The Navigators (2001)

Absolutely amazing

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I've read some trash about this film, so let me make this clear, this is not a Hollywood blockbuster, but someones experience of working when British Rail became privatised. If your adverse to being challenged politically then please don't bother with this, and worse of all don't watch it as the pretext for later writing nonsense about the eighties or Thatcher.The film doesn't have a strong plot, and some of the characters could have been fleshed out but it is an honest reflection of what happens when working people are told to 'modernise' and there's few films or even directors like Loach who even bother with stories ordinary people have to tell.

Saying frankly, I did not enjoy, nor being moved by the movie. The story is neither dramatic nor exciting. The lead character is not well defined and thus easy to confuse the audience. After watching it, being little bit disappointed, I went out to walk my dog, but the movie occupied my thought even after I came home. This is a story in railway workers in the UK, however I could see similar situation in Japan too. In Japan, many companies are gradually recovering from serious downfall. But during the process of profit recovery, companies have replaced fixed-cost employees by variable cost contract workers. As a result, the lifetime employment system has collapsed, and the power of the unions, the members of which are employees only, have been eroding. At the same time, number of contract workers, who do not have systematic training and skills building, has increased. In this trend the gap between peoples of high wages and low wages are becoming wider. British society has been many years the forerunner in the world of winning the rights of workers. But these rights are now too easily forgotten under the pressure of global economy. This is a social crisis in longer term. At least this movie has succeeded to portray this crisis.

Ken Loach has crafted a fine socio-economic drama focusing on the privatisation of British Rail and its effects on the railway workers at the bottom end of the industry ladder.With the privatisation of British Rail, chaos reigns down on a small depot of rail workers. These workers, through which the story is primarily told, are mostly struggling with their finances already, but are generally content with their existences. After privatisation, their depot becomes one of a number of competitors for the railside work and industry "buzz-words" such as efficiency, mission statement and voluntary redundancy start to creep in. Workers leave and those remaining face harder conditions with less safety and less security. On top of that, there is the ever-looming threat of being replaced with agency workers prepared to do anything for work.Ken Loach revels in this working-class material, seamlessly combining both the political and personal struggles of his generally honest and decent team of railway workers. Yet despite its downbeat tone, there is a great deal of typically British humour throughout "The Navigators" which balances out proceedings very nicely. Much of this humour is obtained from the bantering back and forth between the railway yard lads, and the crude dialogue and jokes are a joy to behold. Check out the sardines in the chip-shop scenario.....terrific! (note for dvd watchers; check out the scene where the time-clock is stolen in the deleted scenes section. It's a classic!)Also, it's good to see a film with such a serious content not overdo itself with a hefty running time. Clocking in at just over 90 mins, it's almost the perfect length to complement the subject matter."The Navigators" eventually builds to its inevitable miserable conclusion, which is its main downfall. Don't expect any uplifting "Full Monty" style endings here. However, this is still a fine piece of film-making. Maybe not as good as some of Loach's other works, but certainly worth a look for anyone who appreciates honest down-and-dirty tales and a British sense of humour.7.5/10

Generally I adorn Ken Loach's films, but here it is a boring story. With an English humor touch, the author tells us the story of the privatization of British rail. It's long, very long and so British. It's hard to be concerned by annoying script.