The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey

… thrilling fantasy that places Ward … among the most innovative and authoritative young film makers.

– Caryn James, New York Times review, 28 June 1989

This short, intense picture is like a collaboration between William Golding and Gene Roddenberry, The Spire meets Star Trek, and is the work of someone with a distinctive talent and vision. Ward is an antipodean Werner Herzog.

– Philip French in The Observer

...it clearly indicates that a masterpiece is on the way. He is a true magician, New Zealand's greatest filmmaker. Surrender to this film, forgive it in advance its few moments of awkwardness, and you will walk from the cinema trembling at the knees.

– Chris Hegan in The Listener, 4 February 1989, page 42

Extraordinary cinematography breathes life into this inventive re-telling of old myths. There are plenty who decry Vincent Ward's passion for the perfect image as obsessive. Me, I think he's great.

– Listener critic Helen Martin, in a list of the 10 best films of 1989, The Listener, 8 January 1990, page 106