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The Navigators (2001) was highly topical in its subject matter - filming
began days before a major train crash at Hatfield in Hertfordshire which
strikingly mirrored the film's script. A significant factor in the crash was
believed to be poor attention to safety by privatised rail companies.
Characteristically, director Ken Loach highlights the solidarity and sense of
humour of a group of working men facing some of the harsher consequences of
capitalism - in this case the effects of privatisation. The film's scriptwriter,
Rob Dawber, worked on the railways for many years. He died while the film was
being edited, from cancer caused by exposure to asbestos while working on the
tracks.
Dawber's naturalistic script was filmed in an apparently simple,
observational style that comes close to documentary. As in much of Loach's work,
there is a cast of largely unfamiliar faces, which helps to enhance the film's
authentic feel.
Loach has made documentary films on other industrial workers, notably miners
and dockworkers, and The Navigators dramatises a dilemma similar to those faced
by the miners and dockers in the 1980s and 1990s - whether to hold out for an
uncertain future or to accept redundancy payments and effectively 'sell their
jobs' and those of future generations, as Loach sees it. When Paul (Joe Duttine)
needs money to support his kids he impulsively decides to take the redundancy
money. One of his workmates challenges him: "I think you're playing right into
their bloody hands, they're putting us in a position where we've got no choice."
Paul retorts: "Exactly, we've got no choice," summing up a recurring theme in Loach's work - that the lives of the working-class are dominated by
economic forces outside their control.
Increasingly throughout his career, Loach's films have been more widely
admired in other European countries than in the UK, notably Spain, France and
Italy, where the dominance of Hollywood is less complete. The Navigators had a
very limited cinema release in the UK, mainly in Sheffield. Shortly afterwards
it was shown on television. In contrast, the film was released theatrically in
other countries, doing particularly well in Italy.
Ros Cranston *This film is available on BFI DVD.
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1. Briefing session (4:26)
Production stills
