Thirty Great Movies You've Probably Never Seen: The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

(alternate titles: The Navigator: An Odyssey Across Time, The Navigator: A Time Travel Adventure

Year: 1988

Director: Vincent Ward

It causes me great spiritual pain that Vincent Ward isn’t a huge star in the filmmaking world, instead of merely a greatly respected cinematic artist whose films make no money. At least, they make no money in the United States. The Navigator did great business in New Zealand and Australia, where it was named Best Film by the Australian Film Institute.

Vincent Ward is a native New Zealander, and The Navigator was his second feature film.

The story starts in the Dark Ages, in a small mining village in western Britain. The citizens are terrified by stories they have been hearing of the Black Plague, a scourge that has seemingly been devouring the world. There’s a boy in the village named Griffin (Hamish McFarlane) who is known for his visions. Guided by him, a group of townsfolk descend deep into one of the mines, with the intention of creating a beautiful copper cross to appease God with. Perhaps if they place this cross on the top of the tallest church in the world, it will inspire the Lord to have mercy on their village and have the Black Death pass them by.

Down in the mine, an astonishing thing happens: The group of villagers discover a passage that leads to a ladder, which they ascend . . . into 20^th Century New Zealand! This might sound ridiculous, but it’s thrilling to watch the displaced time travelers try to interpret everything they see in their own terms. They stumble through an alien modern city, doggedly pursuing their goal of appeasing an angry God.

Ward has an amazing sense of composition and drama. There are two moments late in the film when the entire audience gasped in unison at the events on the screen. That’s how much Ward had us in the palm of his hand.

This is one of the most unusual and vivid movies I’ve ever seen. I remember distinctly the first time I saw it. A friend had planned to meet me outside the theater after the movie was over, and she saw the look on my face as I stumbled out of the theater. “Are you okay?!” she asked, wondering at the look of amazement on my face.

The movie barely got distributed and show in this country, which is a crime. Later Ward directed a beautiful movie called Map of the Human Heart, which I will also profile soon. I think what sealed his fate was the 1998 big-budget Robin Williams bomb What Dreams May Come, which was gorgeous to look at, but boring, and audiences stayed away in droves.

Luckily for current movie lovers, you can find this film at Netflix and Amazon, and I certainly recommend you do so. If you enjoy it, you might want to also check out Map of the Human Heart.

[Thirty Hubs in Thirty Days Challenge #3]