Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Viking Flick Tops Charts!

Attention Blogosphere!

I feel that it is my duty to take a brief cyber-moment out of my busy, busy New Media schedule to inform all of you happy information poineers out there about what is most likely the most important film to hit theaters since the remake of Godzilla featuring Matthew Broderick. Of course I am talking about Pathfinder (as if there were any other movie on your minds). While you have probably not seen this film, nor really heard much about it, nor had any real desire to see it, I am convinced that it is only a matter of time before this little gem hits the AFI top 100 list.

If you were turned off by the movie posters featuring the aprox. 16' tall, battle-axe wielding, fur-lined, horn-helmeted Viking-monster-beast-man and the diminutively foregrounded Native American man, then first of all you'd better get used to it if you're going to watch this film (and you are GOING TO WATCH THIS FILM). Secondly, it is time to question your manliness. Suck it up... do not be fooled by this movie's seemingly simple theme and its apparent lack of any distinguishable plot. This is not your grandfather's Viking v. Indians movie.

Would your grandfather watch a movie about peace-pipe smoking, peace-loving, progressively Feminist Native Americans getting slaughtered by Vikings? Would it even occur to him that such a movie could exist? The answer is no... no, he wouldn't. Your grandfather lived in the days when people still thought that "Indians" killed people for somewhat understandable reasons (such as invasion by foreign powers), and they liked making movies that simply ignored this fact and cheered for the Cowboys anyway. But now... now we know that "Indians" did not, in fact, kill people at all. They are incapable of killing people! Those nice, fun-loving, face-painting indigenous friends of ours mostly just liked collecting feathers and meeting in tents to talk about excluding Vikings from tribe membership. It is, in fact, Vikings that kill people (those dirty Vikings), and that for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Vikings do not want goods or plunder... no, they want to wear big fur coats and indulge in the "insatiable thirst for violence" that is "in their blood".

And who is the Pathfinder, you ask? Well, it's not the person you think it should be. No, that would be completely unsatisfying. The Pathfinder is, in fact, an old Native American man who kills bears with sticks (treatment of Phalocentrism, anyone?). Contrast this, if you will, with the "hero" of the movie - an Indian-raised ex-Viking who kills Vikings with swords (the opportunities for contrast between these two characters are boundless...).

Central to the movie's compelling drama is the theme of identity, as the "hero" (once again, not the Pathfinder, in case some of you silly conventionalists once again want to lump this film together with such straightforward classics as Alien v. Predator - which is actually about an Alien that fights a Predator) struggles to find his place in the world and "figure out who he is". This theme is subtle, and it takes some work to tease it out. But a careful scene-by-scene analysis of the film will bring to mind the three times that characters explicitly ask Ghost (our "hero's" name) in cinematically awkward ways and at noticeably implausible times "who he is" while he is sleeping. And who is he? Well he sure isn't the Pathfinder... I think we've beat that one into the ground.

The real answer, of course, is not easily discerned. Our hero is, in the closing words of the film, "neither Viking nor Indian", and despite the fact that the movie's climactic scene features Ghost enunciating the old avalanche-initiating-yell-to-the-tune-of-"I-know-who-I-am"-trick, our clever filmmaker is not about to tidily collapse the sharp Viking-Indian distinction just for the cheap thrill of letting our "hero" find himself! So how does one go about figuring out who one is?

Well, of course, you have to kill a whole lot of Vikings.

But not too many of them ("have you had enough revenge yet?!" asks "the Pathfinder [once again, an old Native American man... not our "hero"]... we all do well to heed this advice).

But actually, come to think of it, all of them... or else they will kill your village.

But do it with love in your heart so you don't get consumed by hate...

But not love for the Vikings... because that would be bad...

But maybe love for the tribal girl you like (come to think of it, even SHE gets to be the Pathfinder at the end of the movie)...

Have I mentioned that the "hero" is not the Pathfinder, and never was and never will be?

I think that this says just about all there is to say about this film...

2 Comments:

At 1:57 AM, Blogger Double Oh Somewhat said...

I also LOVED this movie because of what it taught me about bears. Specifically about what it taught me about killing bears, which of course Native Americans would never do unless it was assisted suicide (c.f. poor bear in the hospice cave). But now, if I did have to kill a bear I would have a Pathfinder's wisdom to do it...

 
At 10:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

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