WasAnnon
Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
SnoopyStyle
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.
endem
This is a parable regarding the salvation of the community through the vision and sacrifice of one innocent boy.I stumbled onto this movie at an "art house" back in the day and was impressed by and absorbed into the bleakness of the medieval miners' lives. As the story continues into then contemporary New Zealand there are a few amusing moments, but the gags are mostly predictable. One nice touch was how the modern foundrymen and the "visitors" found a common "language" in casting the cross. It seemed apparent to me that the boy represented Jesus Christ, the Black Death, spiritual death and the placing of the cross atop the highest spire symbolic for the elevation of faith in Christ to redeem the world. The end of the story defines this view.
very_strange
This is an extraordinary film, not to mention extraordinarily underrated. I first saw this film as a child and it has stayed with me ever since. Now I've seen it once more with adult eyes I can't help but wonder why it's not more renowned. The fact it defies standard genres has probably hampered its reputation, often getting it unfairly shelved as a sort of arty kid's flick. Undoubtedly there are elements here that will appeal to children - imagine a more sombre Terry Gilliam and you might be there - but it's much more than just that. And to describe it as merely fantasy is to ignore the power and universality of the story. Poetic and moving, The Navigator is a lost masterpiece of 80s cinema waiting to be rediscovered.
Nicholas Rhodes
I ordered the DVD of this on the sole knowledge that it was a time-travel film and imagining that it couldn't NOT be fun - and unfortunately came to regret my purchase on watching the said film although I actually watched the DVD three times in the hope that I could glean more interest the second and third time round. But no, my overall opinion did not change. This is for a number of reasons, firstly the dialogues are mostly unintelligible, they are very strong Scottish/Irish accents, there should be subtitles but there aren't any, so, basically, if you are not Scottish/Irish, you're up a gum tree. If English is not your mother tongue, you can forget the film completely ! Second thing is picture quality which is very amateur compared to similar type films made in Hollywood, thirdly, there is little interaction between the people from the 14th century and the people from the 20th - the fun about time-travel films is exactly the interaction which serves to construct a plot. Our band of miners, although "physically" in the 20th century, remain for the most part amongst themselves, and I would even query the logic of certain of their reactions faced with modern conveniences such as lorries and television sets.Here we have people tunnelling through a mine in Cumbria and ending up in New Zealand. Even if they were very fit, it's just nonsense, there's also the boy who dreams it all in advance but we don't know why.The worst failing of the film is it's almost perpetual dark and night. I intensely dislike films that take place all the time at night. Human beings are generally sleeping at night, whatever country they may be in so it doesn't make sense to make a film of this nature take place in the middle of the night - unless we are talking about a night watchman who's gone off on a time travel adventure - but this is not the case. So why make most of the sets in pitch dark, it's unnatural and you get the impression, rightly or wrongly that the film maker is trying to hide some inadequacies, whatever they may be.Lastly I'm not into medieval dress and costume - I am a person of the 20th century and am open to time travel around 200 or 300 years but the 14th century is a little too far back for me ! The film is the antithesis of another time travel film which I equally detested called the 12 monkeys - that was too extreme in the other way, incomprehensible plot, too many special effects to the point of becoming boring. In this film, the plot is just not strong enough to engender emotion, and there is no romance, which is a big "minus" in time travel films.As far as time travel goes, I'm more of a "Portrait-of-Jennie", Somewhere in time, For all time, cream-in-my-coffee person - I don't like the extremist ends of the scale, either too primitive (this film) or too overdone ( many others).I cannot possible recommend this film to anyone seeking an exciting and coherent time travel adventure ....the only possible use would appear to be a cure for radical insomnia.
