THE NAVIGATOR
A Medieval Odyssey
A film review by Alex Patison
Copyright 1989 Alex Patison
This movie has been playing for a few months but I have only just caught up with it. It is a New Zealand/Australian co-production but it is but no means typical of the films that have been produced in this part of the world over the last decade. The feel of the movie is more European, even though half of the film is seen to take place in New Zealand. As a winner of 6 Australian Film Awards it is bound to get a showing outside of NZ/Australia.
Without giving away more than the flyer advertising the movie, it is set in England 1348, the year of the Black Death. The Navigator is a boy who has visions - dreams. He dreams of tunnelling through to the other side of the Earth to a Great Cathedral, to save his village from the Black Death. The movie follows this voyage and when they emerge at the other side of the Earth it is New Zealand. And it is 1988. (Yes, another "time" movie.)
No, the movie is not medieval meets the 20th Century. Far from it. It deals with the people and their determination to achieve their goal - the goal set by the young boy. The fact that they are in New Zealand had nothing to do with it. One of the skillful parts of the movie is the way in which the modern day cities are presented with the same medieval feel as the village "back home." 1988 has its own terrors (cars/highways), its own "Black Death," and all things familiar to the religion back home. The camera angles used in the modern towns do not give any detail - they just add effect. And some of the camera effects are good - the desolate, snow-covered landscape is all the more desolate for the use of black and white. Top marks for the cinematography.
I came out of the theatre feeling that I had shared in an adventure, not just watched one. And the music, by Davood Tabrizi, with a feel similar to THE MISSION, added all the more.
Highly recommended with 8.5/10.
Alex Patison alex@pta.oz.au
pyramid!pta!alex
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