Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

253
but Ulf’s beliefs seem more like superstition. As Ward points out: “The miners’
religion is not straightforward. They’re pagan Christians essentially”. 826 John Downie
elaborates on this idea:
There is no great evidence offered in the film of a highly elaborated or
established religious environment; these are marginal people, scraping a bare
survival by their wits and inventiveness, creating a proto-industrial community,
not an obviously agricultural one, the sort in which, at a later historical date,
religious nonconformity might find its natural home […]. But they do have a
notion of a centre (the cathedral), and hold fast to the power of Christianity’s
symbols. 827
If we link the film’s religious aspects with the ‘medieval’ aspects of New Zealand art, it
is relevant to recall the complex, questioning nature of McCahon’s Christinaity. Like
the spirituality of a modern Russian filmmaker such as Tarkovskij, it is strongly
intermixed with cultural politics. John Maynard has a broader perspective than those
who read The Navigator as a religious allegory:
It’s a misunderstood film because it’s quite complicated. Many people see the
film […] almost entirely as a film about, say faith, in a religious sense. It’s not
quite as simple as that […]. It is a film about the power of stories, just how
powerful a story can be, and the secret of that film is the telling of a story by
Griffin. And the power of that story was enough to save the village, even
though he was betrayed by his brother. 828
Maynard also links the director’s interest in Expressionism with his Catholic
upbringing, on the basis that “Expressionism has always been, as far as I’m concerned,
connected more closely with Catholicism than say to Protestantism”. This is an
interesting comment in the light of the origins of Expressionist art – die Brücke, which
was based in Dresden and der Blaue Reiter which was based in Munich – both
predominantly Catholic regions of Germany. Maynard’s rule of thumb is that both
Expressionism and Catholicism are based primarily on emotion, while Protestantism
can in many respects be associated with reason. For Ward, as for the Expressionists,
826 Campbell and Bilbrough, "A Dialogue with Discrepancy: Vincent Ward Discusses the Navigator," 11.
827 Downie, The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey 16.
828 Lynette Read, interview with John Maynard, 27 September 1999.