The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

1988
PG
1h 32m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988)

Men seeking relief from the Black Death, guided by a boy's vision, dig a tunnel from 14th century England to 20th century New Zealand.

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Sea Adventure Action Adventure Drama Fantasy Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

Men seeking relief from the Black Death, guided by a boy's vision, dig a tunnel from 14th century England to 20th century New Zealand.Men seeking relief from the Black Death, guided by a boy's vision, dig a tunnel from 14th century England to 20th century New Zealand.Men seeking relief from the Black Death, guided by a boy's vision, dig a tunnel from 14th century England to 20th century New Zealand.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 21 wins & 5 nominations

Trivia
It was this movie that convinced the producers of Alien³ (1992) to hire Vincent Ward as writer/director (although Ward would eventually leave the set of Alien 3 after many creative differences with the studio).

Goofs
Unsurprisingly, the area around Ruapehu, with its three volcanoes, looks very little like Cumbria which doesn't have volcanoes or the vast open plains of the Central Plateau.

Crazy credits
Some releases of the film display the following message before the film starts:

"You are about to watch the Time-Travel Adventure Film THE NAVIGATOR. DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET. The first minutes of THE NAVIGATOR are shown in the stark black and white of 14th Century England during the black plague.

At the moment when the Navigator's 14th Century travelers begin to reach the modern 20th century, the world of the Navigator bursts into color on your screen."

Connections
Featured in Century of Cinema: Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill (1995)

User reviews53

Review

Featured review

Definatly under the rainbow

This is truly a lost gem of a film. It is beautifully photographed, well-acted, well paced, and well written. It is a fantasy film that relies on the fantasy and not on the SFX budget. Something we see all too little of these days.

It is the story of a little boy that has visions during medieval times of a great city, and to save the village from the horrors of the Black Death, he, his brother Connor, and a few others must travel there and erect a spike on the cathedral there. Of course, this is a fruitless enterprise and Connor knows it, but no one would listen to him; they were stuck on a single idea and would hear nothing else.

Their journey to what turned out to be New Zealand is both humorous and sad. There were times when one would be brought almost to tears and at other times laughing hard enough to hurt, but the sad element was dominant.

As with all the films I like to review, it has a strong 'cult movie' appeal, but it is more accessable to general audiences than, say, Six-String Samurai was. Seeing that the Director (Vincent Ward) later did 'What Dreams May Come' (I'll review that one in a few weeks) this film deserves to brought back into the spotlight.