impressions: the Vikings appear in an opening credits montage: fierce and anonymously murderous, helpless victims falling quite literally at their feet. In the case of Marcus Nispel’s movie, set in snowy North America circa 1000 AD, the men are divided by race and morality. Boasting a prettified brutality that rivals that of 300, Pathfinder also explores a similar theme, the manly pursuit of revenge at any cost.
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