What Is ‘The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey’ About?
This immediate return to the absence of color is gut-wrenching to its spectators, evocative of its cruel intentions.
In a way, the film uses time-travel to deny the existence of such.
Image by Zanda Rice
This manifests into the very nature of the characters themselves.
The Cumbrian villagers are impoverished, desperately trying to escape something that would wipe out their entire populace.
At a time like this, they can only rely on their faith to grant them salvation.
Image via Home Cinema Group
The ‘Megalopolis’ and ‘Godfather’ director transcends space and time.
Theres a particular moment when the villagers stumble onto a busy highway.
Perhaps where the film shines more is in how it uses thisfish-out-of-waterdynamic to change our perspective on modernity.
Here, the director creates a sort of mirror that doesnt just reflect our world but theirs, too.
Theres usually flashy tech, a Great Scott!
Take the moment the villagers first emerge from their subterranean tunnel into 1980s New Zealand.
Image via Home Cinema Group
In some books, it would qualify as lackluster since there was no time machine or dramaticsci-fi effects.
Instead, we get an effortless shift from monochrome to color.
However, its far from underwhelming seeing as its that subtlety that makes it both poetic and oddly unsettling.
Image via Home Cinema Group
The groups reactions make the modern world feel as alien to them as Mars would to us.
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.
