Birds of a Feather

The recent films Centurion and The Eagle both tread on some really familiar ground. Both cover the disappearence of the legendary 9th Legion, the Legio IX Hispana, caught behind enemy lines in uncharted Britannia in the 2nd century AD. Centurion is a better movie, much more bloody, realistic, with better overall acting performances from overall better actors. But my primary reason behind this blog entry is to write a review of The Eagle, which I saw on its opening night with my wife. I've reviewed Centurion on this blog before, but will soon be erasing it to write an all new one to immediately follow this entry (I'd only seen it once at the time I reviewed it).

I thought Channing Tatum had a good look for a young Roman officer, but maybe not quite the acting skills to pull off an ancient epic. He did a decent job as Marcus Flavius Aquila, but the star of the film was not Tatum or Jamie Bell, who played Aquila's Brit slave, Esca. The star of the film was the director, Kevin Macdonald, and his highly-stylized cinematography. The Romans wore the wrong armor in the film according to actual history, as by the time The Eagle takes place (second century AD), a style of armor called lorica segmentata was worn in battle, as seen above. The style the Romans wore in The Eagle is more like that of the first century BC, worn by commanders such as Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius. Though the uniforms were wrong, they were authentic and pretty pleasing to the eye. The standard-bearers, the men who carried the symbols for the legion dressed in animal-skin headdresses, and the weapons, were both accurate. The battle tactics were also accurate, as when the Romans dashed out into warfare, they quickly covered up into their "turtle" formation when they were overwhelmed, crouching as a unit and connecting all their shields for protection.

I also appreciated how the Britannian tribes all spoke their own language, and we were allowed to read their grunts in subtitles. When they come across a hostile Briton tribe, one of  leaders asks Esca why he's speaking to the Roman in the Roman tongue, eluding to the fact that the English we hear in the movie is actually supposed to be Latin - a clever touch.

Although, I didn't care for the look of that particular tribe, the Seal People, painted a shade of bluish-white to go with mohawks that made them look more like a Native-American tribe.

Jamie Bell played his role well as a Briton slave spared in the gladitorial arena and in turn brought to Aquila for further slave service. The overall story was a good one, and it took its time in developing instead of Aquila just rushing out to find the eagle, the heart and soul of a Roman legion, that had vanished along with his father and the 9th Legio Hispana. When I see Donald Sutherland nowadays, I always associate him with a solid B-movie performance. He's probably a really nice guy, but most Romans didn't have beards or wild, flowing hair. His buddy in the film, probably some sort of senator (as I don't think the script ever said), sported similar hair to Sutherland's and even sported a goatee. A goatee? In ancient Rome? Don't think so. I'm not trying to be a history snob or a know-it-all, but one thing I look for in every film set in the ancient world is authenticity. The actors can't completely be blamed for this, as its just as much the fault of the director and the ancient Roman consultant he may or may not have hired for the film.

The Eagle was pretty good, worth seeing at least once. Kevin Macdonald in his directing style did a good job of making me flinch in battle scenes. He did a good job at hiking up my anxiety a notch or two and forcing me to lose my breath a bit when Aquila and Esca were in danger of drowning. In a few scenes, Aquila recovers from a battle wound and saves Esca's life in the arena. But how about telling us where our star is for crying out loud! They're not in Rome, but they're not in Britain either. I like using my imagination, but at times I felt my intelligence insulted by lazy storytelling that focuses on some good aspects, but definitely not all of them (leaving out where our characters are at times).

I'll look for a better Roman-era from you in the future if you so choose to make another, Kevin Macdonald. Overall, I liked your movie and its old world score, it's accurate weapons and its chase scenes ala Centurion. But unfortunately, The Eagle didn't make it off the ground as high as I would have liked.