Vikings & Indians -Pathfinder

[MrBern]

has anyone seen this trailer?

http://www.pathfinderthemovie.com/

Viking boy left behind on a North American raid....

 

[Doh!]

Wow, that looks REALLY good! You don't see the Viking story in many movies. This seems like a fresh angle.

 

[GOK]

Sorry to disagree with you, Doh but I think it looks awful. Children in raiding parties? Vikings with horns on their helmets? They look like extras in a badly written fantasy novel! No thanks. I fear this will be another example of Hollywood frelling up historical fact to assuage the guilt of ill treatment of indigenous peoples.

I have studied the Vikings, Norse society and history for twenty years or so and I suspect I know a good deal more about the subject than the people that made the film do. I know if I go to see this film (which I won't), I will be shaking my head and muttering all the way through it at the innacuracies. I adore history - detest so-called historical films. [huh]

 

[cookie]

Vikings c 1958

On my recent holidays in a pawn shop that sold DVDs I happened to find a movie I have not seen since 10 years old and which fascinated me as a kid - 'The Vikings' - with Kirk Douglas Janet Leigh and hubby Tony Curtis. AUD5 not bad and I cannot believe that after randomly thinking about it - there it was in the pawn shop. I gave it to my sister-in-law and suprise surprise she said her husband had mentioned to her that he wondered where you could get a copy of 'The Vikings'. There was another famous Viking movie I saw about in the 60s about a big bell that fell down the cliff. Does anyone remember the name? Then there was the fantastic TV series in the 60s. Meemmoriees like the cornice of my mind.....

 

[Baggers]

Eh, haven't we seen this story before? A child left with a peaceful but oppressed tribe and who grows up to confront the tribe that left him behind? Actually, I discovered that it's a remake of a 1987 Norwegian film that involved Lapps.

Here's a review from IMDb Pro:

What a waste.

The only redeeming feature of this movie were the well made action scenes (not all were good, but overall there were more enjoyable fight sequences than boring ones).

The story is clich?©d and predictable. The acting is terrible (the main role is so horribly sketched out that you can barely blame the actor, the supporting roles all make a mark for their blandness). The main couple have no chemistry, the dialog is UN-enjoyably bad and the editing looks like it was done by a blind man. Scenes start and end with absolutely no flow. One scene was particularly bad (I wont spoil it for you, suffice to say its the one where the Indians charge into battle against the hero's wishes). That is the only scene when I laughed in the movie, and its supposed to be a sad/rousing scene.

The trailer of this film looked really pretty, but then again the consisted of mostly the fight scenes so I'm not surprised at all. The director seems to have had a good eye for visuals, but his effort has ended there.

Pathfinder = 5/10 Five for the fight scenes.

I was trying to find a path out of the theater at many times during the movie.

I probably won't even rent this one. I'm not up for sitting through another attempt at trying to make me feel guilty about being of European descent.

Cheers!

 

[GOK]

Well said, Baggers! :eusa_clap

 

[Haversack]

Cookie asked: "There was another famous Viking movie I saw about in the 60s about a big bell that fell down the cliff. Does anyone remember the name?"

That would be _The Long Ships_ made in 1963. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057259/) It is more of an swashbuckler-adventure story that dosen't take itself seriously than a historical drama.

_The Vikings_ however, did a fair amount of research and used it. It is based on the Ragnrsaga, they used some of the best archeological work available at the time for the look of the picture, and you won't see a horned helmet anywhere. It is still worth watching just for the oar-running.

Although it is more of a post-viking film, I would also recommend _The Shadow of the Raven_. It was made in Iceland in 1988 and involves a feud between two families over a whale-carcass during the early 13th Century. Stay out of the sauna!

Haversack.

 

[cookie]

Long Ships

Thanks and of course I see it was Richard Widmark who looked the Norse part very well. Funny how that scene where the bell fell down the cliff has stayed in my mind. Funny how childhood impressions and memories stick around. There is a recent thread on this phenomenon.

 

[Haversack]

Cookie wrote: " Funny how that scene where the bell fell down the cliff has stayed in my mind. Funny how childhood impressions and memories stick around."

For me the memorable scene is the line, "You will ride my Mare of Steel." Couldn't slide down a bannister again afterwards...

Haversack.

 

[Smithy]

I won't repeat in polite company what my northern Norwegian (and from very Viking blood) fianc?©e said when we saw the trailer for this the other day!

Suffice to say it wasn't exactly complimentary

 

[Doh!]

If it were supposed to be documentary then, yes, any inaccuracies would bother me. However, judging by the trailer it looks like a simple action movie without any lofty goals – and that’s fine with me. I really don’t care if the helmets are less accurate than Elmer Fudd’s was in “What’s Opera, Doc?” Like I said, we don’t get many Viking movies… ever… so I think it’s an interesting twist.

There are plenty of inaccurate westerns out there and they don’t all have to be The Searchers (don’t know how accurate that one was but it’s a classic). I hear Apocalypto is really, really accurate but sounds boring to me.

Granted, if Pathfinder comes out and gets trashed by the critics I might rethink wanting to see it, but right now it’s on the list.

 

[cookie]

Long Ships Review - sound familiar? Not Robinson Crusoe

From the link to the Movie Description

They say you shouldn't re-visit things you dug when you were a kid, because you'll be disappointed. I remember being blown away by 'The Long Ships' on b/w TV when I was about 8, and I knew that the film wasn't going to live up to my memories - but it could have been a lot, lot worse.

'The Long Ships' was made at the tail end of the historical togas and sandals epics of the fifties and early sixties, and it doesn't take itself anywhere near as seriously as 'Ben Hur', 'El Cid' or 'The Egyptian'. It's basically a good old adventure yarn, and it's still actually a load of fun, even if it gets a bit bogged down in the middle.