Vincent Ward's mystical tale of a tiny 14th-century English hamlet during the devastation of the Black Plague mixes faith and fantasy in a compelling adventure. Ward creates a stark look with his high contrast black-and-white photography: dark huts against a snow-covered landscape and a gray sky, candles and campfires burning tiny pools of light in the midnight-black caves. The visions of young Griffin (Hamish McFarlane) break this austere style with color dreams, at first merely flashes of images, then a vivid narrative of a pilgrimage through the center of the earth. Griffin's older brother Connor (Bruce Lyons), who has just returned from the dying, diseased cities of England, leads this great journey to an alien world of metal beasts and towering ramparts (revealed as a modern New Zealand city) to make their offering to God. Ward keeps the camera tied to their experience, creating a nightmarish vision of familiar objects and locations: a busy highway, a junkyard, a remarkable run-in with a surfacing submarine. Throughout, Griffin's haunting flashes of the future taunt him with clues to a death in the party, but they don't reveal who. The Navigator defies genre, mixing fantasy and science fiction, religion and mysticism, historical realism and modern adventure, to create a compelling, beautiful, visually stunning leap of faith. --Sean Axmaker |
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24 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 an amazing, thought-provoking experienceDec 05, 2002
By waived wench
"waived wench"
As a PhD student in medieval history, I usually approach films set in the Middle Ages with no small sense of trepidation. The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey is the exception. It is a visually stunning, well-written well-acted little film that manages to be both thought-provoking and entertaining. What I found particularly worthy of note is Vincent Ward's use of imagery. His choice to film the medieval scenes in mid-winter and in black and white conveys the bleakness of medieval peasant life and the muted colours of the modern scenes have a mystical feel to them. The film actually feels medieval, and since it does not refer to an historical event more specific than the Black Death, there's no opportunity to get annoyed with historical inaccuracy (a curse of all we would-be professional historians!) I recommend it highly to anyone who likes fantasy and adventure.
16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Intelligent sci-fi not for the shallow of heartJun 12, 2000
By Elicia Donze
Deep, resonating messages and stunning, haunting visuals contribute to the power of this film which is so completely independent of any genre that calling it a sci-fi or a fantasy does not seem to do it justice; rather, such stereotyping is more of an insult. The best eye-candy in this film is its shoestring-budget special effects (read: no REAL special effects) and its cinematography (it was directed by the same guy who did "What Dreams May Come," which is a poor modern cousin full of hypocrisy). At any rate, The Navigator is real and raw. And a classic. It reminds me of the Dutch film version of MEDEA. It's fascinating the same way AKIRA might be fascinating: you simply cannot believe that such a fantastic story can work in such a simple narrative. The filmmakers of Navigator trust their audience to be receptive of that which is truly bizarre. Not for the shallow of heart! I've read other reviews of this film and must agree with one in particular: if you feel intellectually stimulated by Independence Day or Armageddon or other such mindless fluff (even the Matrix), you will get nothing from this film.... Other films that remind me of the Navigator: The original Highlander movie (especially the low-res, poor-quality version on Beta Hi-Fi), Ladyhawke, Eraserhead, In the Name of the Rose (that weird monk movie with Sean Connery and Christian Slater), Medea (the scratchy Dutch version), and even Monty Python and the Holy Grail (not so much for the humor, but the general film presence). Enjoy! But not too much.
15 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 NOT thrilledFeb 16, 2005
By 'Space Captain'
I purchased this disc in May 2004.
I has a VHS copy -taken from pay TV. While the DVD was a bit cleare/less grainy ,the video was 1.33:1 ,not 1.85:1 as advertised;also the sound was MONO ,not Dolby Surround as advertised. A good film but a technically inferior disc.
Edd.
iegolden@shaw.ca
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
EerieJan 20, 2000
This is definately one of the best movies I have ever seen. The actors do wonderful jobs of portraying the emotions felt by their characters, and the sense of hopelessness and helplessness that must have been felt during a medievil plague! The black and white shots were visually stunning, and the music is almost celtic... ancient-sounding, poignant and lilting. This movie made my heart feel crampy with wist for some long-lost time of inherent fantasy and myth. This is truly one of those gems-in-the-roughs, as far as movies are concerned. It is more a piece of moving modern art than a slap-stick Hollywood movie, however, and is lacking many of the guady and visually stressing noise-makers and whirly-gogs that so many directors like to thrown in their scenes, for the sheer hell of them. Rent this movie before you buy it, though. It is sort of an aquired taste. It may be slow-moving like a snail for some people, but it delighted me!
20 of 25 found the following review helpful:
 Shoot the production companyMar 23, 2001
By Geoffrey P. Smith
"opusposthum"
I have reviewed this film previously, and have waited for the DVD...alas, it is a big disappointment. No widescreen and no extras...in otherwords, a waste of time and money. Small, but important films such as this are poorly served by production companies who serve up a barely adequate product. This is a very good film, but the DVD is a dud. Buy the VHS in protest!
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based on 26 reviews
