Slideshow
THE NAVIGATORS
U.K., Germany, Spain, 2001
Directed by Ken Loach
With Dean Andrews, Thomas Craig, Joe Duttine
Approx. 96 mins. 35mm print courtesy British Film Institute.
“Scripted by former railwayman Rob Dawber...lays bare the unappetising choice faced by railway workers after the still contentious privatization of British Rail in the mid-1990s. Either they can continue existing jobs for lower pay and safety standards, or accept redundancy and break up long-established teams, the quality of whose work is at least as much due to personal camaraderie as effective management. The film’s tragic conclusion is as inevitable as it is shocking — and matched by real-life incidents, since filming commenced in the wake of the 2001 Hatfield train crash.” – British Film Institute
Reviews
“Loach has a way of capturing the offhand, unspectacular way people live, with social comedy but minus any sociology.”
– Wesley Morris