Director Kevin MacDonald is best known for his scintillating “Last King of Scotland” and his Best Documentary Oscar winner “One Day in September.” He puts on a completely different hat in this near sequel to Neil Marshall’s previously released “Centurion.” Both films are set in the second century AD and revolve around Rome’s attempted domination of what is now Scotland. In case you haven’t heard, Rome was less than completely successful. In fact, England a thousand years later was also unsuccessful (see “Braveheart’).
In “The Eagle,” the action takes place in 140 AD Britain. The south (England, more or less) is controlled by Rome and the North is controlled by those nasty Caledonians, made up in part of the tribes of the Picts.
They were solidly entrenched in their homeland and supremely well adapted to the extreme cold, wet and wind of the northlands. The Romans, on the other hand, have superior armaments and more sophisticated fighting tactics. The stage is set for some good old fashioned, head lopping, skull bashing tribal warfare, and the viewer is not disappointed.
The two lead characters are Marcus and Esca, played by Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell. Jeremy Brock’s screenplay places Marcus as the son of the dishonored Roman general who led the Ninth Legion into the Caledonian wilderness 20 years earlier.
The Ninth never returned. With them, they took the cast bronze Eagle, the symbol of the pride of all Rome, which disappeared with the Ninth. Marcus is dedicated to restoring the honor of the Ninth Legion and his father and he is determined to find the Eagle and restore it to its rightful place in Rome.
Early in the film, the slave Esca is thrown into a pit for a fight to the death with a trained gladiator. He shows defiance in the face of certain death, although Marcus, driven by some inexplicable connection, saves the slave’s life at the last minute. A bond is created between the two and they sally forth into the savage north to confront the ferocious Seal tribe.
From there, the film follows an arc similar to “Centurion.” The two soldier/pilgrims are hopelessly outnumbered and have to use their wits as well as their swords to carve out a trail to the lost Eagle.
The film maintains a spectacular drop of beautiful Scottish scenery as the two men wander across the rugged hills and mountains of the Highlands. In fact, they cover a lot of land in the kind of clothing that would lead to the immediate death by hypothermia of real people. But, what the heck, this is Hollywood.
Also, as in Hollywood, they are able to beat off several dozen stronger fighters because, well, they are the heroes. The result is one walloping good time without too much energy wasted on the whys or wherefores.
The soundtrack, costumes and sets are fantastic. The filmmakers for this flick pulled out all the stops. The plot is almost completely predictable from start to finish. The accents of the actors are non-existent. That is, they didn’t attempt to mimic the accent that might have existed in 2nd century Britain.
While this might be just plain laziness, or lack of funding, it provides an interesting otherworldly sense to the whole affair. Marcus and Esca converse like the well educated American and Britain they are and the story goes on.
As long as the film focuses on the sword fights and great tactical duels everything is fine. It is when the two characters have to exchange some meaningful lines that things get ugly. As the action winds down and the heroes are able to make their peace with one another the screenplay dissolves into pure sappiness.
Tatum might as well have asked Bell to join his fraternity or come to the Gator Bowl with him, for all the clout the final words have.
Donald Southerland shows up as a grizzled old man who imparts words of wisdom. More importantly, he imparts his name to the credits of this flick and constitutes the main reason many will pay the price of admission.
The violence is fairly realistic but there is no blood spurting or actual heads flying around. So it’s OK to bring the kids. Good fun for all and no more violent than the average video game.
Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Written by: Jeremy Brock (screenplay) and Rosemary Sutcliff (novel)
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell and Donald Sutherland
Runtime: 114 minutes
Source: M&C
The eagle movie
