The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

This is truly a lost gem of a film. It is beautifully photographed, well-acted, well paced, and well written. It is a fantasy film that relies on the fantasy and not on the SFX budget. Something we see all too little of these days.

It is the story of a little boy that has visions during medieval times of a great city, and to save the village from the horrors of the Black Death, he, his brother Connor, and a few others must travel there and erect a spike on the cathedral there. Of course, this is a fruitless enterprise and Connor knows it, but no one would listen to him; they were stuck on a single idea and would hear nothing else.

Their journey to what turned out to be New Zealand is both humorous and sad. There were times when one would be brought almost to tears and at other times laughing hard enough to hurt, but the sad element was dominant.

As with all the films I like to review, it has a strong 'cult movie' appeal, but it is more accessable to general audiences than, say, Six-String Samurai was. Seeing that the Director (Vincent Ward) later did 'What Dreams May Come' (I'll review that one in a few weeks) this film deserves to brought back into the spotlight.

It's 1348 Cumbria, England. Black Death has killed a third of Europe and is spreading in England. Griffin is a young boy in a village which is still free from the disease. He has visions of a cathedral. Connor leads a group to rig a spire on this cathedral. They dig using a machine and come out into the modern world on the other side. Martin declares it God's world which must be the other side of their cursed home world. Ulf fails to cross the highway and is left behind. His brother Searle leads the group as Connor goes off to find the church. They encounter three foundry workers on their last night before it is shut down. The workers take the copper from the group and cast a pinnacle. The group races to put it up before the sun rises.

This is a great surreal adventure. It's great use of black and white. It is original and unique. Crossing the highway is utterly memorable. The characters are great. This is a great concept that overcomes the lower budget and limited filmmaking. It is wondrous, thrilling, and memorable.

I first watched this film in the early nineties. It's always a good sign when a movie can suck you into something new. This is a unique story in a ocean of sequels and copies. It's not just a film about time travel, in fact the time travel takes a back seat to the psychology of a medieval man. This film is about a small medieval village during a time of the plague and a boy who seems to have an answer on how to keep this plague at bay. It's a world filled with superstitions and struggle, even when the travelers end up in the modern era, all their motivations are much the same. It is a gritty film, for some it may be a bit to dark, but it is a truly fascinating and original study.

This film is almost unknown. None of the cast ever achieved fame, and Vincent Ward, while an able director, is not very prolific. However, I still cherish my memories of this movie. I saw it nearly 11 years ago, and every detail , and all of the performances, are still fresh in my mind. It is a fantasy of extraordinary beauty, which does not use a single special effect, and which conveys the thoughts and beliefs of "mediaeval" peasants better than a dozen high-priced epics.

On the Fourteenth Century, a small community is threatened by the black plague, which is soiling Europe. Griffin (Hamish McFarlane) is an eight years boy with visions. These visions show the salvation for his people: digging a hole to center of the earth and putting a cross on the top of a church. Griffin, his brother Connor and some locals starts their quest that brings them to the Twentieth Century. This is indeed a weird movie. Only yesterday I decided to watch it, and I do not dare to say that I liked or disliked it. First, because although being a very strange film, it is also very original. The black & white for the scenes of the dark Middle Ages and the colored ones for the present days is a technique very unusual. Second, the plot is totally unpredictable, with no clichés. And last but not the least, the unknown cast has a great performance. My vote is six.