The Curse of "The Navigator"

Cafe Society
1

That would be The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey. A movie I’ve wanted to see for years. The DVD Ogs have things in mind for me, it seems.

I just received my THIRD damaged disc of this title. The first two were broken, and the one I just pulled out of my player has a crack almost half-way through it. I’ve been getting DVDs through the mail for a couple of years without any problems. This latest one came at the same time as another title, and that one doesn’t have a scratch.

Does some USPS worker hate this movie? Has anyone ever gotten a watchable copy of this DVD from Netflix? Are there dark digital forces at work? Someone must have the answers I seek.*

*Yes, I called Netflix each time, they’re at a loss to explain it. As is my local mail carrier. (Well, that’s not exactly right–he just doesn’t care.)

2

How weird.

I love that movie, but I can see where someone could watch it in the wrong frame of mind and take it out on the disk. It’s so depressing.

Or maybe the DVD Ogs think you should own it.

3

Update: I got two DVDs from Netfilx today. One was broken…care to guess what the title was?

4

Are they sending you the same disk over and over? I’d be tempted to break it into at least two pieces. At least you wouldn’t get that one back again.

How much of Netflix’s operation is mechanized? Sounds like all of it.

Are you going to keep trying?

5

It is really worth seeing so don’t give up.

Can you write on the disk with a marker to make sure you’re not getting the same one over and over.

6

As to getting the same one over and over–the break was different in two of the DVDs. So, I suppose one of them could be a re-ship. Perhaps I’m naive in thinking that they would flag a DVD in their system when it’s reported as damaged. If I got that kind of complaint, I’d have someone check the inventory. Is it possible that the movie was burned on to low-quality discs? Maybe they’re cheap and flimsy and just don’t like going through the mail-handling machinery?

Paging Mulder and Scully!

7

It really is worth watching - I’m with the “Og wants you to *buy *it” team.

8

There’s a VHS copy on eBay right now. Don’t try to outbid me, dammit!

9

It’s full to overflowing with New Zealanders and Australians. I hope that doesn’t put you off.

10

Update: the curse has lifted. Got an intact copy all the way from Harrisburg, PA in the mail today. Crossing my fingers, I popped it into the player…

TAH-DAH!!! It works, dammit!

Verdict: worth the wait. Thumbs up. A surreal film that had me scratching my head at times. Thought-provoking as well–did life in the Dark Ages really look like that? The film has some scenes with remarkable imagery. I thought Connor’s train ride was quite amusing.

11

So this wasn’t about The Navigator?

Rats.

12

Wasn’t it bleak and dreary and dirty though? I was shocked. Amazing that any peasants survived, if that was even half-accurate.

13

One of my favorite movies. A great movie a lot of people don’t know about.

I liked how dirty and miserable the Dark Ages looked and imagine that this is a much more accurate depiction than we see in most movies which take place before the advent of plumbing. I thought the dirtiness of the people in the 1996 version of “The Crucible” made it more realistic also.