The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

1988 "An Odyssey Across Time."
6.6| 1h32m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 16 September 1988 Released
Producted By: New Zealand Film Commission
Country: New Zealand
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-navigator-1988
Info

Cumberland, 1348. The plague is spreading in medieval England. The remote village of little Griffin is also threatened. But the 9-year-old boy has a recurring dream that holds the key to a tiny hope of survival: a lake with a coffin floating on it. A white church with an iron cross. A falling glove. A falling silhouette. A torch tumble through a dark shaft into infinity. With his brother he recognizes in it a prophecy to escape the Black Death. So they embark with a few men on a journey to a distant cathedral, where they want to set up an iron cross as an offering to God. Her path leads them through a deep and dark mine shaft into an unknown land and completely outlandish time - into the present-day New Zealand of the 1980s.

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Director

Vincent Ward

Production Companies

New Zealand Film Commission

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The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey Audience Reviews

Diagonaldi Very well executed
Manthast Absolutely amazing
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Barbouzes I like time travel stories -comical or not comical- and I like history as well, and I like to watch a movie to the end to truly judge it... but this Navigator clunker left me so cold I ejected the DVD half way through the film with a strong sense that I had better things to view or do elsewhere. Nothing made sense in the story to me: even within the "absurd" realm of time travel, its looseness with logic defied my sense of coherence or psychology. The premise is unbelievable, the characters are unbelievable (and hardly likable as well), the story is weak. and the visuals are mostly disappointing. I did not even mind the "Cumbrian" accents: putting on subtitles within the DVD solved the comprehension problem. But most of what I saw in this film (and that's at least half of the film) was relentlessly bleak or psychologically odd, and moreover took place at night. B&W or color, the viewer is forever in the dark. Last but not least: I am not a religious person- though not completely devoid of spiritual aspirations-, so the strong Christian ethos carried by the protagonists failed to interest me in their purpose. No enlightenment for this viewer here, people: this is a one dreary drag of a movie as far as I am concerned.
Andy B Avoid! Avoid! Avoid! What the heck did I just watch??? The whole time I didn't know what was happening. It's in black in white, and full of shaky cuts. We all think you have to be on drugs to enjoy this "movie". I'm a big fan of time-travel movies, but that element of the movie is barely touched on. Don't let the other reviewers fool you into seeing this movie - ever! We all were confused during this movie - right from the very beginning, through the time travel and at the end too. Some of the scenes were comical (although there were not supposed to be). Strongly suggest you don't see this movie for any reason. I'm rating this a 2 and not a 1 because it had a nice twist at the end.
mikematthews1966 This is a movie that takes you on a journey. Simple in it's storytelling yet complex in it's storyline. I actually felt like I was there, sharing in the lives and travels of the characters. The cinematography is beautiful. If this movie didn't win an award for it it should have.This is a movie that will stick with you, it will stand out as a movie that was clearly ahead of its time. I strongly urge everyone to see this. It may be difficult to understand at first, but you must allow it to sink in. There is a moral to it which took me a while to understand myself, but it's timeless.Watch and enjoy, but pause if you leave the room even for a second. One of my favorites.
IslandMadMacs I sought out this film based solely on the wonderful reviews and comments left by fellow IMDb members, going so far as to pay a top premium to obtain a previously owned VHS. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.It's not that this isn't a decent film; in its proper context it's actually not too bad. But to slurp on the adjectives that reviewers have generously heaped onto this flick is more than a touch disingenuous. Perhaps it's real admiration on their parts, I'd rather not speculate. All I can say is - it's decent.Made along the lines of "Baron Munchausen" in its quirkiness and mixed metaphors, The Navigator tries to balance stark realism and half-imagined visions. Taking us from a plague infested 14th Century village to a modern 20th Century city via one of childhood's best fantasies: Digging a hole to the other side of the world.But there's so much clutter and unresolved thematic elements that it's extremely difficult to appreciate what is, or isn't, occurring on screen. Look, I'm not a pedestrian film-goer waiting, or expecting, to be spoon fed a story. But confusing will always be confusing and claiming pseudo-intellectual superiority because it *is* that confusing doesn't make it 'special by default'.Believe me, I appreciate the original idea, that's a big plus for Navigator. And thumbs-up for giving us the ultra-realistic world inhabited by the characters. Their filthy blandness stands out from the all too common "clean & crisp" that Hollywood mistakes for life in the middle ages. (Just how many times can you populate a giant castle with outlandish costumes borrowed from the yokels-n-yahoos who regularly attend the Medieval Festival?) These truths speak to the sincerity, honesty, and originality of the filmmakers.But the approach taken by a young Vincent Ward is just too disjointed to be considered a good film. Decent pretty much sums it up. However, it does give us a true peek into the future in another way: The Navigator is a proving ground for a filmmaker who will, in ten years, hit his stride with the amazing and genuinely stunning achievement --- "What Dreams May Come".