The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988)

You know what they say about a library book - you ought not to read the last pages first! Well this is one of those films where you do wish you’d seen the last scenes first because they slot so much of it into a perspective that hitherto is at best nebulously ill-defined. We start in a stark, wintery, northern England where the plague is rife and a village is determined to protect itself from all-comers. One of their number, the young “Griffin” (Hamish Gaugh) is prone to vivid dreams which frequently see him end up in the water and that offer the village a glimmer of hope. They must find a cross (or spike) to top their church and induce God to spare them from death, but that involves travel - and the only way is down, through the bowels of the earth where he, his brother “Connor” (Bruce Lyons) and his brave companions might cast a Celtic cross from their freshly mined copper so it can shine to the Lord. Their travel to the antipodes is instantaneous, so we’ve no “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” type stuff, but when they do arrive (in what looks like Christchurch) they have entered their own version of “Oz” and we are now in glorious Technicolor. Now, “Griffin” et al must try to find a 21st century foundry, get their cross cast, then get it to the top of the city’s cathedral before sunrise. It’s a fantasy adventure with a difference this, and though I thought Gough worked really quite well throughout, the rest of it just had too much of the story missing. The characterisations pointed at aspects that were interesting - father figures, fear, superstitions, but these elements are left dangling. It’s not that I needed everything compartmentalised, and I did quite like the way the timelines leapt about, but serendipity is a little too prevalent as they proceed on the latter stages of their quest. There is some southern hemisphere fun to be had here, which contrasts quite potently with the ghastliness of their frozen and disease-ridden northern hemisphere homes, and the use of the monochrome contrasting with the colour adds well to the fantastic elements of their adventure, but it was just a little to skeletal for me to get my teeth into. It is innovate and creative, though, and certainly worth a watch. I expect it will divide option starkly, and that’s no bad thing.