The Navigator

source: The Navigator

Trailer—The Navigator

The Navigator

I loved this film and thought it was so funny. I personally enjoyed the kitchen scenes the most. I also really loved the woman, just as funny as the man and really got in there with the physical comedy. She fell and got soaked and ran around a metal ship just as much as him. When she fainted while coming out of the water (the first time) that was genius. I thought the scale of the movie was so great, the sheer number of angles was just amazing. Really a silent film that had underwater sword fights? I feel like I've seen all these gags before so I guess everyone has stolen it from this film. Truly a classic in my book and completely advanced for the time.

I always find it a little difficult these days to adjust to silent movies, what with my sensorium clouded by years of electronic percussion, but this one is worth catching. The spies of two countries are both trying to set adrift the steamer called Navigator, each in order to prevent the other from getting it. They slip the lines. End of spy plot. Innocently trapped aboard Navigator are Buster Keaton and his girl friend. The ship floats into the Pacific, goes aground near an island, is attacked by cannibals, and the couple are saved by the adventitious appearance of a submarine. If you can think of a gag that can fit into a plot involving snatch blocks, deep sea diving, cargo nets, anchors, and the like, Keaton has probably already thought of it and shoehorned it in here somewhere. It's pretty amusing from beginning to end. Some of the stunts look dangerous. It's not a masterpiece -- not "The Gold Rush" -- but it's a diverting comedy.

Buster Keaton never needed anything more than a simple outline to make his typically graceful, inventive comedies, and the entire plot of one of his best remembered features can easily be summed up in less than twenty words: a spoiled young millionaire and his reluctant fiancé find themselves adrift alone on an empty ocean liner. It takes a little effort to get the couple aboard (with help from a group of histrionic saboteurs) but, once at sea, the minimal scenario allowed Keaton plenty of room to exercise his unique comic genius, with gags ranging from the intimate (battling a recalcitrant deck chair; shuffling a soggy pack of cards) to the sublime (Buster, in a leaking rowboat, attempting to tow the huge drifting liner). As usual, fate and circumstance (and, in this case, a tribe of hungry cannibals) all play a part in Buster's rite of passage from bumbling naïf to competent hero, and (also, as usual) the transformation is often as astonishing as it is sidesplitting.

Through a series of mishaps, a pampered rich boy (Buster Keaton) and his unrequited love find themselves the only two passengers on a huge steamer adrift in the middle of the ocean. Wouldn't be so bad, if they did not come across an island of cannibal savages who want to invite them to..ahem...dinner. "The Navigator" breezes by quickly and easily, offering many chuckles and few outright chortles. There are some marvelous set pieces, like an underwater scene involving Keaton in diving gear, some swordfish, and an octopus. And there are other smaller but just as funny moments, like the scene where these two socialites who've never lifted a finger for themselves decide to cook dinner in a kitchen designed to make meals for hundreds. The depiction of the island savages is predictably cringe worthy in a film from 1924, but you just have to suck it up and get past it, accepting it as a product of its time. If you can get past that, there's much to enjoy here. Grade: A-

The scene where Buster and his girl, two rich youngsters who are stuck together alone on a ship, attempt to feed themselves is one of the funniest scenes I've ever watched. For about 10 minutes, I could not stop laughing. After that scene, the comedy is, well, I was going to say hit and miss, but that's not right. No joke really misses. It's just the difference between a smile, a chuckle, and a guffaw. I would say that, especially compared to my two favorite Keaton films, Our Hospitality and Sherlock Junior, The Navigator is considerably less funny (though almost anything is considerably less funny than those two films). Plus, the film never reaches a solid conclusion. A situation was set up at the film's start which was never advanced at all. Still, The Navigator beats out most modern comedies. Nothing can really beat Buster Keaton. I would give it a 7/10 if it lacked the food sequence, but I'll add 1 point for that, so a total of 8/10.

While it might not be one of Keaton's very best movies, "The Navigator" is a good comedy that has some great scenes. It never quite hits high gear the way that some of Buster's masterpieces do, but there is a good variety of material, and it is pleasant and funny to watch. Keaton and Kathryn McGuire work together well, and their scenes together make up most of the movie, including some of the funniest parts. Their scenes in the ship's kitchen are especially good. The well-known scene of Buster going deep-sea diving is also very entertaining, and must have taken some real skill to film at the time. This is one that any fan of Keaton or of silent comedy should enjoy.