Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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heaven but “a vision of hell”, as Searle describes his experiences when he returns to the
village at the end of the film.
Other medieval notions of the world referred to in the film include: “the belief that the
contagion of the Black Death was carried by the moon […] and the placing of spikes on
the roof of the house to prevent witches landing on the roof. The placing of a spike on
the roof of the Cathedral, of course, was also to ward off evil spirits as well as being a
‘Tribute to God’”. 741 Ward acknowledged the importance of the cathedral spire to the
film’s central theme of faith versus scepticism:
The spire, as the pinnacle of the church architecture in medieval times, served no
practical architectural function –it was too narrow. Yet it symbolised a mix of
pagan and Christian ideas – the aspirations of medieval belief, the use of church
towers as military lookouts and the setting up of spikes, so witches flying over
would be impaled. In the twentieth century, medieval spires that were the
highest in the world are dwarfed by modern buildings, so there is irony and a
humorous discrepancy in the way the medievals take their naïve belief, related to
mounting a cross on the spire, and fling it in the face of twentieth-century
scepticism. 742
Ward’s construction of a narrative around his striking central idea (or “high concept”, to
use the Hollywood term) of medieval characters coming face to face with the modern
world displayed typical strengths and typical problems. The strengths included the way
it stimulated his extraordinary visual sense and passion for details. The problems arose
from an excess of ideas, intensified by the protracted scripting period. Ward is so
strongly drawn to extra-ordinary images and perspectives that it is difficult for him to
achieve the kinds of unified impact and narrative focus that characterise Hollywood
films (a source of both their audience impact and their occasional descent into banality).
Ward’s script for The Navigator was astonishingly rich but almost too challenging in
production terms. The director’s passion for details would indeed collide with the
constraints of production and financing.
741 Hughes, "The Two Ages of the Navigator," 27.
742 Terry Snow, "Performance: Visionary Force," New Zealand Listener 28 January 1989: 31.