The Navigators

England. Mid 1990's. British Rail has been privatised and broken up into separate companies with all work put out to tender with the lowest bidder getting the job. This film follows a group of workers in a Yorkshire depot as the culture gradually changes from a world of union influence into a competitive business world.

This is a very sobering film - it deals with the railtrack situation but is more generally about the selling out of the working man and the beginning of the culture that views people as commodities and expenses, just like the rolling stock and the rails. The film opens with the boss of the depot announcing that the company has been privatised and that things will begin to change. It then follows the culture change over the course of time and concludes with a depressingly innocuous exchange that represents the shattering of previously unified spirits.

The culture change beings with mission statements, competing with work and setting levels for "acceptable deaths and continues with an end to previous agreements and a range of different companies. It is very hard to watch without being angry at the treatment of previously proud men as they are reduced to being costs. Workers are offered voluntary redundancy and those that refuse are gradually forced out. Bosses and chief execs identify those workers that have union ties and work to push them out. Workers are encouraged to join temp agencies at higher wages but without benefits or a steady work load thus saving the company money. Those that make trouble with the crews by insisting on safe working conditions etc are blackballed by the agencies and no more work is put their way. The pressure to cut costs to win jobs continues until unskilled workers are used for rail maintenance because they are paid cash in hand while other crews are forced to use "cost-effective" methods to work without a lookout and run the risk of severe accidents.

For those who think that the experiences of the workers are exaggerated for effect, Ken Loach received regular visits from railtrack workers (taking holidays or sick days) to advise on the film to make sure that it was representative of their experiences - they couldn't officially do it as they feared being blacklisted within the company. These things do go on - the rail companies are led by bosses who get huge bonuses from the shareholders as they drive down operating costs by compromising safety and reducing the workforce costs.

If the film has a major flaw it is the one-sided nature of the script. Workers are all represented as jovial, hardworking types, you know - salt of the earth, put down by bosses who only care about money. The latter may well be true but the way the workers constantly joke etc makes them look too good and the film has far too much sympathy for them for it's own good. Even when a group of workers do something completely abhorrent (the end of the film) it is presented as something that they had no choice about whereas really they should have carried some of the blame.

This film was released in Europe but only had a limited release in the UK as it was screened first on TV. It came shortly after the collapse of Railtrack as the Government put it into administration. It was screened days after the Government tried to cover up a report of failing train performances etc and it was screened as inquiries continue into serious derailments with significant loss of life.

In the UK one major accident killed many passengers and was put down to badly maintained rails. The Chief Exec has thus far escaped charges of manslaughter (despite the findings of the Health & Safety Executive) and also left his job with his huge contractually-obliged bonus, before moving on to another job on another board. For those who think that this film is exaggerated you truly have no idea what's going on in the world of big business.

As the Government continue plans for part privatisation of the London Underground and have further plans to privatise air traffic control this film is a very scary thing. Once we forget the people who make up workforces that only leave numbers. When shareholders become more important than the public and the workers then costs are all that matters and all corners are cut to boost the share price.

This film has it's flaws and will not change Government policy one bit. But this is a very sobering film that will open you eyes to what is done to satisfy shareholders and earn bonuses for upper management.

I saw the movie today. It is good to know that while in Hollywood the so called entertainment industry wants to send our minds and conscious into sleep, comes a real humanist film maker and serves as a voice of society in a crisis, of real people like all of us that deal with problems that surface everywhere in the world. How men can survive and remain human and moral while fighting in vain in every establishment, including ones that suppose to help the individual. It is not just a Marxist manifesto but rather a compassion, loving, caring and worried look at a group of people that want to survive in a world that is changing rapidly economically and morally. You'll laugh with them, get frustrated with them and feel pity for them when they make the wrong choice (if such a thing can be defined). As always with Loach's films, it's so reliable that you immediately feel that the characters are a part of your life and there are no actors and no movie - just a look at familiar people who struggle to keep their jobs against a system that doesn't really care for its human resources and by that hurt them and herself. It is really touching and heart-tearing as much as loving with even quite a lot bits of humor which make it more credible. A real must!

I was lucky to see during the festival of Venice in Milan this very recent film from the good "social" director Ken Loach.

A group of friends in 1995 work in the Yorkshire for the ex-state owned: British Rail, which meanwhile has been completely fragmented in a tremendous number of small private companies that compete one against the other in order to be more competitive and gain the different bids. This situation leads the whole structure of each private company to a very profitable organisation offering a very poor service that has to save money from any single item of the fixed/variable costs structure of the economic statement.

Loach this time points out the lost of the social benefits of the labour class in a blackmail black and white situation where, if they want to get the job, they have to leave with these conditions which do not guarantee any type of social and physical safety to the worker.

It is not by chance that England has been the frame of several train accidents during the last years.

Unions are getting weaker and weaker and the so called "trouble makers" are led to leave the companies. The whole film is nicely viewed with some very fine, pretty uncommon in previous Loach's films, British humour. The scene where the supervisor has to read to the workers the message from the top management of productivity and their new rights is hilarious and superbly performed.

Rating: 6/10

Marvelous film set in South Yorkshire, using local actors and comedians, done not so much in a documentary style, but with a documentary feel, about a group of railroad track workers during the privatization of British Rail. The culture changing from one of unionized steady jobs, to one of freelancing with no health care or holidays and for the sake of economy, stretching security which leads to the death of one of the workers. This presumably low budget film, shot all on location, is gritty, real, and is a wonderful insight into the British working class and its humor. A real treasure.

The fact that the previous reviewer apparently had other problems on her mind at the time should not dissuade anyone from seeing this excellent example of Ken Loach's work.

Ken Loach is known for his political/social films. This one is no different. The story of the consequences of the privation of British Rail is told through the eyes of the simple workers. They are the one who suffer the most from it. Loach is very sympathetic to them and doesn't hide it. In his opinion they are the "good guys". He tells their story with humor which draw us to their side. There is nothing wrong about that because he is right, they are the good guys.

Loach is also cleverly draw the impact privation have on the safety matters in this case and the unnecessary death it brings. As usual Loach uses a lot of non-professional actors and they do a very good job and we feel very close to them because they seem real and the problems they are facing seem also real.

This is a good film. No fireworks here, but a solid piece of work. The ending is a bit of disappointment, because it hangs in the air with no conclusion. And sometime all we need is a solid film. Just go and see it.